Social Media Industry Round-Up #32: Downloading Reels, Creator Collaborations Guide for TikTok, More AI & New Ad Options on YouTube

Our Marketing team is back with a roundup of news & industry updates. This way, we keep our team, clients and interested marketers up to date with what's going on in the social media industry :)

Instagram has released a new feature that allows users to use their hands to start and stop recording.

Instagram is testing the ability to allow all users to download Reels. This means that users would be able to download clips from any account.

Meta is currently working on a new social media platform which they describe as ‘Instagram for your thoughts’, and it will be a text-based social network (which souls like their version of Twitter).

TikTok has released a new guide on how to create better-performing influencer marketing campaigns on the platform, based on over 300 top-performing videos on Creator Marketplace.

TikTok is the latest social media platform to jump into the AI trend by testing a new AI generator for profile images. Users will be able to choose a design style, and then upload a picture of their choice.

In order for brands to reach Gen Z on YouTube, the platform has launched two new ad options:

• Gen Z Music: Placing ads alongside the latest long-form trending music clips.

• Trending Music on Shorts: Ads placement within Shorts clips.

YouTube will improve its live-stream product listings with a new process for uploading product details that can be scheduled to appear at a set time.

With this new process, creators will be able to schedule a time, within YouTube Studio, for the product to appear, which will help to feed into this element.

After removing all legacy checkmarks in the app, Elon Musk asked all previously verified accounts to pay for a checkmark.

However, not all high-profile users were willing to pay, and some lost their verified checkmarks (i.e. The Pope, Beyonce & Oprah, amongst many others).

Surprisingly, some accounts started to get their checkmarks back, despite not signing up for Twitter Blue.

BeReal is a social media platform that reached 7.3 million monthly active users in August 2022.

Due to this success, other platforms like TikTok and Instagram have launched similar features, TikTok Now & Candids, which have caused BeReal’s monthly active users to decline, as the platform has one single feature available: sharing one picture a day.

This is why BeReal is currently testing out new functionalities, like Spotify integration (sharing music & podcasts) and Bonus BeResl (sharing 2 more pictures per day when a user posts on time), to expand its offering and retain active users.