September has been another busy month in the world of social media, with some pretty big updates making waves across the platforms. From new advert options on Meta, to Threads testing communities, to the FTC turning its attention to AI chatbots, there’s a lot to catch up on. We’ve pulled together the highlights here.
Meta Announced New Ad Options For Reels & Threads
At the annual Brand Building Summit, Meta announced some new advertising options for Reels and on Threads.
For Reels, trending ads are expanding to more advertisers, meaning more marketers can place their ads alongside ‘trending Reels’ content. This could open you up to a whole new audience and the opportunity to gain more exposure, with Meta saying that initial tests of this feature have shown that Reels trending ads can boost awareness by over 20%. This feature will be available to all advertisers with a Meta Sales Rep.
On Threads, Meta is rolling out Carousel Ads and Expanded Image Formats, and will be enabling brands who don’t have a Threads account to expand their Instagram and Facebook campaigns to Threads. These ad updates from Meta are pretty useful for marketers. More ad formats and better targeting means more room for brands to be creative and smart with their budgets.
The FTC Launched An Investigation Into AI Chatbots
There have been reports of concerning interactions between AI chatbots and young people, leading to an investigation being carried out by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) into the potential harms of AI. The FTC has ordered Meta, OpenAI, Snapchat, X, Google and Character AI to provide more information on how their chatbots function, to help them establish whether or not reasonable safety measures have been put in place to protect young users.
It’ll be interesting to see what the FTC ends up recommending as a result of the investigation, and how it’ll impact the development of AI tools. So far, at least one U.S. Senator has called for teens to be banned from using AI chatbots entirely.
Threads Introduced 10K Character Text Expansion
Threads has now officially launched its new ‘text expansion’ feature, allowing users to attach a separate in-stream text note of up to 10k words to their Threads posts. The text attachment option will appear as a new icon in the post composer, taking you to a blog-style text editor to create an extra note. This note will then be added to your Threads post under a “Read More” option. The new feature could encourage broader conversations in the app, as well as helping bloggers, writers and content creators build their audience on the platform.
X Shared Insights Into Post Reach
X has published an overview of how it ranks content on the platform, including a full listing of the codebase for the ‘For You’ timeline. The code reveals what X thinks are the key factors for driving engagement on the app.
The core signals that X uses to choose which posts are shown on a user’s timeline include: the probability that the user replies to the post, the probability that the user goes to the post author’s profile and likes or replies to another post, the likelihood that the user will retweet or favourite the post, and, for a video post, the probability that the user will watch at least half of the video. The main focus is engagement and the likelihood that your post will spark conversation.
In terms of other general engagement factors X wants to focus on, Alex Finn posted a great breakdown of the key elements.
Threads Is Experimenting With Communities
Threads is working on a new ‘Communities’ feature, as another way to have their users come together to discuss specific topics and trends. This could drive more engagement in the app, as well as informing the Threads algorithm of what you like and are interested in. As a direct competitor for X (who also have a Communities feature), this update could be a big step towards Threads getting the upper hand in terms of engagement.
Communities have been working well on X. Last March, they reported that time spent in communities had grown by 600% year-over-year, and around 650,000 community posts are created on the app daily. There is undoubtedly a lot of opportunity there, and if Threads can tap into this, it could be a draw for new users to join the platform.
Talk To Victress About Social Media
Social media is always changing, and this month has shown just how fast things can move. From new features to big investigations, there’s always something new to keep an eye on. At Victress, we like to take the noise and turn it into something that makes sense, so you can spend more time connecting with your audience and less time stressing about the updates. If you’re unsure of where to start with social media, we’re always here for a chat. Drop us a message so we can help you feel more social media confident.
