Tag
Social Media Marketing
Discord cut video player code by 94% without users noticing, exposing the infrastructure cost platforms hide from marketers
Discord refactored four separate video players into one shared foundation, cutting code by up to 94% and shipping new features across the platform without disruption. For social media marketers, the real story is what platforms are spending to keep video working, and what you can demand when they do.
LinkedIn ships free digital business card with wallet integration while locking private notes behind Premium
The digital business card reaches all members without a subscription gate, but the returning notes feature requires Premium Business or All-in-One, nearly a decade after LinkedIn removed it for being underused.
Bluesky's moderation inbox moves enforcement decisions into the app, closing the email loop brands couldn't scale
The beta feature centralises moderation notices and appeals inside Bluesky for the first time, matching the in-app workflow every other platform already offers. For brands running accounts at scale, that's one less inbox to monitor.
Substack's new lists feature turns curation into infrastructure as platform hands creators their own attribution data
The newsletter platform is giving curators traffic attribution for every creator they recommend, exposing the economics of discovery while readers can now save and follow themed lists like they would a publication.
Instagram tests 90-minute videos as short-form platforms reverse course on length
Instagram is testing horizontal videos up to 90 minutes long in a format called Features, after spending four years pushing Reels. The test arrives with no ad revenue share for creators and a different distribution model than the IGTV format it retired in 2022.
The Best Social Media Marketing Events in New York for 2026–27
Six New York events for social media, creator and influencer marketing professionals in 2026 and 2027, from SocialDay Forum NYC and Social Fresh to Social Media Week and Creator Economy Live East.
LinkedIn's hiring data shows social media marketers are filtering themselves out of 113% more roles
LinkedIn Pulse launched with data showing members listing AI literacy are 78% more likely to get hired, but only 4% of marketers have added the skill. The gap is now the barrier.
YouTube's Shorts Series turns scroll into binge as creators build 60-second episodic shows
Microdramas hit 6.5 billion views in the first half of 2026, and YouTube has given creators the infrastructure to turn Shorts into serialized TV. The shift gives social media marketers a blueprint for narrative campaigns that extend engagement beyond single-hit posts.
Twitch will now distribute streamers' clips to Instagram and YouTube through partners, shifting who controls off-platform growth
Recaps Spotlight hands clip distribution to unnamed third parties, marking Twitch's first systematic push to promote creator content beyond its own walls. The change is opt-in, Partners-only for now, and raises as many questions as it answers.
Meta's Forum admin tools won't stop you running a bad group, but they will expose how much work you were avoiding
Forum's new AI post tagging, shared calendars and compound moderation rules put real-time collaboration infrastructure into Facebook Groups admin. The catch: they surface exactly how much manual triage the platform was already expecting admins to do.
Substack's podcast sponsorship play brings subscriptions and ads into one closed loop
Dynamic ad insertion, IAB-certified downloads, and community tools now live under a single platform login. For podcasters who already run a paid newsletter, the pitch is stack consolidation. For sponsors, it's targeting newsletter audiences that already pay.
LinkedIn's job-title targeting reaches Google's CTV buying platform as programmatic routes multiply
LinkedIn has made its CTV ad inventory available through Display & Video 360, giving DV360 buyers access to professional targeting without leaving Google's platform. It's the fourth programmatic route in 18 months, and it signals where LinkedIn thinks the B2B CTV budget is actually held.
YouTube partners with Bloomsbury to turn ACOTAR's book launch into a branded fandom activation
The platform ships a custom Shorts quiz, Starfall progress bars and BookTube creator content to mark the sixth ACOTAR novel. The playbook works for any IP with an existing fan base.
YouTube revamps channel memberships for microdramas as views pass 6.5 billion and APAC growth hits 70%
YouTube is rebuilding the membership experience for episodic Shorts after microdramas surpassed 6.5 billion views in the first half of 2026. The shift gives creators a subscription path that competes with microdrama apps charging viewers per episode.
LinkedIn Hiring Pro cuts six hours a week from small business recruitment, but the filtering happens before candidates see the role
LinkedIn's AI hiring agent saves time by sorting applicants and drafting job posts. The efficiency gain is real, but it also means more roles are being screened by an algorithm that decides who gets through before a human looks.
Live Nation launches Creator Nation with funding to acquire creator management firms as Forbes list breaks $1 billion
Live entertainment's biggest player is betting creator infrastructure is the next asset class worth consolidating. The timing is no accident: the top 50 creators just collectively earned over $1 billion for the first time.
Instagram's Professional Dashboard is free, accurate, and ignored by most creators
The platform hands every creator real-time audience insights, competitive benchmarking, and post-level attribution at no cost. The problem is not access. The problem is that most creators have not opened it in weeks.
Instagram Rings 2026 judges reveal what the platform actually values in creators, and follower count isn't on the list
Donatella Versace, A$AP Rocky and Chloé Zhao will select 50 winners based on four criteria that override reach. The judging panel itself is Instagram's roadmap for what brands should look for when creative risk matters more than scale.
Pinterest opens premium inventory to programmatic buyers as revenue growth slows
The platform launches Programmatic Deals across Amazon, Google and Yahoo DSPs, moving high-intent discovery inventory into the automated channels where brand budgets are already committed.
