Weekly social roundup

What is happening?

Wowowowowow. What a week. What a month. What a year!

I am being dramatic, of course, that’s my MO, but hot dang. TikTok might actually be banned (?!), Instagram is making ads un-skippable (?!), X is charging people more for ads if they use emojis (😭). What is happening to the social media world I once knew and loved?

See? Dramatic.

Let’s all take a breath (me, especially), and get into the news this week. It’s a long one, so let’s dive in!

P.S. The absolute gems of humans over at VEED are still offering 50% OFF the first 3 months for Talk Social To Me listeners.

The September 15th deadline is fast approaching

Time is ticking for TikTok ⏰

Well, it seems that the US could actually be serious about this TikTok ban for once!!!!

According to the Commerce Secretary, TikTok will go dark in September if China refuses to sell, “We’ve made the decision. You can’t have Chinese control and have something on 100 million American phones.”

At the moment, it still seems unclear if China is going to agree to sell off the US portion of the app. And now with Blackstone dropping out of the bidding to buy TikTok, the whole thing feels like it’s on very shaky ground. 

TikTok, currently, has until September 15 to sell. I have a sneaky suspicion that Trump will extend it again if this doesn’t happen. But maybe the US will surprise me and force the app to go dark once more.

Have your say!

Will it finally happen? Will the US government finally put its foot down and stop extending this deadline until the end of time?

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Top social media highlights from the week 🗞️

Meta

• WHY!! Instagram is adding unskippable ads into the feed.

• Meta is so 3008! Its new wristband will let you control your devices with a flick of a finger.

• Want more views on your video ads? Meta says make them shorter. 

• You can now directly work with brands and get brand deals through Meta’s Creator Marketplace. 

• Facebook is rewarding high-quality content by boosting posts for free. 

• Cool! Something no one has been asking for: Two new tabs are being introduced on Facebook, For You and Explore. Yes, just like Instagram and TikTok.

• New insights are coming to Instagram to give creators better visibility on what’s working and what just … isn’t.

• You can continue adding the text “link in bio” to your captions. It doesn’t harm your reach! Let this be a lesson to us all not to believe everything we read online.

• Instagram is stealing ideas from TikTok this week (when aren’t they?). You can now “Link a Reel,” where you can link a new Reel to an older one.

• Quizzes are back! Instagram is testing the ability to add quizzes to your Reels once more.

• Reposts have made it to Instagram! On your Explore page, you can now quickly repost any post or Reel.

• Something I desperately need: a Remind Me feature is being added to WhatsApp to remind you to reply to your friend’s message.

• Ever wanted to schedule a reply to someone’s post? Threads now allows you to do that.

• No more political ads will appear on Meta in the EU.

TikTok

• TikTok Family Pairing has added a new feature where you can now see what topics teens are viewing. 

• Look out, Amazon! TikTok has added product subscriptions to TikTok Shop. Users can select delivery frequency, get discounts, and so much more.

• An anonymous reply sticker is the latest feature on TikTok Stories. Let your followers reply to your questions anonymously.

• Want better content on your feed? TikTok is allowing you to customize your FYP more and more.

X

• Vine is coming back to Twitter, I mean, X.

• Community Notes is being tweaked and only using Notes that were liked by people who have differing opinions.

• You can disable allowing screenshots in your DMs on X.

• X says no more emojis on ads, or you’re going to have to pay more money!!! Sorry, friends, this one really made me laugh. What does X have against emojis?!

Other

• Hashtags are no longer relevant on LinkedIn.

Upload a selfie or your government ID!!

Verify your age … are we doomed? 😭

Okay, I don’t mean to get doom and gloom here, but ARE WE DOOMED?! 

In case you’re not in the UK, the Online Safety Act has officially gone live, and people aren’t having it. While it might seem like a good idea in an attempt to keep kids safe on the internet, are the verification tools being used actually safe?

Bluesky and Reddit are using third-party tools to check ages, where you have to either take a selfie or share a photo ID to prove you’re above 18. Meta already has verification practices turned on in the background (yes, really!).

This past weekend, I tried to read one of the r/AskReddit’s that was marked #NSFW, I couldn’t access it without either taking a selfie or uploading my ID. While I was okay with uploading a selfie (which didn’t get accepted?), I was more hesitant to give over my passport information. 

Especially after the data leak from the US app called Tea, where users had their information leaked and then added to a Google Map for the whole internet to see. 

While I want the internet to be a safer place (especially for the yoooouths), I worry this might not be the solution. But maybe this will just be another thing that takes a bit to get used to, as it seems like more and more places around the world (Australia, various states in the USA, Ireland, EU) are forcing social media apps to the ages of users.

Why is everyone balancing on one leg?

A Very Meme-orable Week

I honestly don’t know why this song went viral again, but Nicki Minaj’s 2013 song “High School” is making its way across the internet, including her signature pose from the music video:

Minaj poses poolside, balancing in sky-high heels, one leg over the other. And now, the entire internet is attempting its own version of the pose.

Instagram is spilling secrets

Instagram spilled all the secrets on what posts to create to grow your reach

Last week, Instagram released a graphic in a webinar showing exactly what type of content you should be sharing on Instagram if you want to grow. 

This cutie little graphic explains:

• What content will help you reach new audiences

• How to keep your followers engaged

• How to nurture your most loyal followers

As we all know, Reels are the #1 thing you should be focusing on when it comes to creating content on Instagram. Instagram’s push for short-form videos doesn’t seem to be stopping anytime soon.

Other insights from this webinar include adding music on your carousel posts will help with reach, and being strategic and targeted with your hashtags is going to be helpful in both SEO and discoverability on the app (need help with your hashtag strategy? Click here). 

A curated list of fun things to read

My favorite read of the week

Are we all suffering from posting ennui? Honestly, what a question from the New Yorker! Fewer and fewer people are posting just to post these days, and with influencers (or wannabe influencers) flooding our feeds, normal people just don’t post because it’s … cringe? Weird? 

It seems like posting online isn’t the cool thing to do anymore, but when social media originally started, we weren’t thinking about being cool when we posted a photo of our out-of-focus breakfast on Instagram with a Nashville filter over the top. 

But now? Does anyone want to post anymore? It sure doesn’t seem like it.

Could sharing our location actually be causing more harm than good during the loneliness epidemic of today? 

While we might feel more connected by sharing our locations with friends and family, being able to see when friends are hanging out without us might be causing FOMO and a real sense of voyeurism as we all stare at the map to see where our friends are currently located. 

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Time to start recording

Trending audio of the week 🕺

betches

9M followers

View more on Instagram

Lucky – Britney Spears

The intro to Britney’s classic is being used both sincerely and sarcastically, highlighting real moments of feeling blessed or laughing about when things go wrong.

How it works:
Overlay text describing what made you feel “lucky” ... either genuinely or with an ironic twist. 🥲

Example uses:

• “When my coffee shop misspells my name for the 8th time”

• “Waking up to a sunrise on vacation”

Great for:

• Humor and lifestyle creators

• Brands showing wins (or fails) with personality

Want 20+ trends broken down for you every single week? Sign up for Social Sound Report, a weekly newsletter bringing you all the current trending audio and how to tailor it to your brand and niche!

Annnnd, that’s it for this week.

Thanks for reading. I love you all, and can’t thank you enough for the support.

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See you next week!

Mackenzie