Good day, social media enthusiasts! Today’s updates begin with a bit of news.
European regulators in Brussels are challenging social media companies, particularly TikTok, over features that could be considered addictive, like infinite scrolling, autoplay and push notifications, Politico reports.
The EU says these features may harm users and could be changed or fined under the Digital Services Act.
Time will tell how this plays out and what it could mean for other social platforms. For now, let’s dig into the latest tools informing your social strategy.
TikTok
TikTok’s U.S. app recently added a Local Feed tab that shows local content tied to your geographic area. It’s meant to help users discover what’s happening nearby at businesses or community events.
Location sharing is optional and off by default. Users over 18 who opt in through Settings agree to share their location, only while TikTok is in use, to tailor content shown in that feed.
TikTok has additionally launched two new ad products for entertainment brands in Europe.
Streaming Ads lets streaming platforms show users personalized previews of multiple shows or movies from their catalog. The ads can display multiple titles in a carousel, tailoring each suggestion to what people are already interested in or watched in the past.
New Title Launch is for “big release” moments, such as highlighting a new season or premiere. This feature can help target users most likely either subscribe or buy tickets.
TikTok said the tools are part of the app’s broader push to help advertisers reach engaged fan communities and drive results around entertainment content.
Additionally, TikTok’s parent company ByteDance has also launched a new AI video-creation model called Seedance 2.0. Check out examples here.
It’s currently in beta and available through the ByteDance platform Jimeng AI. The tool uses generative AI to produce more realistic and refined video output than many earlier models, with smoother movement and motion that looks more natural.
Meta
After buying the autonomous AI company Manus last month, Meta launched a new integration that lets advertisers access Manus’s AI tools inside Meta Ads Manager through the Tools setting.
This feature allows advertisers to use AI to help with tasks like building reports, conducting audience research and potentially automating other parts of the ad planning process.
See an example of this from app researcher Ahmed Ghanem here.
LinkedIn has a new subscription called Premium All-in-One for small business owners.
The new plan combines several LinkedIn tools into one, with features like:
- Advanced search
- Send messages to people outside your network through InMail
- AI writing help
- Suggestions for potential customers
- Ways to promote posts or job listings through a single dashboard
LinkedIn says the plan is meant to help small business users manage marketing, lead generation and hiring in one place.
This is part of the company’s push to add more AI features to its paid products and attract more subscribers from the small business community, it said.
X
Nikita Bier, X’s head of product, announced that the platform is rolling out improved automation and spam detection systems. Bier said that X’s systems will start flagging and potentially removing accounts if they aren’t being used by real people interacting with the app.
“If a human is not tapping on the screen, the account and all associated accounts will likely be suspended—even if you’re just experimenting,” he said.
Bier added that this is part of X’s larger efforts to fight automation, bad bots and spam activity across the platform.
This is not a new feature, but something to definitely keep an eye on.
During its latest earnings report, Pinterest CEO Bill Ready pointed to usage data showing that Pinterest processes more searches each month than ChatGPT.
Ready cited figures suggesting Pinterest sees around 80 billion searches per month, compared with about 75 billion for ChatGPT, based on third-party estimates.
Despite reporting weak financial results, Ready used this to argue that Pinterest is “one of the largest search destinations in the world,” per TechCrunch, particularly because many of those searches are commercial in intent, meaning users are searching with more buying or product interest in mind.
YouTube
YouTube added a couple of new small features in their latest platform update.
On mobile and tablet devices, captions will now automatically appear when a video is muted, making it easier for people to follow along without sound. YouTube said that users can turn this feature off in their settings.
Another update includes an “Add Motion” AI feature for Shorts, which lets creators animate a still photo into a short clip using built‑in AI capabilities.
Courtney Blackann is a communications reporter. Connect with her on LinkedIn or email her at [email protected].