X shifts algorithm to reward dwell time over likes, forcing brands to rethink post length and format
The platform now predicts how long users will spend on content and prioritises posts people read to the end, making lightweight engagement tactics obsolete.
Discord's 1GB upload ceiling quietly raises the floor for brand community infrastructure
Discord's October 22 update adds right-click organisation and markdown previews, but the doubling of Nitro upload limits from 500MB to 1GB signals the platform is building toward serious brand asset sharing, not just gamer convenience.
Snapchat launches cross-device AI that works without the glasses, signalling ambient computing beyond the app
SPECS Intelligence is Snap's first standalone AI service, available on iPhone and Mac from day one. The move positions personal context, not hardware, as the real platform play.
YouTube beats TV and movies as Gen Z's top storytelling platform, but 73% won't cast the influencers brands are paying for
UCLA's Teens and Screens Report shows 72.9% of 10 to 24 year olds rank YouTube as the best medium for storytelling, yet only 16.8% would cast an influencer in a leading role. The gap between where audiences find stories and who they want in them forces brands to rethink how YouTube creator partnerships actually translate to other formats.
Twitch's Stream Recaps hand brands a solution to the sponsorship reach problem, but only if they rethink campaign timing
Twitch's new clip-driven recaps place stream highlights in followers' mobile feeds after broadcasts end, fixing a structural problem: most communities never see sponsored segments live. The change shifts when and how brand content delivers value.
Pinterest's CMO just told marketers to stop chasing attention. The platforms built on it are the reason why.
Claudine Cheever's "intention over attention" argument reframes how performance should be measured on social, but the real test is whether brands can stop optimising for the metrics that fund the entire industry.
Meta's GenRecs tokenization solves the cold-start problem advertisers didn't know they were paying for
Meta's new semantic tokenization approach replaces per-item ad IDs with shared vocabulary tokens, eliminating the cold-start penalty for new products and cutting recommendation system memory by over 90%. The shift means your newest campaign inherits what the model already knows, rather than starting from zero.
TikTok's news audience has stopped growing as Facebook and Nextdoor pull younger users back to local content
TikTok's share of Americans who get news on the platform stayed flat at 20% in 2026, while its core 18 to 29 demographic dropped four percentage points. The shift exposes a plateau brands should have seen coming and signals a broader realignment towards proximity over virality.
YouTube tests burying the dislike button on standard videos as platform quietly dismantles negative feedback signals
YouTube is testing hiding the dislike button inside the three-dot menu on long-form videos, mirroring the pattern that preceded removal on Shorts. For social marketers, it's another data point disappearing from quality assessment and another reminder that platform feedback systems are built for platform goals, not yours.
Meta suspends Muse sharing after 6,800 conversation links surface through DNS records
Researchers found shared chat links by searching public DNS logs in a single query. The flaw exposes how AI sharing features can leak what you're discussing before anyone opens the link.
YouTube's 50MB playlist image limit removes the last technical barrier between brands and programmatic content organisation
The YouTube Data API now accepts playlist thumbnails up to 50MB, a 25x increase that mirrors September's video thumbnail update and closes the gap between what the platform interface supports and what scheduling tools can automate.
LinkedIn's side-hustle monetisation suite launches with invite-only video ads and zero transparency on creator revenue splits
On 15 October, LinkedIn opened Advice Sessions to US Business Premium subscribers and began testing In-Stream Ads with select creators, but the platform has published neither eligibility criteria for video revenue nor the share it keeps from pre-roll ads.
LinkedIn's Top Startups 2026 list validates creator-led growth as a core hiring signal
The platform's own talent data shows startups building on social media expertise and community growth are now recruiting from top-tier employers at the same rate as AI infrastructure companies.
YouTube's generative AI report reveals how identity, not utility, drives personal video creation
A YouTube Culture & Trends study shows 72% of uploaders use AI on video, but most aren't chasing productivity. They're inserting themselves into content to explore emotion, passion and who they are.
TikTok's Made By Us Studios deal turns creators into proof-of-concept for brands that can't afford to guess
The partnership puts Hannah Stocking and Adam Rose at the centre of scripted micro-series, but the real shift is TikTok building a testing ground where brands can validate entertainment ideas with real audience data before committing TV-scale budgets.
Twitch's Pokémon badge evolution system turns subscriptions into a three-month retention play
The platform's latest loyalty mechanic requires daily watch time and subscription purchases across a 16-week window, shifting badges from instant gratification to sustained commitment.
Instagram's photo comments ship with a moderation blind spot brands cannot keyword-filter
The feature is rolling out across accounts now, letting customers drop product images directly into comment threads. The problem: text-based moderation tools can't see them.
APAC small businesses use AI at double the US rate, but 86% say they still need more help to use it
Meta research across nine Asia-Pacific markets shows small business AI adoption has hit 84%, with three-quarters reporting productivity gains and nearly two-fifths using it to reach customers cross-border. The catch: the vast majority say they can't unlock AI's full value without better guidance on cost, returns and privacy.
Pinterest's October holiday checklist tells brands September was the deadline, not the start
The platform's festive guide, reported by Social Media Today, frames late October as catch-up territory. For social marketers, the real insight is how far Pinterest's planning window has pulled ahead of every other channel.
LinkedIn tests Premium Recommend reaction as scarcity becomes the new engagement currency
A purple-star Recommend reaction linked to LinkedIn Premium is rolling out to live accounts, turning organic engagement into a paywall and creating friction for users who can see it but cannot use it.
