🫣 Careful what your AI fella says!

🔥 Our top 32 Social Media Marketing stories this week

Joshua Parkinson
August 18, 2025

In partnership with

Top Story

xAI is kicked from the Federal AI deal after the Grok scandal. xAI lost its chance to power U.S. government AI tools when its chatbot Grok praised Hitler on X.

This is a huge reputational blow. 😮‍💨 ~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 behind Uber and eBay also backed Pacaso. They made $110M+ in gross profit to date. They even reserved the Nasdaq ticker PCSO. Now, you can join, too.

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 may add a screenshot KPI to replace the”Save” KPI . Marketers might soon track post screenshots as a key metric, or see it side-by-side with Saves in analytics.

Instagram upsizes main feed posts to 1080x1440. Standard and carousel posts can now be taller, matching Reels previews. More vertical space helps your content grab eyes in the feed.

Instagram boosts growth when you post more often, Buffer study finds. Buffer’s analysis of 2M posts found that accounts sharing 3–5 times a week doubled follower growth. Posting 10 times weekly raised average reach per post by 24%.

Facebook & Meta

Meta cuts more detailed ad targeting options. Starting January 15, 2026, Meta will remove or consolidate even more manual targeting options, pushing advertisers to rely on AI-powered targeting on Facebook and Instagram.

Meta really wants us to trust their AI; that's a big shift for ad buyers! 🤔 ~TWISM

Meta shares AI tips for better ads. Meta claims 2M businesses now use AI video tools, with brands like Ben & Jerry’s cutting their costs and boosting clicks.

Meta’s Q2 revenue jumps 22% as AI ad tools boost conversions. Smarter AI-driven ads and viral Reels are driving Facebook and Instagram success. Meta pulled in $47.5B while investors embrace their shift from social network to AI powerhouse.

Meta’s AI chatbot rulebook for kids leaked. An internal document showed Meta once allowed its AI chatbots to have 'sensual' conversations with children and spread false or offensive information.

Meta AI chatbot roleplay leads to real-world tragedy. A flirty Meta AI chatbot convinced a cognitively impaired retiree to travel to New York, where he suffered fatal injuries.

Threads

Threads passes 400M users, challenges X. Threads is quickly gaining market share and closing the gap with X, making it a serious contender for real-time conversations.

The comeback is real! 🔥 ~TWISM

Threads adds automatic numbering for multi-post threads. No more typing "1/3"—the platform now numbers your posts for you.

Threads lets users mute custom feed notifications. Stop getting alerts every time someone adds you to their “Custom Feed.”

Threads tests ghost posts for private sharing. Soon, you might share posts seen only by yourself or select users.

YouTube

YouTube Music adds 'trim silence' to podcasts. Android users can now toggle a button to auto-skip silent gaps in podcasts, making listening more efficient. The feature works for both free and Premium members, but iPhone users still have to wait.

YouTube is trying to become the podcast king, too! 👑 ~TWISM

YouTube Music tests daily discover Carousel. Swipe through new tracks picked just for you, with big album art and reasons why each song was chosen. The "Play all" button means instant discovery for music fans on Android and iOS.

YouTube adds new CTA buttons and more images for Community Posts. Now you can include up to 10 images in a Community Post, and Promote campaigns feature extra CTA buttons like “Book Now” and “Get Quote”. Video translations stay accurate even after edits.

YouTube adds custom app promotions for Shorts. Shorts creators can now earn money by displaying app promotions with custom call-to-action panels on their clips.

TikTok

TikTok limits posts to five hashtags. Creators can now add a maximum of five hashtags per video, aiming to cut spam and boost content relevance.

Time to ditch hashtag stuffing, quality over quantity is the new game! 😅 ~TWISM

TikTok overhauls community guidelines for creators and commenters. From Sept. 13, TikTok will clarify rules and expand what counts as violations (especially in LIVE sessions and comments).

TikTok “clippers” cash in on viral edits. Brands and creators now hire editors to chop long videos into short, viral clips—some making up to $30K a month.

LinkedIn nudges you when posts bring new profile views. Now you’ll get notifications when your posts attract profile viewers, new followers, or more impressions, sent 3 and 7 days after posting.

This extra feedback loop is super handy for anyone tracking what actually grows their LinkedIn presence! 👀 ~TWISM

LinkedIn updates celebration post graphics. Choose from 16 new animated graphics to make job, project, or anniversary posts feel more personal and vibrant.

LinkedIn expands access to AI-powered job summaries. Recruiters in the U.K., India, and Australia can now auto-generate skill-based job descriptions using AI.

LinkedIn launches event ad boosts for influencer posts. Brands can now sponsor member posts that link directly to LinkedIn events.

LinkedIn opens newsletters to everyone, unveils SMB perks. Every user can now publish newsletters, with no more follower or Creator Mode barriers.

X/Twitter

X adds video quality selection to the mobile app. Now you can choose your video upload quality straight from your phone, not just your desktop.

Ex-Twitter CEO launches AI startup after Elon drama. With $30M in funding, his new company Parallel builds tools for AI agents to score online info by reliability.

X rolls out Grok translation to all U.S. users. X now uses its own Grok AI to automatically translate in-stream posts from most languages.

Et cetera

LTK and ShopMy add social features to challenge traditional platforms. Affiliate marketing platforms LTK and ShopMy now offer public profiles, AI search, feeds, and messaging.

Marketers, don’t sleep on social commerce's next wave! 🔥 ~TWISM

Big Tech CEOs boost personal security spending in 2024. Meta spent $27M protecting Mark Zuckerberg and his family, with industry security costs topping $45M.

Reddit power users attract B2B marketers. These well-educated millennials have high incomes, love productivity tools, and influence real business decisions.

McDonaldland relaunches with Gen Z-focused campaign. The 22-year comeback uses Instagram Live, YouTube, TikTok, AR Lenses and Fortnite to reach younger audiences.

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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