November social media round-up

November has been a comparatively quiet month for social media in the run-up to the festive season (apart from Elon Musk explicitly telling companies pulling their ads from X what he thinks of them).

But with the world of AI evolving at an ever-increasing rate, this month we're focusing on how social media companies are integrating AI tools in their platforms, with a handful of exciting new developments announced in November.

Head below for the latest AI experiments from Instagram, Facebook, YouTube and TikTok (plus some other new updates thrown in for good measure).

Instagram adds new tools for content creation

Instagram has released its latest improvements to help creators express their creativity and connect with their audiences. These include new editing tools like text-to-speech voices, updated text and fonts, and the ability to add viral clips from their new Media Clip hub; as well as improved insights on plays, replays and watch time for Reels.

They are also testing the ability to create custom stickers from photos and videos, using learning from their 'Segment Anything' AI model to cut out selected elements from images (from camera roll and eligible content from other users).

Top tip: These new tools - especially the Media Clip hub and custom stickers - are a great way to easily tap into viral moments and memes, adding them to the content you're creating to boost engagement and expand your reach organically.

Facebook is introducing A/B testing for Reels

Facebook is rolling out a tool that allows creators to test up to four different captions and thumbnails for their Reels, to see which performs best and then display the most popular variant.

Experiments are also being done to incorporate a generative AI - like ChatGPT - to help users create different caption and thumbnail options to test. It's not confirmed yet, but we'd guess that this will also come to Instagram before too long!

Top tip: Testing and analysing the performance of marketing comms - be it social posts, emails or push notifications -  can help improve their reach and effectiveness. Tools like this, particularly with AI suggestions, could help make it even easier to optimise your content and messaging.

YouTube testing new AI tools for users

These are all in the early stages, but YouTube is experimenting with AI in several ways. These include using a tool to summarise comment topics and organise them into easily digestible themes, a conversational AI to provide answers about the video being watched and recommendations for related content.

Perhaps most exciting is the launch of 'Dream Track', which allows creators to auto-generate tracks of up to 30 seconds in the voice and style of a participating artist (which includes Charli XCX, Sia, T-Pain, Charlie Puth, John Legend and Demi Lovato) to soundtrack their Shorts.

Top tip: Short-form video itself is the most popular marketing trend in 2023, and while other platforms may be more relevant for event promotion, the growing popularity of YouTube Shorts and new creative tools to help make engaging content could be a simple but effective way to broaden the reach of your brand.  

TikTok adds conversational UI to help guide algorithms

TikTok is also using a ChatGPT-style conversational AI as part of their new 'Customize Feed' option, allowing users to outline what they'd like to see more or less of in their 'For You' page, whether permanently or just for a selected period. Ultimately, this is a way for TikTok to strengthen its algorithm and help show more relevant content to users' tastes, while giving users a degree of control over the process.

Top Tip: While the TikTok algorithm can be a mystery, researching trends, delving into the wealth of resources that TikTok provides for inspiration, and exploring the content that is most relevant to your target audience is the best way to engage with them (in a way that feels authentic to your brand).

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