Every month sees new social media updates and announcements, and keeping up with it all can feel like a full-time job. To help make sense of it all, we’ve rounded up some of the biggest headlines, platform changes and feature announcements from the past few weeks.
Here’s what’s new in the world of social this month, and what it might mean for your brand.
YouTube Adds Paid Vs Organic Metrics and AI Editing
There are some new updates hitting YouTube, including paid and organic metrics splits in analytics, allowing you to easily compare upload performance versus paid promotions. This will be available across most metrics on the platform, including views, likes, comments, shares and watch time, giving creators and marketers deeper insight into how their content performs.
YouTube has also launched an AI update, which will give creators the option to get some assistance with their first drafts. “Edit With AI” will help guide the creative process, giving you an initial edit of your raw footage. It’s an interesting addition, which could give you some inspiration and a jumping-off point for content creation.
Google Adds AI-Powered Guidance For Ads and Analytics
Google is rolling out two new AI tools, Ads Advisor and Analytics Advisor, both powered by its Gemini models. Ads Advisor will live inside Google Ads and act as a smart assistant, learning from your campaigns. You can ask it questions and it’ll suggest actions, generate keywords ideas and propose new ad creative.
Analytics Advisor works in Google Analytics to help you make sense of your data. You can ask it questions about your analytics, and it’ll pull together insights, visualisations and reports to help you. These new tools are designed to save marketers time, but as with any AI tools, it’s important to double-check the data pulled and suggestions made.
Pinterest Reaches 600M Users
Pinterest has hit a new milestone and now has 600 million monthly active users. The platform has seen a 17% year-on-year increase in revenue in Q3 and is steadily growing as a go-to discovery platform for a lot of consumers. They’ve been improving their search tools and introducing new AI features, focusing on direct shopping options to follow in TikTok Shop’s footsteps.
LinkedIn Takes More Action Against Engagement Pods
LinkedIn has announced that it’ll be increasingly cracking down on “engagement pods”, coordinated groups of users who like and comment on each other’s posts to artificially boost reach. The platform is aiming to make these pods ineffective, increase their detection of suspicious behavior, limit the reach of boosted content and crack down on tools that automate comments or likes.
The playing field will be shifting. Social proof matters, but artificially-boosted engagement will be targeted. The focus for marketers should be on genuine engagement, including meaningful comments, value-added posts and relevant connections. The beauty of social media is authenticity, afterall.
Bluesky Reaches 40M Users
Bluesky has reached 40 million users, up from 38 million in August. It’s a big milestone for the platform, however, growth has actually slowed. At its peak, the app was gaining 5 million new users per month. Now, it’s gaining around 1.4 million users per month.
For brands who haven’t explored Bluesky yet, there is still opportunity. It’s not yet a mainstream platform, but there is an active and dedicated community. If your target audience is niche and maybe tech-savvy, Bluesky could definitely be worth keeping an eye on.
Reddit Rolls Out Interactive Ads
Reddit has introduced a new ad format that goes beyond static images or video, making things interactive. Brands can embed mini-games, quizzes, countdowns and reveals, in a fresh way to drive engagement. The ads will encourage participation rather than passive viewing and could be a great way for brands to experiment and stand out on the platform.
Talk To Victress About Social Media
At Victress, we love helping brands cut through the noise and focus on what actually matters. If you’re unsure of where to start or just want to make sense of it all, we’re always here for a chat. Drop us a message so we can help you feel more confident with your social media strategy.
