Social Media updates and what they mean for you – June 22nd

Twitter’s hogging the limelight, Meta’s showcasing speech-to-text tech, TikTok is expanding brand safety, and Instagram continues to shift to private conversations. Here are all the social media updates you need to know this week.

Twitter
Say whatever you like about Musk (and we do), he’s certainly consistent when it comes to controversy. Having withdrawn from the EU’s voluntary Code of Practice on online disinformation (part of the EU’s Digital Services Act (DSA)) last month, new CEO Linda Yaccarino and Musk are meeting with EU Privacy Commissioner Thierry Breton and other EU Commission assessors this week. The aim is to discuss how Twitter will meet its commitments to the DSA, which is designed to keep users’ information safe. Australia also has concerns about the rise of hate speech on the app which, despite Twitter *ahem Musk* saying otherwise, many users have said is becoming even more of a problem. If they don’t sort themselves out, they face fines of nearly $700,000 a day. Musk has always stated that he’ll obey the laws of each region but not go above and beyond (because why would you when you hold sensitive data about users *eye roll*), which goes some way to explaining why Twitter withdrew from the voluntary part of the DSA.

Ok, onto less controversial matters now – the ability to search your followers list. Twitter’s developing the ability to use keywords to search your followers.

More features for Twitter Blue subscribers, this time in the form of 25k Tweets. Why anyone wants this is beyond us, but there you go.

Twitter Blue subscribers can also highlight their best tweets in a special little tab on their profiles.

Trendjacking might be out, but we’re not sure. Musk has, as ever, been clear as mud by tweeting that “Gaming replies to generate free advertising will result in account suspension” followed by “Accounts that try to game our verification system with non-sequitur self-promotion or advertise in a misleading way will be suspended”. Which makes it sound like those fun spammy comments you get will be the target, but who knows for sure.

What does this mean for me?
IF, and it’s a big if, Twitter doesn’t comply with the rules and regulations set out by the EU and other areas they face big fines and the potential for a ban. We’re pretty sure Musk doesn’t want that so we’re confident he’ll comply.

Searching followers could help you figure out what they all have in common such as geography or interests and find out who else they’re following to maximise engagement. There’s no official word on when this feature will be available to everyone so watch this space.

A short blog is around 25k characters, give or take, now imagine that’s on Twitter. Doesn’t sound annoying at all. It could be useful for including key information such as diagrams etc to provide context.

A highlights tab is a fun idea, giving you the ability to direct people to the things you want them to see. Some potential uses include showcasing work or links to work and showing people your style.

If trendjacking is part of your strategy, you might want to make sure you’re doing it in a way that’s suitable for your brand AND the trend otherwise you could fall foul of this new ‘rule’.

Meta/Facebook
Meta’s new ‘Voicebox‘ AI system will allow you to translate text to audio in a range of styles and voices. It goes a little deeper than the likes of TikTok by allowing you to edit pre-recorded audio and produce speech in six different languages.

Oh Meta, you were doing so well. They announced last week that they are reducing the age requirements for Meta Quest accounts to 10 *sigh*. Yes, these accounts will be ‘parent-managed’ but given the tech-knowledge-gap that exists in most families it’s difficult to say how useful that will be in keeping younger users safe. They won’t be shown ads, parents can set how long VR can be used for each day and monitor what their kids are up to via casting, and pre-teen Horizon profiles will automatically be set to private.

What does this mean for me?
If you have kids and are planning on letting them create a Horizon profile, please please familiarise yourself with how it all works beforehand. In all honesty, we wouldn’t let kids anywhere near VR for a long long time.

TikTok
TikTok expanded its partnership with IAS (Integral Ad Science) to 23 more regions.

What does this mean for me?
This expansion gives you more info on the performance and placement of your campaigns on the platform.

Instagram
After launching Broadcast Channels to selected US creators in February, they’re now being rolled out to anyone with a Creator account. If you remember, this is effectively a group chat without the ‘chat’ feature allowing creators to send messages to large volumes of followers. They’re also adding additional features such as question prompts and control tools. They’re also looking into a dedicated channels tab in your inbox so you can quickly see which channels you’ve joined and which ones they recommend based on your interactions.

What does this mean for me?
Along with the new features, Broadcast Channels could be a great way to encourage more interaction with your profile, which (as we know) in turn increases the likelihood that followers will see your content. Question prompts could be a great way to start a conversation by allowing members to contribute to the channel with recommendations. The control tools will include channel expiration dates, adding moderators, and more.

And that’s it for this week folks! Sign up for weekly updates direct to your inbox every Thursday and follow Jordan on LinkedIn for daily tips and tricks. See you next week!