TikTok Shop's 230% collectibles sales surge pitches trading cards and squishy toys as the Q4 sleeper category brands are missing
Sports cards, memorabilia and squishy toys are shaping Q4 on TikTok Shop, with collectibles sales climbing 230% year on year in October. Brands have six weeks to secure inventory and Live Shopping slots before Black Friday.
YouTube's sidebar layout forces marketers to rethink how audiences engage with comments and metadata
The platform is testing a desktop redesign that shifts comments and video details into a right-hand panel. For social media marketers, the change rewrites how audiences consume context and participate in community discussions.
WhatsApp's guest calling shifts the bar for brand accessibility, not just convenience
Anyone can now join a WhatsApp call without an account, removing the last friction point for brands running customer service through the platform. The wider question is who gets left outside the waiting room.
The Ultimate Resource Stack: Navigating the Modern Social Media Intelligence Landscape
A practical guide to the resources social media marketers can use to stay informed, plan stronger campaigns and measure results. Explore SocialDay's The Sauce, official platform training, social listening tools and audience research, with a weekly workflow to put them to use.
Reddit's Developer Platform adds wiki access, closing the last gap forcing moderation bots to stay on the old API
Reddit is adding wiki pages capability to its Developer Platform, removing a constraint that had kept moderation tools tethered to the public Data API ahead of its March 2027 shutdown.
Facebook's natural language algorithm controls will make topic consistency matter more than engagement bait
Meta is rolling out Your Algorithm on Facebook, letting users type what they want to see. For creators and brands, it means reach will increasingly depend on whether content matches topics people have explicitly asked for, not just whether it gets likes.
WhatsApp's in-app browser for iPhone kills the last link-tracking signal brands could see
The move from business-only to all links closes the attribution gap that third-party tools were built to fill. For brands sending WhatsApp campaigns, the change removes the one remaining path to match clicks to conversions.
Pinterest turns its Barbie DreamHouse activation into a commerce test for Restyle, the AI tool that makes saved pins shoppable in your own room
The Barbie experience inside Restyle is Pinterest's first brand collaboration for a tool that exists to close the gap between saving a pin and buying what's in it. For home decor and furniture brands, it's the earliest signal of what the platform's AI shopping future actually looks like.
YouTube's October Demand Gen update shifts performance from creative to data infrastructure
Google's latest Demand Gen Drop makes first-party data the performance variable, not the ad itself. Advertisers using Google Tag Gateway now see over 20% conversion uplift in Demand Gen campaigns, but the metric measures signal recovery, not new demand.
WhatsApp's scheduled messages arrive seven years after Telegram, closing the automation gap brands were filling with workarounds
WhatsApp is rolling out native message scheduling to Android beta users, matching a feature Telegram launched in 2019. For brands already stretched across time zones and API templates, it signals the end of shortcuts and the start of a long-overdue automation layer.
Substack gives readers the dial: what the platform's new feed controls mean for creators
Substack has handed readers direct control over video, longform, keywords and AI labels in their feeds. It's the latest platform to crack open the algorithm, and the implications run far beyond email newsletters.
BBC News launches 24/7 YouTube stream as legacy broadcasters test whether platform distribution can recapture younger audiences
The trial, live since October 15 in the UK and US, follows YouTube reporting 18 billion hours of news viewing in the first half of 2026. The question is whether simulcasting solves an audience problem or simply moves it to someone else's infrastructure.
One-off brand deals still dominate influencer marketing despite industry's long-term partnership talk
New US data shows 69% of Instagram, 72% of TikTok and 49% of YouTube collaborations remain single-activation despite marketers insisting they want retention. The gap between what brands say and how they structure budgets reveals where influencer marketing is actually failing.
FOX wires creator content straight into ad sales with two SVP hires, signalling how legacy media now values creator IP
Bryan Thoensen and Kirsten McAuliffe join FOX Creator Studios in newly created SVP roles, but it's McAuliffe's reporting line direct to entertainment ad sales that reveals legacy broadcasters now treat creator-led programming as premium inventory, not a digital experiment.
What Farah Khan's spontaneity principle tells creators about proving tool adoption beyond the obvious
Meta closed its Edits Film Festival with a filmmaker who earns more from Instagram than cinema. The platform angle everyone ran is already old. The real story is what creators are now expected to prove when a platform asks them to switch tools.
YouTube raises Partner Program entry bar to 8,000 watch hours from February 2027
The first change to creator monetisation requirements since 2018 doubles the entry threshold for new applicants and introduces a rolling 10 million view floor for Shorts revenue, forcing smaller creators to rethink YouTube as an early-stage income platform.
Meta's GEM now runs every ad auction with one model trained across Facebook, Instagram and Reels
The 2026 generation replaces separate prediction systems with a single foundation model that Meta says delivered 18.9% more conversions and 12% higher click-through rates. What changes for advertisers is the limit on manual control, not the performance ceiling.
Universities launch creator economy degrees as brands now compete with institutional credentials for talent
Arizona State, Stanford and Syracuse have formalised the creator economy into academic programmes, creating a credentialled talent pipeline for an industry where most social media professionals report unclear career paths.
TikTok's 48-hour follower test kills broad reach for creators with disengaged audiences
New videos now spend two days with existing followers before the algorithm decides whether they deserve non-follower distribution. For creators who built audiences in the viral era, that changes the job.
