Learn from the top-performing brands on TikTok

Hello and welcome to this week’s Social Buddy newsletter, where we share the news from the world of social media, insights and tools for creators, and the latest social media marketing trends. 

Some highlights you’ll find this week: 

🏅 Engage with the Olympics on social media platforms like Snapchat and TikTok

📊 TikTok continues to offer more tools for SMBs on their platform

📲 Meta tests new features on Instagram and Threads to improve user engagement 

Check out the biggest headlines from this week in social media: 

TikTok launches an App Center to help business users improve their performance

TikTok for Business continues to grow its resources with a new App Center focused on helping small and medium sized businesses maximize their presence on the app. The App Center provides a collection of recommended third-party apps to help business users improve their TikTok presence, “making it easier than ever for advertisers to navigate their entire journey from ideation to publishing to reporting”. The tools are broken into various categories based on your business and goals, including e-commerce solutions, creative tools, lead generation, and more. TikTok’s App Center aims to provide “lightweight solutions” for creators rather than larger, comprehensive tools. Read more. 

Threads hits 200M users milestone, continues testing updates to improve engagement 

Meta’s Threads app has hit the 200 million user milestone just a month after celebrating one year of the app’s launch. We’ve been keeping up with Threads feature updates all summer as they continue to try to boost engagement on the app and draw in more creators. The latest update is a new topic discovery feature, a blue label that flags a trending topic above posts related to that topic. If you see a post related to say, the Olympics, you now may see a blue “Olympics” label above the post that will show you recent, related posts on the same topic. This feature comes as Threads continues to compete with X  - but Threads is still avoiding political topics on its app, which may limit their ability to get users engaging on timely and trending topics. Read more.

Snapchat offers AR Experiences in partnership with the Olympic Games

Snapchat is celebrating the Olympics and working to drive user engagement around the games. They’ve partnered with the International Olympic Committee to offer augmented reality lenses, some showing users a view of the 1924 Yves-du-Manoir stadium from when the Olympics were last held in Paris 100 years ago. Other Olympic features include Team USA athlete bitmojis, a host of themed filters and stickers, and Olympic Highlights thanks to their partnership with NBCUniversal. While some have been watching the Olympics through TikTok, you can check out these special features only on Snapchat. Read more.

Learn from the top performing brands on TikTok with a new comprehensive report

CreatorIQ partnered with TikTok to analyze and report on how the top brands using the app have been able to find success. The report focuses largely on how brands use “the authentic and trusted voice of its creators” to best market themselves on the app, including statistics on how to gain users trust and increase engagement. The report also provides a list of the top brands based on EMV - earned media value. The top five brands according to the report are Amazon, the NBA, the NFL, Sephora, and Fortnite, and you can view the full top 100 in the report, which is free to access. Read more.

Applications and registration opens for the Forbes Inaugural Creator Upfronts this fall

Forbes announced in June that they would host the first “Creator Upfronts” in partnership with Walmart Creator. The event aims to reinvent the TV Upfront model for social media creators, assembling creators and marketers as well as brands. The Upfronts will include presentations from creators showcasing their process and strategies, and will give creators, brands, and marketers the chance to connect and potentially collaborate in the future. The Forbes Creator Upfronts will be held in Los Angeles in October, and registration and applications are now open. The application is meant for creators with 50,000 to 1M+ followers, as well as marketers or agencies. Read more.

Instagram continues to expand its Notes features

Two weeks ago, we reported on the latest in Instagram Notes, and the feature continues to grow. As a refresher, Notes are comments from your mutuals that appear on posts for three days, with the goal of driving more connection and engagement on Instagram. Now, Instagram is testing out a filter in the Reels tab so that users can seek out only Reels that have Notes included. Some users have already found the Notes filter in the same drop-down where they can select the “For You” or “Nearby” Reels feeds. Notes have been most popular with younger users and teens, a demographic that Instagram has been trying to win back from TikTok. Read more.

Also in the news this week: 

• Pinterest is testing a new ad auction system for publishers and news outlets with potential for better targeting and ad placements.

• A new survey found that 55% of Gen Z shoppers have made an online purchase while browsing social media in the last 6 months.

• Instagram now prompts you to create a group chat when you tag 2 or more people on a Story.

• The US DOJ is suing TikTok and ByteDance for allegedly violating a child privacy law.

• Reddit acquired creative optimization company MemorableAI, using AI to improve ad campaigns.

• LinkedIn launches page verification for businesses and organizations.

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Until next week,

Social Buddy