Get ready for the latest news! Keep yourself informed and empowered with our monthly summary of the latest advancements, product launches, and insights across popular digital platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter, TikTok, Google, YouTube, and more. Curated monthly, just for you!
- LinkedIn is 20! On May 5th 2003, the platform went live for the first time. A lot has happened since then. Find out what!
- LinkedIn now has 930 million members – and is growing strong! In Austria, Germany and Switzerland, it has combined member numbers of 20 million, with 2,1 million users in Austria alone.
- Spring cleaning! LinkedIn doesn’t count hibernated accounts and shuts down in China.
- Algorithm infographic: Find out how LinkedIn currently works here.
- Expensive May for Meta: the company has been hit with a €1.2 billion fine for privacy violations from the EU and is ordered to suspend EU data flows to the US.
- A new study on the effectiveness of Meta Video ads.
- Hackers are also using ChatGPT – and building malware disguised as ChatGPT-tools as well as spreading them through Facebook.
- Updates to Lead Ads on Facebook: New functions like discounts and dynamic questions.
- Generative AI is here for Meta Ads: It is testing and gradually rolling out text variation, background generation and image outcropping for ad creatives.
- Instagram Rankings explained! E.g. every part (feed, stories, reels etc.) uses its own algorithm.
- New ad placement for Instagram ads. Now ads can also show up in your Search Results.
- All we know of Instagram’s text-based Twitter clone. Working title Barcelona.
- It’s time: Instagram now lets everybody use GIFs in comments. In other areas of the platform, it was possible for a long time; now, comments are getting GIFs.
- Instagram Broadcasting Channels get new features.
- Keeping up with Elon: Many major developments happened at the platform in the last eight months regarding verification, layoffs, algorithm etc. TechCrunch has a great article that keeps track of everything you need to know.
- Twitter now allows paid users to upload two-hour videos.
- You can now search for Twitter lists. Twitter lists are collections of accounts gathered around a certain topic which are built by a user. Now you can search for those lists directly on the “lists” tab on the Twitter desktop version.
TikTok
- Montana bans Tiktok with Jan 1st 2024.
- New TikTok World Hub. Presentations, guides for marketers, best practices.
- TikTok is prompting you to add locations to your posts. Making them more valuable for users that search for places and locations (restaurants, hotels etc.).
- Sports are rising on TikTok. The platform published a new report about the rising trend in engagement with sports. +140% more video views for #baseball, for example. Read the full report here.
- Google’s I/O developer conference brought a vast amount of new announcements – many of them AI-related. From an immersive view on Maps to the AI-powered Magic Editor for photo edits, through artificially generated backgrounds for your product shots to a fully open Bard access – there was a lot. Check out the overview here.
- Google Search Ads will soon automatically adapt to queries using generative AI.
- Google adds new “Perspectives” category to search results. This category will show selected content from Reddit, YouTube, TikTok and more according to your search query.
YouTube
- YouTube Shorts get new placements options. Continuing the focus on the Shorts format, those formats get new ad placement slots.
- Unskippable YT ads are coming to smart TVs.
What else?
- 👻 Snapchat is launching a new version of the AR Try-on lens. The platform continues to focus on AR capabilities with the latest functionality.
- 📱Apple says its App Store ecosystem generated $ 1.1 trillion in developer billings and sales. This $1.1 trillion breaks down as $910 billion in total billings and sales from the sale of physical goods and services, $109 billion from in-app advertising and $104 billion for digital goods and services.
- 🌐 The swipeable web browser “Web Roulette” is here.
- 📞 Whatsapp is working on introducing usernames to the app instead of phone numbers.
That wraps up our monthly channel roundup! Did we miss anything? Did something surprise you? Tell us! And Happy Venturing!
