New social media features and updates to know this week
Updates to X, Meta, YouTube and more.
It’s another Tuesday, PR pros, and you know what that means! We have your roundup of weekly social media updates to help you work smarter, not harder. Read on to find out what’s new with the latest app info and insights in this edition.
Now let’s get to the good stuff!
X
Elon Musk posted on X in late November that its new conversational AI tool, Grok, will be available on X for users to prompt “analysis” of in-stream posts on the platform.
“In a few weeks, we will add a ‘Grok, analysis!’ button under X posts,” Musk wrote.
The type and tone of analysis it provides remains to be seen. Unlike other AI chat tools, Grok appears to be designed with less focus on neutral objectivity. “Grok is designed to answer questions with a bit of wit and has a rebellious streak, so please don’t use it if you hate humor!” reads X’s informational page about the tool. X professes that the tool is “useful to people of all backgrounds and political views,” which may be read to echo the political bent of X’s current user base.
The AI chatbot is only available to X Premium+ subscribers, according to its website. X News Daily posted on X that, “Users will be able to access via both the navigation bar and sidebar in the future!” The Grok tool would be located near the bottom of X’s app, between the search and notification buttons. Grok would also be located under a person’s profile and X premium account tabs.
X is also giving users choices on how to embed videos from X on third-party websites, Digital Information World reported. Users will be able to embed a standalone video or entire post as they normally would. If a user embeds only a video or GIF from X on a third-party website, they will be able to select an option for it to appear more streamlined in comparison to a full post, more like a YouTube embed than a captioned video.
Meta’s Threads
The Wall Street Journal reported that Meta is expected to debut Threads in Europe in December. It’s pretty safe to say that this launch is the platform’s second-most significant update since its arrival in the States in July. Due to the European Union’s online services regulations (“among the toughest in the world,” according to the WSJ), Threads held off on launching overseas. “To comply with those regulations, Meta will give EU users the choice of using Threads purely for consumption without a profile that allows them to make their own posts,” someone close to the matter told WSJ.
Another bit of Threads news: Want to look something up in Threads? Now you can, wherever you’re located. Threads originally announced in late August that it is experimenting with keyword searches among small populations of users. Threads posted on Dec. 1 that, “You can now search for keywords everywhere Threads is available, in any language.”
To access it, users should:
- Select the search icon.
- Type a phrase or keyword in the search bar and see a “search for” suggestion.
- Hit the prompt and you will be linked to a results page.
In a bit to improve security on the app, WhatsApp will now let you lock your chats with secret codes, a WhatsApp blog announced. While Chat Lock, released in May, is not new, its secret code function is. The secret code option lets users create a new password and hide their locked chats folder from their chatlist. Make the chats visible by typing in the secret code in the WhatsApp search bar. The chats can stay visible, based on user preference. If a user wants to lock a new chat, they can long press to lock instead of going to chat settings. The secret code is available now and will be accessible worldwide in the upcoming months.
TikTok
TikTok is deepening its ties to the music-focused creators and their fans with the creation of the Artist Account, according to a TikTok newsroom announcement. “Now available to every artist or musician that has released music, the Artist Account is the shop window for fans to learn more about your music, and creative process and to discover the latest releases,” according to TikTok. After activating the account, artists will receive resources including:
- Artist tag.
- Located under the user’s account name.
- Artists will need at least four songs uploaded to have tag eligibility.
- Music tab.
- This element will curate an artist’s catalogue to allow fans to more easily find their music.
- By artist.
- This lets the artist pin a preferred post at the start of the discovery page, which can get more followers to see a certain TikTok video, new release or popular clip.
- Behind the song.
- This lets artists share stories and inspo from their songs, cultivating a better fan connection.
To get started click here.
LinkedIn wants to help B2B marketers dig deeper with some marketing and measurement updates, LinkedIn Ads announced. One of these updates includes LinkedIn debuting its new Conversions API, CAPI. CAPI lets users opt for either direct API integration or partner integration. “Use this capability to connect both your online and offline data to LinkedIn, allowing you to see how your campaigns influenced actions taken on your website, sales completed over the phone, or leads collected in-person at an event,” the platform wrote. LinkedIn also added three new upgraded its Document Ads with features that include:
- Document Ads to retarget customers.
- Enhancing a campaign with website visits and website conversions to lead people to your landing page.
- LAN distribution options.
LinkedIn Engineering also announced that LinkedIn released a detection feature to handle posts that violate platform policies including offensive or abusive content. The AI-backed detection system finds potential content and removes it to “reduce the burden on human reviewers, allowing them to focus on content that requires their review due to severity and ambiguity,” according to LinkedIn Learning.
YouTube
Creator Insider announced new updates to YouTube to the Product Drops feature. Product Drops allow people to generate buzz around product announcements during live shopping streams. New updates to Product Drops include the following:
- Creators connected to first-party stores, or their stores, or participating in the YouTube affiliate program, a third-party store, can create product drops in the live control room on YouTube.
- Now more creators can use Product Drops to increase sales and engagement on their livestreams.
- Creators can drop products whenever they want during a livestream.
To use Product Drops, users can visit the live control room on YouTube and schedule a live stream. While in the live control room, tag the product drop and other related products to the live stream video. Then click “create product drop” next to the product. The product will be kept hidden until the creator wants to drop it.
Sherri Kolade is a writer and conference producer at Ragan Communications. She enjoys watching old films, reading and building an authentically curated life. Follow her on LinkedIn. Have a great PR/comms speaker in mind for one of Ragan’s events? Email her at sherrik@ragan.com.
