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Meta AI Goes Worldwide

In February of this year, Meta AI launched its chatbot to users in the Middle East and Africa. Meta wanted to influence the utilization of Meta AI, hence this expansion, allowing "millions of users across the region [to] have unlimited free access to one of the world’s most advanced AI assistants conveniently located in the apps you know and love, like Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and Messenger" (Meta).

The expansion is a significant milestone for Meta's AI goals, as it connects the next billion users through its AI tools. Indeed, Meta reports that 700 million users utilize Meta AI each month, up from 400 million in September of last year (SocialMediaToday).

To interact with Meta AI, users can tag @meta in a chat on any Meta application such as Instagram, WhatsApp, and Messenger. In addition, Meta announced that Meta AI has been made available in 42 countries including 13 languages, with around 700 million users across all the apps previously mentioned, making big steps worldwide.

In addition to the "Imagine Me' feature where personalized AI portraits are fabricated based on real images, Meta AI is introducing tools for image editing and dubbing for Reels (TechCrunch). Incorporating Meta AI could be a good tactic in an attempt to gain back some Gen Z users especially on Facebook. With Meta AI, time spent on Facebook could stop diminishing "while also giving it another lucrative method for delivering ads, killing two birds with one stone" (Emarketer). There are essentially no bounds to what Meta AI can, and will soon be able, to do. And soon enough, we'll find out if the launch and development of Meta AI will have an impact on user growth and engagement.

As per the Emarketer chart above, it is noted that 50% of Gen Z would pay more attention to ads with AI high quality visuals or graphics. In addition, a smaller percentage (29%) of Gen Z cares about knowing whether AI was used to create it compared to Millenial's at 32%.

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Meta and Gen Z

Meta just recently shared some insights on Gen Z's content consumption habits in order to help brands learn more about how to connect with them.

To begin these insights, Meta collaborated with BAMM Global to conduct surveys across the globe to gain more insight into the social media habits and and motivations of 18-24 year olds (SocialMediaToday). This research led Meta to three key findings that they believe all brands should utilize when maximizing impact for promotional and branding efforts.

Platform Preferences

The Value of Sharing

Content Consumption

Gen Z's prefer Instagram, TikTok, and Snapchat--apps that offer visual and interactive content as well as rapid, consumable, and shareable information. Short-form videos like Reels and TikToks are especially appealing to Gen Z where 78% of them say they discover new items or companies (OneCore).

Meta found that "67% of Gen Z Facebook and IG users have shared video content in those apps with family and friends" (SocialMediaToday).

As you can see from this report, the percentage of sharing behavior on Instagram is increasing, which explains why Instagram now prioritizes shares/sends in its algorithmic ranking.

Meta also mentions a major shift in our interactive behavior (Meta).

“Sharing videos and memes has become a love language - an intimate gift for Gen Z to send loved ones throughout the day, letting them know they care. Perpetually seeking videos and memes that reflect their personal feelings in any given moment has invariably reshaped their relationship with content, and Gen Z has a more intimate connection with it in social media as a result.”

This tells brands that Gen Z users are searching for shareable content, which could help spread brands' messages.

The information brands need to survive in this digital age prove vital in this Meta report. Since Gen Z is the largest generation in the world at this moment it's important for brands to acclimate. According to Emarketer, "by 2027, there will be a combined 135.5 million Gen Z and millennial social network users in the US, over half of total US social network users."

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Meta Makes a Deal with UFC

In the world of sports we discover that Meta signed a new multimillion dollar partnership with UFC "making Meta its “official fan technology partner,” per CNBC" (Emarketer). The deal incorporates Meta throughout UFC's Octagon ring and showcasing UFC through Meta products like Instagram, Facebook, Threads, Meta AI, Meta Glasses, etc (BusinessWire). This new partnership is both political as much as it is strategic and is an attempt to further immerse fans deeper into UFC content. This partnership is Zuckerberg's attempt to better align with the Trump Administration (SocialMediaToday).

Sports is the next big talk amongst the streaming landscape and brands are jumping at leagues knowing the growth potential that the sports world offers. In addition to watching sports, fans like to engage and communicate online with other fellow fans through social media--sparking UFC's first Official Fan Technology Partner: Meta. According to Emarketer, "UFC fans are overwhelmingly male—up to 90% of viewers—and about 60% are between the ages of 25-44, a highly sought after bracket because they tend to have significant disposable income, per Cage Walks. This makes them valuable additions to Meta’s advertising ecosystem." Meta is grasping an untouched market within the UFC world, seizing the opportunity to broaden engagement with this integration.

