Welcome to Rose Media Group’s final monthly social media round up in 2023! We wish you all a Happy New Year, and we’re looking forward to bringing you the social media updates of 2024. For now, let’s get started on 2023’s final round of updates!
Instagram rounded off an interesting year by publishing their 2024 Trend Talk report, a survey conducted to specifically focus on Gen Z and their take on what 2024’s trends will be. We recommend reading to get up to speed with what’s coming up this year!
All users are now able to download public Reels, and a new feature has now been released for users to create custom ‘Add Yours’ templates – enabling ‘meme-able’ Stories for followers to engage with and participate in. This feeds into the upward trend that we’ve observed with a higher focus on user-generated content, so it’s good to see platforms making supplementary tools available.
Other updates from Instagram include:
- The launch of a podcast, ‘Close Friends Only’ – which promises to ‘[bring] you the latest on culture…all from your favourite celebrities.’
- Working on the ability for users to share their live locations in direct messages and to add Notes within their feed posts.
- The launch of the ability to post short video Notes – two-second looping videos to be precise.
Threads
Threads have further quietened down in December, with their major update being the app finally launching in the EU. Keyword search was also launched everywhere that Threads is available (and supported in all languages), and trending topics are also reportedly on their way. Whilst Threads are still gradually rolling out these Twitter-esque features, it all seems rather slow – perhaps too little, too late given the rapid decline in their active user numbers. Who knows what 2024 will bring for Threads?
TikTok
TikTok ended 2023 with somewhat of a bang, with its imminent ban in the state of Montana being overturned. Back in August, Montana proposed the prohibition of downloading the app from 1st January 2024 on the grounds of data protection concerns, and this has now been temporarily blocked by a US judge. US District Judge Donald Molloy stated that the ban would violate the free speech rights of users and ‘oversteps state power’. Montana’s state attorney is reportedly considering the next steps that can be taken.
The company also pledged to invest €12 billion into storing European data locally, with that investment going towards three data centres and work on security and privacy.
Other TikTok updates include:
- Becoming the first non-game app to generate $10 billion in consumer spending across both the Apple App Store and Google Play Store.
- Partnering with Ticketmaster to allow more regions to buy concert tickets in-app.
- Reportedly testing custom AI chatbot creations.
Meta
Meta ended 2023 in a bit of hot water, facing fines of up to $600 million over potential data violations in Europe. The Information Media Association in Spain, a media company representing over 80 top media outlets in the country, sued Meta for noncompliance with the EU’s GDPR rules with unfair advertising practices. Meta does not appear to have officially responded to the claims, with a spokesperson declining to comment on the basis of not having received any legal papers pertaining to the case.
Other Meta updates include:
- A couple of new WhatsApp features – an option for users to pin messages within chats, and a ‘View Once’ feature for audio messages.
- Facebook Messenger finally releasing the ability to edit messages.
Other miscellaneous updates from December 2023 include:
- X / Twitter is now the subject of a formal investigation by the European Union over illegal content. The platform has been accused of: ‘failing to counter illicit content and disinformation, a lack of transparency about advertising and deceptive design practices.’
- LinkedIn have added duplicate draft templates to the ‘Newsletter’ feature – this streamlines the content creation process as previous newsletter formats can now be duplicated.
- YouTube are gradually rolling out the ability for more advertisers to create YouTube Shorts Ads (the product is coming out of beta); and launching its Premium and Music subscriptions in ten more countries.
If you’re feeling a bit lost with your business’ social media profiles, why not get in touch with us here at Rose Media Group? You can contact our Rosy team at hello@rosemediagroup.co.uk or give us a call at 01444 241 341 to find out more about how we can help you.
We look forward to hearing from you!