Audiences no longer distinguish between creators and journalists, forcing brands to rethink credibility partnerships
A Syracuse University study finds 60% of Americans trust independent news creators as much as professional journalists on political topics, collapsing the distinction brands have used to justify traditional media partnerships over creator deals.
Business Women, Not Girls: Carolina Barbosa on the Skipped Rung and Where Burnout Actually Peaks
Why does burnout peak at social media manager level? Carolina Barbosa connects missing junior roles, unclear strategy and overloaded teams in our Career Ladder research.
YouTube's 20,000 creator survey reveals Europe's €8.4 billion economy is locked out of policy and funding
Two-thirds of European creators receive no government support, despite contributing more to GDP than many legacy sectors. YouTube's Creative Capital report exposes the structural barriers holding back an export economy built by entrepreneurs regulators don't officially recognise.
Meta Creator Marketplace now surfaces intent over follower count, reshaping how brands should brief influencer campaigns
Meta's Creator Marketing Hub prioritises creators who have already tagged brands or expressed partnership interest, shifting discovery away from audience scale. For marketers planning Q4 campaigns, that changes who gets found and how briefs should be structured.
Instagram's 2x Reels speed, launched 18 months ago, signals what YouTube and TikTok already know: audiences want control, not shorter videos
Double-speed playback has rolled out across every major short-form platform since early 2025. The shift isn't about shrinking attention spans, it's about letting viewers decide their own pace, and that changes what social marketers need to optimise for.
Half of US Halloween shoppers bought by early September, forcing brands to rewrite the campaign calendar
US Halloween spending hits $13.5bn in 2026, but NRF data shows 49% of consumers started shopping in September or earlier. For brands still running discovery ads in mid-October, the window where purchase intent was highest has already closed.
Social Media Marketing Awards 2026: all the winners, highly commended and finalists
SocialDay's Social Media Marketing Awards brought the industry together on the Thames to celebrate the people, teams and campaigns making an impact across social. Here are the winners, highly commended entries, every finalist and the judges' comments.
LinkedIn retires filter-based job search for AI that reads executive posts as company context
The platform is gradually replacing classic job search with conversational AI that needs to understand what companies actually do. That makes executive content a recruiting signal, not just brand building.
Substack turns sponsorships into subscription subsidies as newsletter market hits $2.4bn
Three new formats let brands fund reader access instead of buying banner space. The shift challenges how social marketers value creator partnerships when the pitch is trust, not traffic.
TikTok's Shopping Assistant turns For You into checkout as platform closes the purchase loop
TikTok has shipped conversational AI commerce tools that handle product questions and purchase without sending users to external sites, betting that in-app friction removal beats third-party checkout every time.
Pinterest's beauty report puts mocha balayage and dusty rose blush into Q4 product briefs
The platform's first Beauty Trend Report supplies specific search growth figures for copper hair, cheeky flush makeup and latte nails, giving brands concrete content direction as they plan autumn campaigns.
Creators want equity, not just fees, but the sector has no playbook to price it
Founders want creators on cap tables, and creators want ownership stakes instead of flat fees. The shift from pay-per-post to equity is reshaping influencer deals, but the industry lacks a standard structure for valuing, vesting, or negotiating creator stakes.
TikTok opens 400,000-app ad network to US advertisers, but Smart+ campaigns pull it in by default
TikTok Ad Network extends campaigns to nearly 400,000 third-party apps without new setup. The catch: Smart+ automatic placement includes the network by default, and the opt-out lives behind support.
Meta will charge for Instagram AI after daily caps, putting production cost on creators for first time
Instagram head Adam Mosseri confirmed the subscription shift as Meta starts passing AI infrastructure costs to consumers, changing how creators budget for production tools and ending the era of unlimited free generative features.
TikTok's Halloween travel push turns creator discovery into booking revenue as GO closes the transaction loop
TikTok launched Halloween travel recommendations with built-in booking on 6 October, using seasonal content to demonstrate how GO transforms inspiration into transaction before the platform loses users to Google or OTAs.
Discord's Halloween cosmetics campaign tests FOMO mechanics the platform once avoided
Discord's Cauldron Chaos promotion pushes limited-time collectibles with a 14-day window and an unlockable fifth item. For a platform built on persistent communities, the shift to urgency-based commerce matters.
Your social content is already YouTube-ready. Here's how to actually use it.
Google's Demand Gen playbook now centres on repurposing existing social assets into YouTube ads, backed by Gemini-powered tools that turn static images into video. The strategy cuts production overhead, but creative quality still decides whether campaigns convert or burn budget.
TikTok removes Instagram and YouTube profile links, forcing creators onto Linktree as platform tightens ecosystem control
TikTok has quietly stripped dedicated Instagram and YouTube link fields from creator profiles, leaving only a single website slot. It's the clearest signal yet that the platform is confident enough to stop handing audiences to competitors.
YouTube's new live tools turn reaction streams into revenue contests, but most won't ship until 2027
The platform is expanding Watch With to every long-form video and piloting live auto-dubbing and creator matchmaking battles, but the headline features are all early-2027 pilots. What ships this year is reaction content at scale.
