😨 Beware non-consensual AI editing!

🔥 Our top 30 Social Media Marketing stories this week

Joshua Parkinson
August 25, 2025

In partnership with

Top Story

Meta rolls out AI voice translation for creators. Facebook creators can now auto-translate their video Reels' voiceovers between English and Spanish, including lip-syncing and auto-matching voice tone. The feature helps marketers reach new audiences with minimal hassle.

This could make global community-building a lot easier, no subtitles needed! 🌎 ~TWISM

Big investors are buying this “unlisted” stock

When the founder who sold his last company to Zillow for $120M starts a new venture, people notice. That’s why the same VCs who backed Uber, Venmo, and eBay also invested in Pacaso.

Disrupting the real estate industry once again, Pacaso’s streamlined platform offers co-ownership of premier properties, revamping the $1.3T vacation home market.

And it works. By handing keys to 2,000+ happy homeowners, Pacaso has already made $110M+ in gross profits in their operating history.

Now, after 41% YoY gross profit growth last year alone, they recently reserved the Nasdaq ticker PCSO.

Invest for $2.90/Share

_{Paid advertisement for Pacaso’s Regulation A offering. Read the offering circular at}_{invest.pacaso.com}_{. Reserving a ticker symbol is not a guarantee that the company will go public. Listing on the NASDAQ is subject to approvals.}

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Instagram

Instagram also rolls out voice translation. Users can now get voice notes translated, helping break down language barriers in DMs and Stories, and it also has the lip sync feature.

This could be huge for creators with international followers! 🌎 ~TWISM

Instagram rolls out virtual pets for Stories. Personalize your Meta avatar with a custom digital pet and show it off in IG Stories or Horizon Worlds. Choose the animal, color, and style; it's all about making your content more playful.

Instagram adds Retention and Skip Rate metrics for Reels. Track when viewers lose interest and see how many skip your Reels in the first three seconds. Optimize openings for better engagement.

Instagram notes go purple for Taylor Swift songs. When you share a Taylor Swift track in Notes, Instagram turns it purple and adds a '❤️‍🔥' emoji to celebrate.

Facebook & Meta

Meta launches AI 'Help me write' for EU Facebook users. EU marketers can now use AI to draft or improve posts right on Facebook.

It's about time Facebook added built-in AI writing help. 🤖✍️ ~TWISM

Meta's AI labs launch, but marketers want ROI. Meta's Superintelligence Labs kicked off July 1, but advertisers are pushing for real results, especially with AI ad tools. They want audience insights and creative help, not just hype or black-box automation.

Meta expands value rules to all campaign objectives. Now you can tweak bids by age, gender, OS, location, and placement for any campaign, not just Sales and App Promotion. But be careful: too many rules can mess up Meta's learning and hurt results.

Meta's hypernova smart glasses could debut at Connect 2025. The $800 "Hypernova" launch may offer a camera, display, and wrist EMG controls, aiming to build on Meta's 73% smart glasses market share.

Threads

Threads now allows you to tag accounts using the browser. You can finally tag people in your photo posts from your browser, not just the app.

Typing is a thing of the past.

Typeless turns your raw, unfiltered voice into beautifully polished writing - in real time.

It works like magic, feels like cheating, and allows your thoughts to flow more freely than ever before.

Your voice is your strength. Typeless turns it into a superpower.

Download for Mac today

YouTube

YouTube uses AI to edit Shorts videos. Shorts may look clearer thanks to new machine learning that unblurs and denoises videos after upload. Yet this feature is highly controversial, since YouTube didn’t ask permission to edit user clips.

YouTube's tinkering behind the scenes. 🥸~TWISM

YouTube Music gets new social and discovery features. Comment on albums and playlists, see upcoming concerts through Bandsintown partnerships, get notified about new releases and merch, and earn fandom badges.

YouTube launches Effect Maker for AR overlays. Design and share interactive augmented reality effects in Shorts, and showcase them on a creator tab.

TikTok

China mocks Trump's new White House TikTok account. China refused to sell TikTok's core algorithm and called out U.S. leaders' hypocrisy. TikTok is scrambling to release a U.S.-only app with a similar algorithm while its future remains uncertain.

Even the White House can't quit TikTok, politics aside. 😂 ~TWISM

TikTok is flooded with AI-generated avatars spreading fake news. A network of 88 accounts used AI to impersonate Latino journalists, spread Spanish-language disinformation, and cash in on Creator Rewards. TikTok removed them, but new accounts quickly popped up.

TikTok rolls out "Viewer Wishes" for creators. Now, fans can submit content requests, giving creators fresh ideas straight from their audience.

TikTok partners with ATP for exclusive tennis content. The deal brings behind-the-scenes footage, player updates, and new creator collaborations to TikTok—aimed at fueling tennis fandom and engagement on the app.

TikTok revamps LIVE subscriptions with more perks. Creators get better revenue share, sub-only posts and Stories, plus new interactive tools like Q&A and bulletin boards. Changes go live September 15.

LinkedIn is flooded with AI-generated content, undermining its credibility. Over half of long posts are AI-assisted, more than 100M fake accounts axed in 2024, and even CEO Ryan Roslansky relies on AI. Real professionals are getting drowned out by bots and bland automation.

When your own CEO brags about using AI for work emails, it's probably time for a reality check. 😉 ~TWISM

LinkedIn limits the reach of automated comments. Comments posted via bots or automation tools now get seen by fewer users as LinkedIn cracks down on fake engagement.

X/Twitter

xAI adds 'Outfits' feature to Grok AI companion Annie. Now you can personalize Annie's appearance with themed outfits, making the AI more engaging for users and brands.

xAI plans risky new companion personas for Grok. X's AI team is developing new Grok bot characters, including a loyal friend, homework helper, doctor, therapist, and even a conspiracist persona. Some options could cause headaches for brands and moderators.

Remember when Musk was anti-AI? 🤨 ~TWISM

Musk plans a huge xAI power-up for Grok. xAI aims to scale up to 50 million Nvidia H100 chips.

X's Android downloads and revenue plummet. X's Google Play downloads dropped 44% YoY in July 2025, cutting total mobile installs by 26%. Subscription revenue also fell from $18.8M in March to $16.9M in July, with poor Android performance driving the decline.

X updates its app icon on iOS. The platform refreshed its iOS app icon. Spot the differences if you're updating soon!

Bluesky

Bluesky shuts down in Mississippi after tough age laws. The platform can't meet broad state requirements to verify every user's age and get parental consent for minors, so it closed access rather than risk huge fines.

Small platforms may struggle to keep up with these regulations. 🧐 ~TWISM

Et cetera

Google plans EU launch for Google AI Mode. European users are about to get direct access to Google's AI features, potentially shaking up how creators and marketers work with its platforms.

EU marketers, keep an eye on those rollout details! 🫣 ~TWISM

Google fined $30M for tracking kids on YouTube. Google will pay $30 million to settle claims it illegally tracked U.S. kids under 13 for targeted ads on YouTube. Parents of eligible children may get $30–$60 each.

US-EU digital trade deal could reshape platform rules. Meta, X, LinkedIn, and other tech giants are waiting on a new US-EU trade agreement that could ease tough European digital regulations. Billions in fines and major compliance headaches are on the line for US-based social platforms.

Why trust matters more than compliance in digital marketing. New privacy rules and AI mean marketers need trust-based strategies, not just box-ticking, to keep up with changing regulations and consumer expectations.

That’s all for this week. Thanks for reading. Now…

Go BIG or go home!

~ Josh from “This Week in Social Media”

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