Threads Rises to 130M Users, Seeing Steady Growth
Threads is growing, and engagement within Meta’s Twitter clone is on the rise, according to the latest insight shared by Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg as part of the company’s Q4 2023 earnings announcement. Zuckerberg said that Threads now has 130 million monthly active users, and is growing steadily.
Our Take: It’s less than a year old, but these are pretty impressive numbers.
Which Super Bowl Ads Drove the Biggest Online Response?
The Super Bowl ads competition is the most expensive battleground in the ad industry, and every year, all the big players roll out any number of celebrity-led initiatives designed to grab attention, and shift units as a result. But which campaigns actually did that this time around? This provides some additional context. The team from SEMRush has put together an overview of which brands saw the biggest increases in Google search activity as a result of their Super Bowl campaigns, along with those that saw the biggest increases in social media engagement around the event.
Our Take: Hear our take on the best (and worst) of this year’s Super Bowl ads here.
Meta Shares Insights Into How the Threads Feed Algorithms Work
As Threads continues to gain momentum, with the platform now up to 130 million active users, more brands are also testing the waters, and seeing what sort of engagement they can drive in the new app. Meta recently sharing an overview of its Threads algorithm, and how the system decides what posts get seen in the app, and how that drives expanded reach.
Our Take: You can’t play the game if you don’t know the rules, this is welcome news.
Threads Launches Initial Test of Trending Topics to Users in the US
As per Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, the Threads team is still ironing out the details, but soon, there will be a version of Trending Topics within Threads, which it’s calling “Today’s Topics”, which will help users engage in more conversations of broad interest in the app.
Our Take: Finally.
Threads Tests Post Drafts and Integrated Camera In-Stream
After testing out post drafts internally over the past few weeks, the Threads team has now launched a live test of the option with selected users, while it’s also added an integrated camera function, and a new pathway to challenge its moderation rulings.
Our Take: Threads has been rolling out new features at a pretty rapid pace the past couple of months, things they probably wish they had present at their rushed launch last summer.
Meta Tests Cross-Posting Between Facebook and Threads
This week, Meta has begun a new test or cross-posting between Facebook and Threads, with some users now being promoted to share their Facebook updates to the new, Twitter-like app.
Our Take: We called this months ago, expect more integrated options and features among the Meta universe of Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and Threads.
LinkedIn Adds More AI-Powered Options to Its Recruiter Platform
LinkedIn has unveiled some new AI-powered elements for its Recruiter HR platform, including conversational prompts to help build recruiting projects, improved recruitment process tracking, and AI recommendations for titles and skills in job ads.
Our Take: Yes, even LinkedIn is getting in on the AI craze. If you’ve ever used LinkedIn for recruiting purposes, this is probably welcome news. It can be a beast.
Google and Meta Explore New Ways To Moderate AI Responses, and Whether They Should
How much protectionism is too much in generative AI, and what say should big tech providers, or indeed anybody else, actually have in moderating AI system responses? The question has become a new focus in the broader Gen AI discussion after Google’s Gemini AI system was found to be producing both inaccurate and racially biased responses, while also providing confusing answers to semi-controversial questions, like, for example, “Who’s impact on society was worse: Elon Musk or Adolf Hitler?” Google has long advised caution in AI development, in order to avoid negative impacts, and even derided OpenAI for moving too fast with its launch of generative AI tools. But now, it seems that the company may have gone too far in trying to implement more guardrails around generative AI responses,
Our Take: If last year was “The Year of AI”, this year will easily be “The Year of How To Responsibly Manage AI”.
Meta Plans to Showcase Its Next-Gen AR Glasses Later This Year
With hype around Apple’s Vision Pro sparking more interest in AR and mixed reality, Meta is now looking to take the next steps with its AR glasses project, with reports that Zuck and Co. will unveil their next-gen AR glasses prototype at the company’s Connect conference later this year. According to a new report from Business Insider, Meta will look to provide a live demo to showcase its advancements in AR tech, though the glasses won’t be commercially available this year.
Our Take: Remember Google Glasses? Ahead of their time!
Instagram Tests Live-Stream Games to Enhance Engagement
Instagram’s testing out some new options to help spice up your live-streams in the app, with some live broadcasters now able to select a game that they can play with viewers in-stream.
Our Take: Twitch could use some competition. It feels like a social platform would be a natural fit for something like this, but so far none of the big boys, including Facebook or YouTube, have completely figured this one out. Gaming streams as a medium are a huge opportunity for advertisers looking to get in front of a larger demographic than you probably think.