Meta's Muse agent is coming for your back office hours, not your strategy calls
Muse for Small Business plugs Meta's AI agent into Shopify, QuickBooks, and your social accounts. The question isn't whether it works. It's whether small brands can afford to hand an agent the keys to the whole operation.
Google puts conversational AI inside YouTube ads as Demand Gen bets on friction removal over landing pages
Business Agent for YouTube Ads allows viewers to chat with AI alongside video ads without leaving the viewing context, while one-click experiences arrive for Shorts and Gmail image ads. Google is testing whether removing the hop to a landing page matters more than getting the click.
TikTok's September Community Guidelines formalise off-platform account bans, raising mid-campaign creator risk for brands
TikTok's updated Community Guidelines took effect on 24 September with clearer language on off-platform conduct bans and AI labeling. For brands running dozens or hundreds of creators at once, a mid-campaign restriction is now a budgeted line item, not a footnote.
Meta's anti-scam campaign reached 303 million people. The numbers show why education alone won't stop the $114bn problem.
Meta's One Step Ahead campaign partnered with 25 government agencies to deliver 1.3 billion safety impressions across Asia-Pacific. But with scam losses tripling and enforcement removing 3.6 million shell pages, the campaign's real job is behaviour change at scale, not just reach.
TikTok Shop's image search hands affiliate creators inventory power Google built for buyers
TikTok's visual search feature turns any photo into a product catalogue for creators chasing commission, shifting discovery away from what buyers search for and toward what affiliates choose to film.
Shea Serrano turned 128,000 subscribers into 120K podcast views in week one. The network deal he walked away from tells you why.
Five-time bestselling author Shea Serrano and Jason Concepcion could have signed anywhere. They launched on Substack instead, betting conversion beats reach. The first week numbers prove the trade-off works.
Instagram Rings rewards creative risk with prestige, not payments, as Meta cuts direct payouts
Instagram's new physical awards programme honours 25 creators annually for cultural impact rather than follower count, but the timing reveals a platform navigating creator income in reverse.
YouTube Music's conversational AI puts discovery ahead of the search bar
Ask Music now answers questions about artist lore and customises queues mid-listen, while Your Podcast Lineup narrates weekly recommendations hands-free. Both bet that talking beats scrolling when 300 million tracks need filtering.
YouTube turns Shorts into TV series to own the $8bn microdrama market before standalone apps can
Shorts Series lets creators structure vertical video into seasons and episodes across TV, mobile and web. Over half of YouTube's top 100 creators now get most views from the living room, and microdrama watch time on TV alone jumped 90% year on year.
TikTok's Super Fan replaces Live Subscriptions, forcing creators to justify recurring value at a fixed price
The platform has split monetisation into two streams: Super Fan for live creators at $9.99 monthly, and Subscription for non-live content. Existing subscribers on lower tiers face a pricing jump, and creators must rethink what sustains a monthly commitment.
YouTube's Made On 2026 unpacks where the platform thinks creation is heading: AI edits your Shorts, brands pay inside Studio, and microdramas hit 6.5 billion views
Over 30 product announcements at the annual event point to three clear bets. YouTube wants AI to edit for you, deals to close faster without leaving the platform, and episodic Shorts to keep viewers watching on TV.
Discord sorts 90% of accounts into age groups without asking, as platform bets behavioural signals beat ID scans
The chat platform is classifying most users as adult or teen automatically using account patterns instead of selfies. The shift follows a 2025 vendor breach and months of privacy backlash, but leaves adults open to being locked out by an algorithm with no warning.
LinkedIn turns colleagues into verification infrastructure as platform replaces documents with network proof
The platform is handing verification authority to its own network, letting verified members vouch for past colleagues once connected for at least a year. Company page admins can now manually remove false employee claims, closing a loophole that's frustrated brands for years.
Reddit's Ask tab and Shopify sync turn product questions into ad inventory as shopping conversations jump 40%
The platform has added AI summaries to search results and opened automated catalog syncing for Dynamic Product Ads, building commerce infrastructure around a year-on-year spike in purchase research behaviour that's reshaping how brands use the platform.
Southeast Asia's LIVE commerce model is reshaping Western creator expectations
TikTok's August Bangkok event spotlighted 300 creators from a region where livestream gifting and commerce-first content now generate billions. What Southeast Asia has professionalised over four years, Western platforms are only beginning to adopt.
EU KIDS Act forces platforms to prove safety before allowing under-15s access as Brussels overrules 13 member states racing ahead with conflicting bans
The European Commission's proposal, unveiled on 17 September, reverses enforcement burden onto platforms and bans addictive features as 23 of 27 member states were already pursuing their own incompatible age restrictions.
Pinterest places brands inside 80 billion monthly searches with Visual Search Ads
Visual Search Ads turn Pin closeups into performance inventory, bidding for placement where half of all searches carry commercial intent. Pinterest published no conversion benchmarks.
Chanel Beauty used Substack writers to launch a fragrance, proving long-form can sell what you can't smell online
The luxury house partnered with editorial creators like Erika Veurink and Laurel Pantin for Coco Mademoiselle Crush Absolu, treating newsletters as primary launch channels rather than amplification afterthoughts when the product demands deeper storytelling.
WhatsApp tests third account on iPhone as brands hit two-number ceiling
iPhone users juggling personal, client, and side-project lines still reach for a second device or third-party tools. The upcoming three-account expansion addresses friction that has forced many into more complex workflows.
