August 2023 Digital News Updates: Meta’s Threads and Twitter Becomes X

Facebook and Meta News Updates

  • Meta Announces More Emphasis on Video Again – Yes, you heard that right! Meta is putting more emphasis on discovery and video within their platforms again. This means you’ll see more videos and more content, NOT from accounts you already follow. For businesses, this means that great content can generate significant reach outside of your existing fans.
  • Meta Announces Llama 2– This is open-sourced AI that developers can use and contribute to. Look to see more AI everywhere – especially in Meta platforms.

Threads News Updates

  • Meta Launches Threads App – Threads is now at 100 Million Users. Yes, there is quick user growth, but what should you do as a business person? Remember to think impact! If you do not have the capacity to take on something new, take a pause and wait.
  • Threads Will Have Branded Content Tools – This is in Beta, but these toolkits will be available for influencers or creators to support brand partnerships. Stay tuned if you plan to partner with influencers on the platform. Since Threads already ports Instagram handles and followers over, likely, Instagram influencers will already have significant reach on Threads.
  • Meta Announcing Following Feeds on Threads – Meta is improving Threads quickly. After an impressive launch, engagements are declining on the platform. Threads is adding Following feeds, a desktop app, and more. This may seem basic, but engagement rates should increase as the platform evolves with more features.
  • Threads Users are More Engaged than Twitter– The initial data shows that it has higher engagement rates on Threads than Twitter. It may be new user hype, so we’ll have to wait and see if this is sustainable.

Instagram News Updates

Twitter – X News Updates

  • Twitter Becomes X in Rebrand – The impact of the rebrand is questionable. Both Google and Microsoft own trademarks in “X.” The only thing that has changed is a new logo. Our perspective is that since Twitter has invested so little in this rebrand, so why should brands invest much? See if there is sticking power before investing.
  • Twitter-X Reach Data Makes it Challenging to Assess the Value – It is worth considering whether you are getting ROI from Twitter. The challenge is that Twitter reach data tends to be extremely high relative to other channels or action-oriented metrics (for example, likes, engagements, clicks, traffic, etc.).

 Digital Marketing News Updates

  • Bing Chat Ads Visuals to AI Chat – It doesn’t create visuals like Midjourney but allows you to upload images into your chat. This means that the AI can interpret the images and integrate them into the responses.
  • FTC Updates Requirements for Influencers – It is worth reviewing the new guidelines if you are an influencer or work with them. They increase disclosure visibility and requirements and are much more specific than previous guidance.
    • DO disclose any material connections you have with a brand you are endorsing
    • DO make your disclosures clear, unambiguous, and conspicuous
    • DO make disclosures directly within your endorsements
    • DON’T mix your disclosures up with other phrases in a block of text
    • DON’T disclose only in the description of videos, podcasts, or images
    • DON’T make consumers click “more” in order to view your disclosures

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