October Social Media Digest

We hope that the spookiest holiday of the year did not scare you away and you’re ready for the hottest social media news of October 2022. Amidst the pre-holiday shopping rush, we are still here with our monthly digest. 

Meta is looking to provide new opportunities for people to connect 

Meta has created a new real-time speech translation based on Artificial Intelligence to eliminate language barriers in the metaverse. For now, it translates the Hokkien into English and does one full sentence at a time. The new process will eliminate the need for transcription. The new technique is one more step to bring people together in the metaverse by enabling broader communication. Simply put, audio translation is supposedly going to facilitate the metaverse experience since everybody will get a chance to speak a native language.  

More Details: https://www.socialmediatoday.com/news/Meta-Develops-Speech-to-Speech-Real-Time-Audio-Translation/634523/ 

Instagram adds new safety tools 

At the end of last month, the app users received more control over their profiles. Now blocking unwanted followers becomes easier. Advanced blocking now allows you to block not only the user you don’t want to be following you but also all other subsequent accounts created by that user using the person’s IP. All the previously created accounts will be taken care of too by providing an option to block all other accounts.  

The improved ‘Hidden Words’ feature, which is automatically activated, will block certain terms you chose and automatically move direct messages containing them to filtered folders. The platform is also improving its detection of potentially offensive comments even if the words are deliberately misspelled.  

More Details: https://www.socialmediatoday.com/news/Instagram-Adds-Safety-Features-Improved-Blocking-Hidden-Words/634637/ 

LinkedIn improves accessibility 

In October the platform rolled out a couple of new features to improve accessibility. Adding new auto-captions is aimed at maximizing inclusion. Now, while uploading a video you can see an option to add auto-captions to your video. You can add them once they are available, or you can review them later. It’s a great help to users with hearing problems and those who watch a video with a sound off. What’s more, now you can also adjust colors to improve your interaction with an app if you’re a visually impaired user. 

More Details: https://www.socialmediatoday.com/news/LinkedIn-Adds-Accessibility-Features-Auto-Captions/634643/ 

Twitter rolls out a useful feature for professional accounts 

The professional accounts can now add a URL and a Call to Action to their profile. The new feature – ‘Link Spotlight’ is now available for professional accounts in the US. As soon as you select this option in your profile, you can provide a destination URL and choose a CTA button. CTA provides a bunch or options like ‘make a reservation’, ‘book an appointment’, ‘watch now’, ‘see now’, and many more, aimed at providing referral traffic. Once you activate it, the CTA button will be shown above our timeline. Link Spotlight allows you to choose one of the 34 domains as an option. Though you cannot link your website link which is a bit disappointing.  

More Details: https://www.socialmediatoday.com/news/Twitter-Launches-Link-Spotlight-CTA-Button-for-Professional-Accounts/634007/ 

TikTok launches a mode for images and launches new editing tools 

Last month TikTok also launched a Photo Mode in addition to all the functionality of IG on Instagram. In fact, it is a carousel of still images that a user can scroll. A user can add a series of images and choose the soundtrack. It opens new creative opportunities for creators and might even spark new trends, but it looks like TikTok is just trying to slap Instagram in the face. New editing tools and longer captions are also available now. From now on creators have up to 2,200 characters to express themselves. 

More Details: https://www.socialmediatoday.com/news/TikTok-Adds-Photo-Mode-for-Still-Images-Longer-Video-Captions/633663/ 

November will probably bring us new shopping events and opportunities. But for know you’ve got plenty of updates to embed into your marketing strategy. Don’t forget to subscribe to VAfromEurope monthly digest.