February has the fewest days of any month on the calendar, but several of those days are key for creator marketing campaigns.
It is home to both Black History Month and Fashion Month, as well as Super Bowl LX. Cupid arrives on Valentine’s Day, and there are sales galore for Presidents’ Day weekend. And don’t forget Chinese New Year (Feb. 17).
Social Media Holidays to Mark on Your Calendar
- Feb. 1: First day of Black History Month
- Feb. 1: First day of Fashion Month, fall/winter collections
- Feb. 4: World Cancer Day
- Feb. 8: Super Bowl LX
- Feb. 10: Safer Internet Day
- Feb. 14: Valentine’s Day
- Feb. 16: Presidents’ Day
- Feb. 17: Chinese New Year
- Feb. 17: Random Acts of Kindness Day
Social Media Platform Updates
TikTok
We Have a Deal
TikTok parent ByteDance announced the formation of TikTok USDS Joint Venture LLC in order to comply with regulatory requirements in the U.S. and ensure that the application remains available.
ByteDance will hold 19.9% of the joint venture, while three managing investors each hold 15%: Silver Lake, Oracle, and MGX.
TikTok outlined how TikTok USDS Joint Venture LLC will operate:
- Data protection: U.S. user data will be protected in Oracle’s secure U.S. cloud environment, and a comprehensive data privacy and cybersecurity program will be audited and certified by third party cybersecurity experts.
- Algorithm security: The joint venture will retrain, test, and update TikTok’s content recommendation algorithm on U.S. user data, and it will be secured in Oracle’s U.S. cloud environment.
- Software assurance: U.S. apps will be secured through software assurance protocols, and source code will be reviewed and validated on an ongoing basis, assisted by Oracle.
- Trust and safety: The joint venture will safeguard the U.S. content ecosystem and have decision-making authority for trust and safety policies and content moderation.
TikTok USDS Joint Venture LLC will be led by CEO Adam Presser and Chief Security Officer Will Farrell and governed by seven directors:
- TikTok CEO Shou Chew
- TPG Global Senior Advisor Timothy Dattels
- Susquehanna International Group Managing Director Mark Dooley
- Silver Lake Co-CEO Egon Durban
- DXC Technology President and CEO Raul Fernandez
- Oracle Executive Vice President in the Office of the CEO Kenneth Glueck
- MGX Chief Strategy and Safety Officer David Scott
Next!
TikTok unveiled its sixth annual TikTok Next trend forecast for 2026.
Global Head of Business Marketing Sofia Hernandez wrote, “We’re going to see a real shift in how people show up online. Users won’t just scroll—they’ll be in full-on discovery mode, following their curiosity, and expecting a return on the time they invest. For brands on TikTok, that means the era of passive consumption is over. Marketers will need to be on the pulse of cultural moments, participate as they happen, and clearly demonstrate the value they bring. The brands that win will be the ones combining human insight with smarter artificial intelligence tools and richer data to create content that feels relevant, responsive, and genuinely worth engaging with.”
The full report is available here, and highlights include:
- Reali-TEA: Fantasy is fading. In 2026, audiences will realign through the chaos to forge new realities together.
- Curiosity Detours: In 2026, curiosity becomes the new currency, as audiences dive deeper into new journeys of discovery.
- Emotional ROI: Impulse will lose to intention in 2026 as shoppers reward the brands that justify the why to buy, first.
Pixel Dust
TikTok introduced its Off-Site Performance Analysis tool, which uses a pixel to link engagement across organic posts, TikTok Shop, live videos, and paid ads to purchases made on a brand’s website.
The key component of the tool’s reporting suite is off-site Gross Merchandise Value, which assigns a dollar value to people who viewed or clicked on TikTok Shop content but completed their purchase on a brand’s website.
And a new off-site Effect Ratio was developed to show the correlation between TikTok engagement and external web revenue.
New Ad Formats for TV, Movies
The platform rolled out two new ad formats aimed at helping movie studios boost ticket sales and streaming platforms gain more subscribers: Streaming Ads and New Title Launch.
Streaming Ads uses AI-powered campaign automation tool set Smart+ to show clips from shows to users whose historical behavior indicates they are interested in entertainment content, via either a video carousel that displays four video clips or an interactive card that displays various tiles.
And performance-focused offering New Title Launch is aimed at promoting major events like the new season of a show, a film premiere, or an important sporting event and driving outcomes including ticket sales and subscriptions.
What’s the GamePlan?