Threads rolls out AI analytics summaries that explain performance without the spreadsheet work
The redesigned insights dashboard hands creators plain-language performance analysis, identifying which communities are engaging and whether posts beat their baseline. The shift signals how platforms are moving interpretation work in-house.
LinkedIn's BrandLink now shares revenue with over 100 creators as platform builds fiscal 2027 monetisation suite
LinkedIn's first systematic creator revenue share programme has grown from 30 initial participants to more than 100 creators and publishers, while internal documents show the platform is developing a brand deals marketplace, subscriptions and creator fund for launch from July 2026.
LinkedIn ranks comments by relevance as 30% turn out to be AI-generated
The platform now surfaces replies based on professional interests and connections rather than time posted, following an 18% rise in comment activity and data showing nearly a third of comments between April and June were fully AI-generated.
YouTube puts five creator shows through Venice and Toronto to prove a point advertisers are supposed to notice
The platform debuted creator-led films and series at two prestigious film festivals to convince brands that YouTube's programming deserves television budgets. Whether that works depends on what happens after the premiere.
Mainstream culture hasn't disappeared. It just stopped waiting for Hollywood's permission.
New research from YouTube and NRG reveals creators and memes now rival Hollywood celebrities for cultural influence, while The Backrooms franchise shows how digital lore can build a $394 million box office hit from the bottom up.
Snapchat launches event planning to capture what's already happening in DMs
Snapchat Plans landed on 10 September with RSVP tracking for up to 200 guests, turning the platform where a third of young US users already organise plans into a structured event tool built to challenge Partiful and Apple Invites.
Snapchat brings Dynamic Product Ads into Chat as platform tests how far commerce can push into private messaging
Catalog ads are now live in the inbox used by 85% of Snapchatters. The move turns private messaging into a commerce surface and raises the question every platform will have to answer: where does helpful cross into intrusive?
Disney opens El Capitan red carpet to creators as entertainment's power centre shifts
Created in LA runs 17 to 18 September at the El Capitan Theatre and Walt Disney Studios lot, marking Disney's first formal recognition that creators are now storytellers on equal footing with traditional Hollywood.
Six Series A rounds in a single month show creator economy tooling still hunting for repeatable revenue
Creator economy funding hit $1.39bn across 12 deals in September, but half were first institutional rounds. That points to an industry still figuring out which infrastructure layers brands will actually pay for at scale.
Pinterest tells advertisers to launch Q4 campaigns now, not November, as 55% of weekly users still shop post-Christmas
The platform's latest guidance pushes brands to go live between September and November, citing Performance+ testing that showed 28% ROAS improvement for SMB advertisers. With festive activity spiking as early as September and post-Christmas shopping remaining strong, Pinterest is reframing Q4 as a months-long testing window, not a November sprint.
"Just Because Your Output Is a Lot Doesn't Mean Internally There's a Lot of You": Livi Arnold on Skipping Rungs and Buying Her Own Skills
Livi Arnold on doing two rungs of the career ladder at once as an intern, paying to close her own commercial skills gap, and the gap between how big a social operation looks and how big it actually is.
To start, all you need is a pot
In our Social Media Marketing Awards finalist series, The Sauce is looking at the people and campaigns that earned a place on this year's shortlist, the work behind them and what they set out to change. José Rolão of Abelha 7 Trevos is a finalist in Creator & Personal Brand of the Year.
One giveaway, a series of reels and 945 new followers
In our Social Media Marketing Awards finalist series, The Sauce is looking at the campaigns that earned a place on this year's shortlist, the problems they were built to address and the work behind the results. The Soulful Marketing Co is a finalist in Organic Campaign of the Year for The Collaboration Effect.
The Marine Stewardship Council led with fishers instead of facts
In our Social Media Marketing Awards finalist series, The Sauce is looking at the campaigns that earned a place on this year's shortlist, the problems they were built to address and the work behind the results. The Marine Stewardship Council is a finalist in In-House Team.
Instagram pushes into the living room as TV app tests horizontal video and episodic series
Samsung TV launch extends reach to most US connected devices, while casting, Stories on TV, and plans for longer creator formats signal Instagram's bet on shared, lean-back viewing rather than mobile scrolling.
Pinterest's luxury audience spends 87% more than shoppers on other platforms, now growing three times faster than its user base
New research positions Pinterest as the single most effective platform for reaching high-intent luxury buyers, but the real story isn't reach. It's what happens before the purchase decision is made.
Real or Cake? and the 34.8 million views nobody paid for
In our Social Media Marketing Awards finalist series, The Sauce is looking at the campaigns that earned a place on this year's shortlist, the problems they were built to address and the work behind the results. Favola is a finalist in Community Strategy of the Year for Real or Cake?, created for The Entertainer.
Why fatjoe. scores its employees' posts instead of paying a flat rate
In our Social Media Marketing Awards finalist series, The Sauce is looking at the campaigns that earned a place on this year's shortlist, the problems they were built to address and the work behind the results. fatjoe. is a finalist in Employee Advocacy or Social Selling Programme.
Meta's Muse agent sits between your audience and your brand. That changes how social marketing works.
Muse doesn't just answer questions or schedule posts. It books tickets, makes purchases, and decides which brand wins the sale, all without a human clicking through to your landing page.
