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Bluesky Adds Verification Checkmarks for Approved Users
Bluesky’s actually handing that responsibility to trusted providers as well, meaning that selected, approved entities will be able to award their own blue ticks in the app.
Nikhil Wad
April 25, 2025
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Meta has published some new insights into the content consumption habits of Gen Z, and how marketers need to align with these shifts in order to maximize the impact of their promotional and branding efforts. In collaboration with BAMM Global, Meta conducted surveys to glean more insight into the social media habits and motivations of 18 to 24-year-olds in Brazil, Germany, Japan, the U.K. and the U.S. Those insights have led to three key findings, which Meta says that all brands looking to connect with Gen Z audiences need to consider.
Instagram Implements Expanded AI Age Checking, New Parent Prompts
Instagram’s expanding its AI age-checking process, in order to ensure more teens are using its various safety measures and systems, while it’s also rolling out new notifications for parents to help ensure their teens are aware of online risks. Which, given the rising discussion of increased social media age limits, could end up being an important push from the app. First off, on AI age testing. Over the past couple of years, Instagram has been gradually advancing its age-checking systems, with new processes that can detect signals which could indicate that a young user has lied about their age. It’s now expanding this, with improved AI systems that can factor in more elements, in order to better assess the age of an account user.
Wistia analyzed millions of videos so you don’t have to
Wistia, a leading video marketing platform for businesses, just released their fifth annual State of Video Report. The report, based on insights from over 14 million videos, and 100,000 businesses, brings you the latest video tips, trends, and insights. Download a copy to…
See how your videos perform against industry benchmarks
Learn which kinds of videos get the most engagement so you can make more of them
Find out how to scale your video strategy for less $$ with AI
Plus, it’s actually fun to read. How many reports can you say that about?
Pinterest Adds New Elements to its Pinterest Academy Learning Platform
Looking to get a better handle on Pinterest for your marketing efforts? The platform has been on a steady rise over the past couple of years, with its advancing discovery tools helping more shoppers find the items they way from its expanding shoppable catalog. And with 553 million monthly active users, there’s a huge audience of active, shopping-focused users there, which could be looking for your products.
Threads Prompts Users to Add Topics of Interest to Their Profiles
Threads is looking to help more people discover relevant conversations and people in the app, by prompting users to add interests to their profile, in order to improve discovery and connection. So you’ll also get custom feeds dedicated to your focus topics, which are also accessible by tapping on the topic tags on any user profile (note: I’ve also asked the Threads team if adding topics to your profile influences the content displayed in your “For You” feed, and will update if/when they respond).
X Experiments With Updated Video Playback UI
As it continues to put more focus on video content, in order to tap into broader engagement trends, X is experimenting with an updated video playback UI, which would move the engagement counts up from the bottom of the screen, and the function buttons into the lower black bar along the bottom. The updated X video player would put more focus on the content, with transparent engagement buttons on the lower playback window, above the playback speed, volume controls, etc.
Bluesky Adds Verification Checkmarks for Approved Users
Bluesky has taken another step in replicating the Twitter of days past, by adding blue verification checkmarks to approved users. Well, in order to scale its verification process, and reduce the onus on Bluesky’s team to verify every approved profile, Bluesky’s actually handing that responsibility to trusted providers as well, meaning that selected, approved entities will be able to award their own blue ticks in the app.
YouTube Publishes New Insights Into the Rise of Virtual Influencers
YouTube has published a new report into the rising significance of virtual influencers and how AI-generated or digitally-enabled entities are gaining traction, both on YouTube and more broadly. Which may sound farfetched, it’s a little strange to consider that non-human characters are somehow building bigger followings than real people online. But in a rising number of cases, these digital characters are driving big success, despite not being attached to an actual human presence.
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