A large part of of UFC integration within Meta's products will seemingly be VR, where UFC fans can access the Octagon via advanced technology. In addition, “Meta’s Threads will feature exclusive UFC content and will be referenced in live UFC broadcasts” prompting a major shift from X to Threads (SocialMediaToday). If UFC begins posting more exclusive content on Threads instead of X, like suggested, users would start the UFC fan migration from X to Threads, proving to be a significant step in their marketing ecosystem. This modern take on sports advertising is something that traditional marketing cannot match.

Meta has already stepped into a new realm of advertising and this new partnership with UFC is their first step into revolutionizing the advertising landscape within social media platforms. I believe we're gonna see some significant changes to the Metaverse and potentially see the user count rise as UFC fans shift from X to Threads.

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What Time is The Best to Post on Social Media Apps?

Posting on social media--whether you're a business or an influencer--has become a strategic game. Besides quality content, it's important to consider what time you're posting your content for views and maximum engagement. There is no set time but there are averages worth looking at.

Best Times to Post on Instagram:

"Between 3pm and 9pm on Monday

Between 5am to 8am Tuesday

Between 3pm and 7pm Tuesday

Between 5pm and 7pm on Thursdays"

During these times, people are commuting and looking for something to fill their time with--an important consideration when deciding what time to post (SocialMediaToday).

Best Times to Post on TikTok:

Restaurant owners don't have the same schedule as stay-at-home parents do, so depending on your target audience, timing is everything. On the TikTok for you page, the content you see is usually no later than a few days old. According to HootSuite, the best times to post on TikTok are "Monday midday (12 – 2 pm) and Saturday evening (10 pm – 12 am)." Determining when your audience is doom scrolling can make or break your engagement.

Timing Isn't Everything!

Everyday the influencer landscape increases, making it harder to stand out. Consistency and which platform you're posting on are also important aspects to consider. Each social media platform algorithm is different, with TikTok encouraging 1-4 posts per day and Instagram requiring consistency over posting frequently. If you're aiming for more engaging content, post on TikTok. If you're creating events and posters, Instagram is more suitable as suggested in the Emarketer chart below.

If your target audience is 18-29 year olds, aim towards posting on TikTok, Snapchat, and Instagram. On the other hand, if you're targeting an older audience, posting on Facebook and LinkedIn would be more beneficial.

Overall, there are a lot of aspects to consider when attempting to become a creator on social media. From the time you post, to consistency, and which media platform, you must think about all these factors for your business/account if you want to grow. It's relevance within the social media sector is important because articles like these drive more creators to post more often, creating a cluttered environment. Although difficult for creators, more clutter means more money driving into that platform. Everyone's trying to win, but at the end of the day it's the platform that cuts their own check.

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TikTok Shop Excels

TikTok is not only robbing our time, but also our money. They feed off our short attention spans and then decide to put a store in the app where shopping is a like, comment, and a payment away. This is what we now know as TikTok Shop.

The TikTok shop caters to YOU. It's almost like when your mom reads your mind and knows exactly what you want; but instead its TikTok--an app on your phone. TikTok molds all your interests and desires into a single app, providing it with a competitive edge over its competitors (SocialMediaToday). In TikTok's 27 page ECommerce report, they mention how “Unlike other platforms that rely on a social graph, TikTok leverages an interest graph to connect with both people and brands." This allows for users to experience a curated shop based on their personal interests and interactions on TikTok. It's the dream shop you've always wanted right at your fingertips.

TikTok's rapid ability to disrupt our daily lives and it's competitors increases everyday. TikTok's algorithm is the best, it's shop is the best, it's trends are the best, etc. As shown in Emarketer, TikTok has the highest percentage of users who are buyers than any other platform. Not only TikTok "better," but it excels over its competitors.

Everytime you go to the app for a recommendation, it takes note and inputs that data into TikTok shop. Everytime you search for a review of a product--even though usually the creator is being paid a commision to lie about the product--TikTok uses this information to curate your own personalized shop. 62% of U.S. adults use TikTok purely for recommendations and reviews (PewResearch). In comparison, Instagram lies at a 44% and Facebook lies at a mere 37%. TikTok seems to be dominating the social media space right now. What will they dominate next?

