Social Media updates and what they mean for you – May 26th

Twitter finally seems to have calmed the hell down, Meta has had a mixed week, WhatsApp makes a guest appearance, TikTok is joining the AI bandwagon, and LinkedIn steps up REAL verification. Here are all the social media updates you need to know.

WhatsApp
Is WhatsApp a social media platform… Not sure BUT this update is a biggie. You can now edit your messages up to 15 minutes after sending them.

What does this mean for me?
If you’re using WhatsApp for Business, this update is great! You could add more info to replies to customers and get rid of those pesky typos.

TikTok
TikTok iscautiously trialling a chatbot AI called Tako in the Philippines.

Unsurprisingly, TikTik is appealing the Montana ban, citing the first amendment.

What does this mean for me?
The aim is to help users find relevant TikTok content rather than answering questions directly. Which means it’s more important than ever for you to be creating content that directly answers your audiences questions.

We all need to watch this space, as if the Montana ban is upheld, it could pave the way for other states (and other countries) to do the same.

LinkedIn
LinkedIn is adding new verification elements to job listings to give users more trust in them. According to LinkedIn, it’ll show users “whether the poster is affiliated with an official company page, has verified their work email or workplace, or their government ID was verified through CLEAR.”

What does this mean for me?
This helps users trust that those job listings are legit, which is great news whether you’re creating them or applying.

Facebook/Meta
Meta staff are warning that further cuts could have a detrimental impact on users, specifically around viral political misinformation, foreign influence campaigns and regulatory challenges. Which isn’t great news.

In also not-great news, ad buyers are reporting increasing and ongoing errors with Meta’s ad systems, following on from the glitch that caused overspending last month.

Meta is divesting Giphy, finally putting an end to the saga.

The social media giant is taking a swipe at Twitter, launching their own version ‘Barcelona‘ next month.

Meta’s Massively Multilingual Speech Model is being open-sourced to help improve accessibility around the world.

Ooooooffff. Meta has just been fined a big fat $1.3 billon (yep, with a ‘b’) for violating EU data laws.

What does this mean for me?
Ad glitches are never a good thing. So if you’re struggling to work with Meta’s ad platform, you’re not alone. Meta is trying to fix it.

Gifs have gradually fallen out of relevance, particularly with younger users of the platforms. At the moment it looks like existing integrations will stick around, but as Giphy is being sold to Shutterstock, who knows.

At the moment, it looks like Barcelona will be more aligned with a chat-based feed, essentially working as a giant group chat anyone can join. This follows the trend of more users having conversations in the DMs on platforms like Instagram. You’ll be able to sign in using your IG credentials and sync up followers, which is pretty cool.

This improvement in accessibility is a very good move and will help improve the experience for more users.

If Meta doesn’t bring its data transfers into compliance with the GDPR it faces a ban in the region. Uh oh!

Twitter
Now when you go to the ‘Lists’ tab in the web version of the app you’ll be able to search based on your focus keywords.

Twitter has decided to take on Microsoft, accusing them of misusing Twitter’s data to train AI tech. This is kinda true because they have a big stake in OpenAI, which Musk is butthurt about because he ‘donated’ $100 million to in its early stages and has subsequently seen no return on investment. Because that’s how donations work. So really, Musk needs to learn the definition of donation and get over himself.

What does this mean for me?
This update could help you find more users to follow or add more nuance to your Twitter experience.

Microsoft has already removed Twitter from its Digital Marketing Center element, eliminating the promotion of Twitter ads to Microsoft partners, which isn’t a great look.

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