TikTok is looking to serve the sports community with TikTok GamePlan, a suite of products for teams, leagues, and broadcast partners to drive discovery, deepen engagement, and deliver real business results.
The company said an anchor link on relevant videos drives viewers to a dedicated in-app destination where they can discover official accounts, check schedules and standings, buy tickets, add games to their calendars, and create their own content.
And TikTok GamePlan’s analytics dashboard provides insights into fan behavior and trending conversations, helping sports partners understand what resonates and how to activate most effectively around their properties.
Other TikTok News
- Global Head of Creators Kim Farrell left the company.
- U.S. merchants on TikTok Shop will soon be required to fulfill orders through TikTok’s proprietary logistics services, rather than handling shipping themselves.
- FIFA named TikTok the preferred platform for coverage of FIFA World Cup 2026 in the U.S., Canada, and Mexico.
- TikTok announced the TikTok LIVE Fest Global Annual Event at Planet Hollywood in Las Vegas Thursday, Feb. 12. It will be hosted by Keke Palmer and feature a performance by Demi Lovato.
- Finally, the platform introduced a For You Calendar to help families “plan, reflect, and have open conversations about how they spend their time both online and offline.”
YouTube
From the Desk of the CEO
YouTube CEO Neal Mohan shared his priorities for 2026. Highlights follow:
- Reinventing entertainment: Creators are the new stars and studios. Mohan pointed to creators “buying studio-sized lots in Hollywood” and producing content on par with television. He noted that short-form video format YouTube Shorts is averaging 200 billion daily views. And YouTube TV will soon launch fully customizable multiview, along with over 10 specialized YouTube TV plans spanning sports, entertainment, and news.
- Building the best place for kids and teens: YouTube rolled out updates to strengthen and simplify parental controls, enabling parents to determine how much time their kids and teens spend scrolling Shorts, including setting the timer to zero, as well as to more easily set up new kid accounts and switch between accounts.
- Powering the creator economy: Mohan said YouTube will continue to invest in different ways for creators to earn on its platform, from shopping and brand deals to fan funding features like Jewels and gifts. The company also pointed to its Creator Partnerships Hub, which makes it easier for agencies and brands to find creators that suit their needs.
- Supercharging and safeguarding creativity: “AI will remain a tool for expression, not a replacement,” Mohan wrote, noting that while it will soon power options such as creating a Short using the creator’s own likeness, producing games with a single prompt, and experimenting with music, YouTube will continue to require labels on AI-generated content, remove harmful synthetic media that violates its community guidelines, and build out its Content ID system to help creators manage the use of their likeness in AI-generated content. The platform is also taking aim at “AI slop,” or low-quality content.
Mohan concluded, “I’m often asked to predict who the most important creator on YouTube will be in five or 10 years. My answer is always the same: It’s someone you’ve never heard of, and that person is starting their channel today. And that’s what makes me so energized to continue building the stage for this generation and the ones to come.”
Other YouTube News
- YouTube relaxed its guidelines on controversial topics including self-harm, abortion, suicide, and domestic and sexual abuse, enabling creators to earn full ad revenue as long as those issues are “dramatized or discussed in a non-graphic manner.”
Ads on Threads Go Global
Ads are now available worldwide on stand-alone app Threads, which Instagram said now has more than 400 million monthly active users.
These ads run throughMeta’s AI-powered ads system, giving users the same level of personalization as other Meta platforms like Facebook and Instagram.
Advertisers can automatically add Threads placements to Advantage+ (AI-automated) and manual campaigns, with image, video, and carousel ad formats appearing natively in the app’s feed.
Other Instagram News
- Market intelligence firm Similarweb found that Threads had 141.5 million daily active users on iOS and Android as of Jan. 7, compared with 125 million for X.
- New features on stand-alone app Edits include: the ability to copy and paste elements such as fonts and clips within a project or from one project to another; an expanded timeline settings menu offering toggling for guides, frames, and snapping, as well as a look after those changes are applied; and the ability to determine whether edits on the main track automatically apply to visual or audio clips.
- Finally, Instagram is testing games in Threads chats, starting with a basketball game.
First Served, First Seen
Pinterest introduced Top of Search ads, which let brands place their ads at the top of relevant search results and in Related Pins.
Brands using Top of Search ads to promote their catalogs will see the platform automatically group multiple relevant products in a brand-exclusive gallery.
Planning Is Key
The new Pinterest Media Planner tool, built into Ads Manager, gives advertisers a single place to plan upper-funnel campaigns.