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Americans Trust and Receive news from Social Media Influencers

Thanks to social media, especially X and TikTok, it has never been easier to publish information for millions to see. It can be a great source for current events if you're trying to educate yourself, but is it that trustworthy? According to Emarketer, over 20% of adults get their news from social media influencers.

That means that one in five US adults regularly retrieve their news from social media. In addition, it's been researched that 65% of Americans feel as though these news influencers create an efficient, more comprehensible understanding of current events and civic issues. Just in case you were wondering, the term "news Influencer" refers to individuals who frequently post about current events and civic issues on social media (PewResearch).

"News influencers have a knack for explaining complex topics in a way that is digestible and easy to understand" for mass audiences (Forbes). People like to view such videos as if it were a regular Facetime call with a friend alluding to a more casual, welcoming interaction. Often with regular news, people feel spoken at rather than spoken with.

The most notable event in which these news influencer showed up on everyone's FYP (for you pages) was during the TikTok ban. During the ban, creators based in Washington D.C. jumped on the TikTok news and gave real-time updates standing outside the Supreme Court for their thousands of followers. Sarah Baus is a TikToker known for her lifestyle content and during the ban she had become a citizen journalist, reporting real-time updates on the TikTok ban. Not based in Washington D.C, Sarah had flew over just to cover live news on the TikTok ban and she even attended a press conference! With social media, news becomes instantaneous, fabricating a space for individuals to trust and receive news from social media.

In other current world events where adults followed a news influencer, a Gen Z influencer that successfully went viral on TikTok for live news coverage is named Aaron Parnas. Aaron gained over a million followers on TikTok due to his real-time coverage on the invasion in Ukraine, thanks to his Uncle feeding him updates who was on the ground during it all.

"He would tell me what's happening in front of his house, and I would report it on TikTok. Forty-five minutes later, one of the big journalists would verify my reporting on their own station" (Forbes).

Technology's innovation over the years has created a new world of reporting and journalism that has kept millions informed about current events worldwide. Will news remain steadfast as their own platforms or will they take to social media like TikTok and leave their individual platform to die off? The reason we're seeing news outlets move to TikTok is because of the millions of people that TikTok attracts. Yet news outlets still can't seem to get a grasp on mass audiences because they haven't built the same trust that creators on the app have with their followers. Seeing as the percentage of U.S adults who get news from influencers increase, it's only a matter of time before the statistics become worldwide.

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Where's TikTok Going?

As of now, TikTok has been revived since its initial ban that was only a few weeks ago. On January 18th midday, hours before the official TikTok ban, TikTok went dark and left users a message.

As soon as the ban took place, TikTok was no longer available in any App/Google Play store and to this day, February 7th, it is still the same. Luckily, those who kept the app downloaded received access back just 12 hours after the initial ban. Thanks to President Trump's 75-day extension for the app, users have been able to use TikTok freely. Technically, the TikTok app shouldn't legally be functioning on people phones, hence its disappearance on all App/Play Stores. In attempts to find an American buyer, TikTok is still running on a timer and will be shut down unless further action is taken.

This big decision puts an extension on the thousands of Americans employed by this app to either do whatever they can to save it, or start looking for a "regular" job... no more free PR or vacation trips! Albeit TikTok has its downfalls, creating shorter attention-spans and hours of time wasted; it still offers smaller creators and businesses mass support. People share secret spots they enjoy or art they create, providing an artistic outlet and following. Despite this, in lue of TikTok's absence, Instagram has offered a bonus to those who exclusively post reels, according to The Information. These bonuses can go all the way from $10,000-$50,000 a month, requiring creators to post their short-form content videos on instagram before posting anywhere else.

One of the big questions looming over everyone's heads is whether or not TikTok will be the same after the big sellout. In my humble opinion, I think that just like the demise of vine and musical.ly, we will find another form of media that feeds our desires just the same, if not moreso. As consumers, we've already discovered apps like RedNote and Lemon8 that are similar to TikTok. I believe we need a new app to satiate our ever changing, constant need for content creation, interaction, and sharing. TikTok was already on its way to enshittification. (enshittification: how platforms die.)

Other resources:

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My sector is Social Media.

I will be following Social Media Today, The Verge, and Vox.