What comes next: Social platform edition

The latest developments from all the social platforms, in one place, to help you identify what comes next in social.

This month is all about AI features, and ad product optimisation, whilst LinkedIn battles AI slop with algorithm evolution.

Meta is still talking a big AI game to keep pace with Google and OpenAI. So far, the ‘strongarmed’ implementation of Advantage+ has had its benefits and drawbacks, but there’s a new feature on the horizon...

• Meta has introduced Manus AI into Ads Manager, to automate campaign management and decision-making. The aim here is to improve their agentic capabilities, to build research reports, and to monitor and improve social strategies. It’s brand new, so, we’re still testing it out

• They’ve also introduced Advantage+ lead campaigns - they work similarly to how Advantage+ has worked thus far, and use Meta’s inbuilt AI to optimise lead generation. Use with caution... as with the rest of Adv+, ‘optimisation’ often comes at the cost of control and defined audiences

• They’re also introducing an AI audience targeting feature, which allows you to prompt with full text or keywords, to describe the audience you’d like to target. In practice, this might make ad setup easier for inexperienced users at the cost of detailed targeting

Instagram continues to lean into short-form content, and carries on pinching platform features from TikTok in order to compete.

• Instagram is testing making Reels the first page users see when they open the app. The aim is to increase engagement with short-form video, and compete more directly with TikTok-style content consumption. Late last year they trialled this in India, but they appear to be rolling out the trials across a few other markets (although it’s unclear which). Should it hit the mainstream, it’s another nod to the ever growing importance of short-form video

• Instagram explores a “Short Drama” format, consisting of episodic, short-form video series, similar to the storytelling formats popular on TikTok. It’s currently in early testing, and not yet available to the public, but it would allow users to be immersed in longer-form content through a series of cutdowns, and offers brands the opportunity to experiment with episodic storytelling - watch this space

YouTube continues their ascendancy, scooping eyeballs on small and big screen, whilst leveraging Google integration to impact search, as well as entertainment.

• YouTube has added a reporting metric (Attributable Branded Searches), which tracks when users see a YouTube ad, and later search for the brand on Google. In theory, this closes a big attribution gap in what Google have historically referred to as “The Messy Middle”. There’s huge application here

to demonstrate the commercials of brand campaigns, and indirect traffic thanks to YouTube viewing

• Google integrates Gemini AI more deeply with YouTube, using watch history alongside other Google data to personalise recommendations and responses. This means content relevance, information structure, and audience engagement are even more important for discoverability through AI engines and GEO visibility - there’s an argument to be made for content creation that’s never designed to be watched organically, but is instead designed to surface information on key topics to AI engines

• They’ve also introduced Shoppable Connected TV, enabling viewers to seamlessly browse and purchase products while watching YouTube ads on the big screen. It’s a new opportunity for brands to make the most of dual- screen viewing, unlocking audiences wallets on the small screen, after grabbing their attention on the big one

LinkedIn develops its algorithm to prioritise content relevance, and increase the importance of author credibility, in another nod to the power of people over pages.

• In February, there was also an evolution of the LinkedIn Algorithm. For brands, it means content needs to be more relevant, and be aimed to drive conversation in the comments section with community management here becoming increasingly important. The changes themselves were:

• Profile about section and headlines are now context tags, giving credibility signals

• Comments are now far stronger algorithmic signals of content quality than likes

• Dwell time becomes an increasingly important ranking factor

TikTok continues to develop its capabilities outside of core content consumption, improving Shop features and developing its search planning infrastructure.

• TikTok has introduced more features on TikTok shop for sellers, including an AI assistant chatbot, automated sample approvals, and AI-recommended creator partnerships. This aims to make social commerce easier for brands, and shows TikTok continuing to double down on e-commerce. In practice for established brands, these new features aren’t revolutionary, but they do demonstrate a clear direction of travel

• TikTok has launched a Keyword Planner, which works similarly to how Google's does. It allows you to quantify the volume of search on TikTok for specific terms. This makes planning for both Social Search campaigns, and Search Ads simpler, and more concrete. Right now, it gives relatively broad ranges of results, but we’d expect to see this become more refined

Reddit is hitting headlines at the moment thanks to its partnership with Google sky-rocketing its visibility in AI search, but back on the platform itself, they’re developing improved AI and shopping features, to keep up with the likes of Meta and TikTok.

• Reddit has introduced a new AI-based ad tool, Max Campaign, that automates audience selection for ads, which they say will lower costs and increase conversions. In practice, this looks very similar to Meta’s Advantage+, albeit Reddit themselves are claiming there will be a greater level of visibility as to

what their AI optimisation has done

• The platform’s also testing AI-powered shopping search, which would result in products appearing in shopping-related searches, linking directly to purchase pages. This signals a move toward product discovery and commerce within the platform

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