Pinterest Media Planner lets brands:
- Discover and size high-value audience segments for their campaigns by analyzing insights based on demographics, interests, and keyword affinities.
- Explore budget options and view estimates for awareness campaign metrics such as impressions, reach, frequency, and CPM (cost per thousand impressions), as well as consideration campaign estimates for clicks and cost per click.
- Review different projections to determine the right budget and media needed to accomplish goals across budgets, flight dates, audience, and format.
Other Pinterest News
- Cool Blue, Jade, Plum Noir, Wasabi, and Persimmon are featured in the annual Pinterest Palette drop of trending colors.
- Pinterest shared its 2026 marketing playbook and research on how Generation Z is reclaiming its taste.
Meta
Going Premium
Meta confirmed that it is testing premium subscriptions with access to exclusive features on its Instagram, Facebook, and WhatsApp surfaces.
The goal is to help subscribers unlock more productivity and creativity and give them access to expanded AI capabilities and greater control over how they share and connect.
Meta said it will test a variety of subscription features and bundles.
Other Meta News
- The company acquired Manus, which built an autonomous general-purpose AI agent that can independently execute complex tasks like market research, coding, and data analysis.
Snapchat
2016 Called
Snapchat jumped on the trend of looking back to 2016 with a special 2016 Flashback experience that brings back “the moments, lenses, and vibes that defined a decade.”
The company said:
- Searches for 2016 lenses are up 613% year-to-date.
- Searches for Snapchat’s Dog lens are up 352%.
- Searches for 2016 in Snapchat’s music library jumped 621%.
Other Snapchat News
- The platform added new features to its Family Center, giving parents insights into how their teens are spending time on the app, as well as information on how their teen might know new friends that have been added.
- Specs Inc. was established as a distinct subsidiary within Snap Inc.
- Finally, the company teamed up with Horizon Futures and commissioned a quantitative study from Ipsos on “The Next Generation of Wealth.”
To the Max
Reddit is beta-testing automated Max campaigns that tap Reddit Community Intelligence and AI to predict the value of every impression.
The company said Max campaigns optimize campaign settings in real-time to drive better performance with less work, automating targeting, creative selection and rotation, placements, and budget allocation, while advertisers retain the control to tap their own strategic expertise.
A new reporting feature available exclusive in Max campaigns, Top Audience Personas, lets brands use AI to cluster the campaign’s audience into relevant personas—such as new parents or ambitious home cooks—and see which personas are viewing and interacting with their campaign the most, as well as what those personas are currently interested in.
X
Year of the Creator
The platform formerly known as Twitter dubbed 2026 the Year of the Creator, saying that growth in X Premium subscriptions in 2025 enabled it to double its revenue sharing pool for this year.
Revenue sharing payouts are now based on verified home timeline impressions, which the company said indicates that earnings are driven by real views from Premium users who see the posts in their feed.
X is also pushing its long-form Articles format, expanding access to all Premium users and awarding $1 million to the top Article of the next payout period.
On that note, the company shared The Ultimate Guide to Articles on X.
Other X News
- X outlined new safety updates for its Grok AI assistant: Editing images of real people in revealing clothing is prohibited; image editing and creation on X via Grok is now paid-only; the company reaffirmed its ban of child sexual exploitation, CSAM (child sexual abuse material), non-consensual nudity, or unwanted sexual content; and image generation of real people in bikinis, underwear, or similar attire is geoblocked in regions where it is illegal.
- Posts containing edited or fake images and videos will be flagged with a “manipulated media” label.
- X made the full code for its For You feed algorithm available on GitHub.
- The company introduced digital experience X BrandRanx, which is powered by Grok and real-time X conversation data and will rank the buzz for ads during Super Bowl LX.
- Users can now send attachments including documents, files, videos, GIFs, and photos fully encrypted via X Chat.
Substack
Substack TV
Substack released the beta version of its new Substack TV app for Apple TV and Google TV.
Videos from creators who already publish video on the platform will automatically be available via the app, which is launching with the following capabilities for users:
Watching video posts and livestreams from creators and publications they are subscribed to.
Browsing a “For You” row that highlights videos from their subscriptions, plus recommended videos.
Opening a dedicated page for each subscription to explore more videos from a specific publication.
Open Influence’s team stays on top of the latest trends and is here to help you maximize your creator campaigns. Open Influence is a leading global creator marketing agency dedicated to creating engaging campaigns.