Pinterest turns its phone-free brand campaign into a couture front row stunt, making offline marketing part of the product
The platform's partnership with designer Claudia Smith London at Fashion Week isn't content marketing. It's a proof-of-concept for brands that need to justify presence over reach.
Social Media Has a Career Ladder Problem, and We Have the Receipts
Our midway report on the Social Media Career Ladder is out today. One in ten practitioners can see a clear path, the entry rung has quietly stopped being an entry rung, and the top of the ladder is emptying at the same time as the bottom.
How MAD//Fest turned its event marketing into a comedy series
In our Social Media Marketing Awards finalist series, The Sauce is looking at the campaigns that earned a place on this year's shortlist, the problems they were built to address and the work behind the results. MAD//Fest is a finalist in Bold Creative Format for MAD//Diaries.
Building an education business around giving knowledge away
In our Social Media Marketing Awards finalist series, The Sauce is looking at the people and campaigns that earned a place on this year's shortlist, the work behind them and what they set out to change. Oluchi Imoh is a finalist in Industry Educator.
How Grape Tree built an influencer partnership around expertise rather than reach
In our Social Media Marketing Awards finalist series, The Sauce is looking at the campaigns that earned a place on this year's shortlist, the problems they were built to address and the work behind the results. CNS Media is a finalist in Influencer Campaign for its work with Grape Tree.
Had you noticed that noticed. built a million-pound agency on LinkedIn alone
In our Social Media Marketing Awards finalist series, The Sauce is looking at the campaigns that earned a place on this year's shortlist, the problems they were built to address and the work behind the results. noticed. is a finalist in Best Use of a Single Platform.
How Forest Feast launched its first brand collaboration with 38 creators
In our Social Media Marketing Awards finalist series, The Sauce is looking at the campaigns that earned a place on this year's shortlist, the problems they were built to address and the work behind the results. Forest Feast is a finalist in Influencer Campaign for its Matcha Chocolate Almonds launch with PerfectTed.
Comms Creatives built a following by making comms people laugh
In our Social Media Marketing Awards finalist series, The Sauce is looking at the campaigns that earned a place on this year's shortlist, the problems they were built to address and the work behind the results. Comms Creatives is a finalist in Small Business Social Media of the Year.
TikTok's Flip Stories hands early adopters an algorithmic boost as platform pushes photo-first content
TikTok is actively promoting Flip Stories and other photo formats with extra reach, creating a window for creators to gain visibility before the format saturates. The pattern mirrors every new feature launch, but this time the reward is built into how the algorithm weights photo engagement.
YouTube's TV companion mode turns second-screen browsing into an engagement tool creators can finally measure
YouTube has shipped a major control upgrade that lets viewers browse Shorts, comment and subscribe on their phones without interrupting what's playing on TV. For creators, it solves the retention paradox that's been killing long-form watch time since the living room became YouTube's biggest screen.
LinkedIn launches invite-only Next Gen Community to lower the barrier for early-career creators
The 12-week cohort targets creators talking about work, culture, and navigating early career life, as LinkedIn bets on building creator infrastructure for younger professionals who fear showing up authentically.
Pinterest bets search intent beats ad expertise with Promote a Pin launch
The platform is letting anyone boost a Pin in a few taps, but the real story is not the simplicity. It is where Pinterest is placing its competitive edge: on 40 billion monthly commercial searches that convert differently from social feeds.
Snapchat hands campaign bidding to advertiser measurement partners as Unified Attribution cuts app acquisition costs 26%
Snapchat is now letting AppsFlyer and Adjust control how campaigns are optimised, not just how they're measured. The global rollout closes a gap that has cost app marketers millions in misaligned data and wasted spend.
How CNS Media used creator-led social to reach young people outside work and education
In our Social Media Marketing Awards finalist series, The Sauce is looking at the campaigns that earned a place on this year's shortlist, the problems they were built to address and the work behind the results. CNS Media is a finalist in Purpose-Led or Social Impact Campaign of the Year for Youth Trailblazer.
California passes sweeping AI and social media restrictions as tech's home state tightens grip on platforms and automation
Twenty-six bills now sit on Governor Newsom's desk, targeting everything from addictive feeds for under-16s to robo-boss firings and data center energy costs. The state's response to AI and platform harm just became the most comprehensive in the US.
Creator economy hits $323bn but 56% of full-time creators still earn below living wage as subscriptions replace sponsorships
The creator economy grew 26.5% to $323.48bn in 2026, yet more than half of full-time creators earn under $44,000. The gap exposes a fundamental shift from brand deals to recurring revenue models, rewriting what sustainable creator income actually looks like.
The Key to Organic Social Media That Actually Gets Enquiries
Social media marketing is constantly evolving, but the one constant behind it is that real people are selling real things to real audiences. Looking at organic socials through a more soulful, connection-led lens is helping my clients get enquiries on repeat, without sacrificing their authenticity.
Snapchat's Harry Potter activation shows what pre-launch marketing looks like when you own the platform, not just the ad space
HBO and Snapchat are rolling out 12 AR lenses, Bitmoji fashion and physical mirrors months ahead of the HBO series premiere. The real lesson isn't the partnership. It's the timing, the surface area, and what it says about where TV budgets are moving.
Reddit's 15-second video ad goal is built for messages that take longer to land
The new optimisation option rewards watch time over raw views. Brands running trailers, demos and testimonials now have a billing structure that reflects the full message, not just the opening seconds.
