🥳 Threads joins the party!

🔥 Our top 30 Social Media Marketing stories this week

Joshua Parkinson
July 09, 2025

Top Story

Threads launches DMs and trending topics. You can now message anyone you follow (or mutuals 18+) directly in Threads, with a dedicated inbox and trending topics highlighted in your feed.

Curious to see if this boosts daily engagement. 😍 ~TWISM

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Instagram

Instagram adds Meta AI-powered caption writing. You can now auto-generate Instagram captions with Meta AI, saving time on posts and brainstorming.

Instagram adds Reach and New Follower metrics to Insights. Sort Reels by likes, comments, and saves to see your top performers faster.

This gives creators a better understanding of their audience. 😌 ~TWISM

Instagram adds Spotify song previews to Stories. Now, you can share a song with sound, and followers hear a clip right in the app, not just a link.

Instagram adds a “background generator” for Stories. Easily create unique AI-generated backgrounds to make your Stories stand out.

Facebook & Meta

Facebook Reels adds a built-in copyright check. The composer scans for rights issues before you publish. If it spots a problem, your Reel is held for an hour so you can fix it.

Meta launches global marketing messages for Messenger. Businesses can now send personalized or broadcast promos directly to opted-in users on Messenger.

Meta gives Meta Verified free to selected creators. Some creators are getting Meta Verified for free for a year, with perks like extra support and better account protection.

Meta faces massive EU fines over "pay-or-consent" ads. Meta could pay $150 million weekly for forcing European users to choose between accepting targeted ads or paying €9.99 ($11.75) per month. This would be a violation of EU law because the company does not provide a privacy-friendly option.

Meta offers $480K+ base salaries for AI talent. Top engineers, machine learning leads, and product pros at Meta are pulling massive paychecks, with total compensation skyrocketing thanks to equity and bonuses.

Meta’s going all-in on AI and not afraid to flex its wallet. 😯 ~TWISM

Threads

Threads marks its 2nd birthday with a party hat feature. Celebrate in style: Users can add a party hat overlay to their profiles. Threads now has 350M users and is gaining ground, while Bluesky stalls and X sees declines in the EU.

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YouTube

YouTube rolls out new audience segments and top fans leaderboard. Get detailed analytics on casual and regular viewers, use the expanded 'most relevant' comment filter, and keep fans engaged with live stream leaderboards.

YouTube urges the UK to appoint a Minister for Creators. Only 17% of UK creators feel supported in upskilling, with just 7% saying they can access funding.

Short-form creators, it might finally pay to go vertical! 🤑 ~TWISM

TikTok

TikTok recommends five hashtags. Whether it's videos or photos, TikTok says “maximum five hashtags”, making strategic choices more important.

This could shake up hashtag strategies fast! 😮‍💨 ~TWISM

TikTok expands AI-powered ad tools ahead of potential U.S. ban. TikTok’s Smart+ ad engine now supports goal-based bidding, device targeting, and new auto-audience tools.

TikTok partners with Sukeban for the Anime Expo 2025. TikTok teams up with the Japanese women’s wrestling league Sukeban to deliver exclusive content and live fan experiences at Anime Expo 2025 in LA.

TikTok launches brand consideration ads. Target users in the mid-funnel who show intent to buy, using 8+ signals.

TikTok bans #SkinnyTok hashtag. In response to pressure about eating disorder content, TikTok blocked the hashtag, but critics argue that the real issue is its recommendation algorithm.

LinkedIn expands link engagement insights for premium users. Now you can see clicks for all links in your posts, not just your Custom Button.

LinkedIn launches new analytics API for third-party tools. Now you can see your LinkedIn post metrics right inside dashboards like Hootsuite, Buffer, Later, and more.

This is huge for creators who always felt left out by LinkedIn’s analytics. 🎉 ~TWISM

X/Twitter

X lets AI bots write Community Notes. Developers can now build bots to generate fact-checks, which human contributors will review before posts go live.

Without safer spaces and better creator compensation, X might keep losing ground. 😬 ~TWISM

X hires 'king of virality' as new head of product. Nikita Bier, creator of viral apps tbh and Gas, is joining X to help attract younger users with fresh features and youth-centric appeal.

X wins Australian free speech court case. X successfully overturned a government order to delete a post criticizing a transgender public figure, with the court finding it didn’t qualify as cyber abuse.

Et cetera

Snapchat hits 250 million users in India. India is now Snapchat’s largest market, with over a quarter of the app’s global user base and 80% of users engaging with AR daily.

Substack adds new live streaming tools. You’ll get automatic promo assets, easy guest invites, and instant video clips that can go straight to YouTube.

Telegram adds checklists, paid posts, and more for creators. Premium users can create interactive checklists, while everyone can suggest channel posts and fund them with Telegram Stars or Toncoin.

Reddit rolls out automated ad optimization tips. Advertisers now get data-driven suggestions and an "Optimization Score" in Ad Manager, making it easier to boost campaign performance on Reddit.

Cloudflare blocks AI crawlers by default. New Cloudflare setups now automatically block bots like ChatGPT, Gemini, and Claude from crawling your site unless you change the setting.

So SEO is going to be IN again? 🥲 ~TWISM

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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