A new week comes with some exciting social media updates. First up, Instagram has two new ad products: Reminder Ads and ads in search results.
The first helps advertisers to build excitement for upcoming events, where users can opt into reminders and receive three notifications from Instagram one day before, 15 minutes before, and at the time of an event. Ads in search results are also coming on a global scale soon. (Additional details can be found here.)
Next, an update to LinkedIn’s native post scheduling will include Company Pages (currently available on desktop and coming to mobile soon!).
Secondly, Audio Events are coming to LinkedIn too. This feature, per LinkedIn, is “designed to be a flexible, informal, and easy way to connect with your community in an authentic and low-pressure environment. Members can discover and RSVP to the event ahead of time, and when the event is live, participants can join the camera-free, pajama-friendly conversation from anywhere.”
A small but notable update from Meta: that good old blue checkmark is coming to Instagram and Facebook through Meta Verified. If users can provide a photo ID (with a purchase of $11.99 per month on the web, or $14.99 in-app), they will get the notorious blue checkmark in return, along with some additional features.
Last but not least — while the fate of TikTok remains unclear, the platform has reached 150 million users in the US. With this milestone, TikTok shared a statement on security improvements ahead of this week’s congressional hearings:
To proactively address US national security concerns, we’ve taken unprecedented steps by enhancing safeguards for our US users. Over the last two years, we’ve invested $1.5 billion in setting up TikTok US Data Security and have been building a comprehensive framework to isolate protected US user data. Today, we are also proud to launch the U.S. Data Security (USDS) site aimed at providing transparency into our commitments and answering common questions around our efforts to safeguard data.
With the rise of AI-generated media, TikTok also updated the Community Guidelines to cover AI creations, along with new rules about hate speech, political party accounts, and election misinformation. More here.
That’s all for this week!