ChatGPT, Reddit and Roblox face the EU's toughest platform rules. Here's what that changes for social marketers.
The European Commission has designated ChatGPT as a search engine and Reddit and Roblox as very large platforms under the Digital Services Act. For social media marketers, that means stricter content moderation, new transparency requirements for ads, and fresh uncertainty around organic reach on platforms already under regulatory pressure.
LinkedIn ramps up fight against AI slop as EU user growth stalls
The platform is blocking billions of automation attempts while its latest transparency reports show active user numbers in the EU have flatlined, exposing the tension between growth ambitions and content quality.
How UK Anti-Doping challenged SARMs misinformation online
In our Social Media Marketing Awards finalist series, The Sauce is looking at the campaigns that earned a place on this year's shortlist, the problems they were built to address and the work behind the results. UK Anti-Doping (UKAD) is a finalist in Purpose-Led or Social Impact Campaign of the Year for Clean Sport Week 2026.
TikTok Shop hits $23.4bn in US sales, with creators driving three-quarters of revenue
The platform now exceeds Target's online business as the fastest-growing US retailer for the second consecutive year, rewriting the rules of how products reach buyers and who controls the transaction.
What changed in Instagram Stories for 2026 and what it means for social marketers
Instagram quietly evolved Stories this year with features that fundamentally shift how the format works for brands. Here's what actually matters and what you should do about it.
EU to require platforms prove safety by design before allowing under-13s access
Ursula von der Leyen announced July 13 that the EU will pursue phased, age-gated social media rules this autumn, shifting the burden of proof to platforms rather than imposing Australia-style blanket bans. The approach marks a significant regulatory shift for how brands can reach younger European audiences.
TikTok's follower-first algorithm is killing reach for creators with disengaged audiences
Algorithm changes rolled out in early 2026 now test videos on followers before pushing to the For You page, meaning creators with dormant follower bases are seeing reach collapse even when the content is strong.
Cannes Lions 2026 tells the industry: showing your AI workings is now compulsory
The festival has introduced AI Craft subcategories across its craft-led Lions that require entries to prove AI genuinely changed the outcome, not just that it was used. For social teams making the internal case for AI-assisted content, Cannes just handed them the language to do it.
Why the Algorithm Is Making Your Brand Forgettable, and What to Do About It
Tommy co-founder Marcus Foley took the Social Media Fest stage with a question that stings: how much of what you made last week does anyone actually remember? Here is his Anti-Algorithm Formula.
Social Media Marketing Updates: What Changed This Week
Instagram's non-follower push is intensifying, Meta is tweaking Advantage+ ads, LinkedIn has shifted its feed weighting, and TikTok is leaning harder into search-led content. Here's what social media managers need to know this week.
The Influencer Contract Checklist: Avoid Red Flags In Brand Agreements
A "standard" influencer contract can still hide terms that shift risk onto you. Here's a quick checklist of the clauses that matter most: scope, approvals, usage rights, payment, and more. So, you don't sign away time, money, or control.
The Best Social Media Marketing Resources: The Best Tools and Platforms for Social Media Marketers
We've pulled together social media marketing resources that are actually useful when you already know the basics. It focuses on blogs, content and platforms that publish insight, analysis and thinking grounded in real social media roles, not recycled tips or platform fluff.
Selling ideas has become part of the job, whether social media marketers like it or not
This piece explores how social media roles have evolved into commercial ones, why buy-in is now a core skill, and how the ability to sell ideas internally has become directly linked to career progression, influence and pay.
The Convergence of Social Media Marketing and the Creator Economy and What It Means for Brands and Marketers in 2026
Social media marketing and the creator economy are now structurally linked, shaped by the same platforms, audiences and algorithms. For brands and marketers, this means moving beyond campaign-led thinking to long-term creator partnerships, more human brand content and measuring influence, not just reach. For creators, it requires professionalisation and marketing literacy. In tighter UK and US markets, mastering this intersection is essential for growth in 2026.
What Does a Social Media Manager Actually Do in 2026?
A Social Media Manager in 2026 is a strategic professional responsible for planning, executing and optimising a brand's presence on social platforms, combining content direction, community insight, performance analysis and cross-team influence to drive brand and business outcomes.
The 5 Biggest Algorithm Shifts and What Social Media Pros Need to Do Now (UK & Global)
Social media platforms rarely announce changes in one clear place. Features roll out quietly, tests appear without warning, and behaviour often shifts before anyone officially explains why. This update summarises the most significant algorithm and behaviour changes across social media right now and explains what they mean in practice for social media professionals.
What's New (and What's Next) in Social Media
Luan Wise, Consultant, and Andy Lambert, Adobe, have been co-hosting monthly social media update webinars for over four years - helping marketers stay up-to-date with the latest platform changes and industry trends. We're excited to bring their dynamic double-act to the Social Media Fest stage delivering their insights in person. Ahead of their opening keynote, we caught up with them to find out what's on their radar - and why you won't want to miss their session.
AI Isn't The Enemy - It's Our Ally In Social Media Marketing (But Let's Use It Wisely)
AI is changing social media marketing by making tasks faster and easier, but humans are still critical for keeping the brand voice and emotional connection strong. James Armstrong, Creative Director, Social Firefly dives into the world of AI and what he thinks the best approach is for AI in social media marketing.