Welcome to the August edition of The Social Advantage, your monthly dose of what’s shifting across the social platforms, and what it means for the way we create, promote, and measure content.
This month, we’re seeing platforms double down on clarity, control, and (in some cases) personal taste.
LinkedIn has finally dialled back the chaotic flood of old posts, while also quietly confirming that hashtags aren’t pulling much weight anymore.
Facebook's ad system is rewarding shorter videos with more replays, giving us another reason to keep it snappy.
Threads, Meta’s X rival, is quietly gaining ground (especially on mobile) while Instagram experiments with smarter carousel insights, and X continues its war on emojis (yes, really).
The themes are platform power plays, audience behaviour shifts, and some subtle but important changes that could affect your next campaign or post.
Let’s get into it.
LinkedIn has also clarified its stance on hashtags, and the verdict is… they’re not that important anymore.
While you can still use them, LinkedIn’s AI and keyword detection models now do most of the heavy lifting when it comes to understanding post content.
Hashtag-based feeds are being phased out entirely.
Why it matters: This is the clearest signal yet that LinkedIn is prioritising context and clarity over symbols.
The algorithm is smart enough to read and categorise your content without needing the # symbol, which means posts stuffed with hashtags aren’t just redundant, they might even look a bit outdated or spammy.
Takeaway for marketing managers and CMOs: Focus on writing clear, keyword-rich copy that mirrors how your audience actually searches and talks about problems. Treat your captions like mini-SEO: weave in industry terms, client challenges, and solution language naturally. Hashtags can be used sparingly for organisation, but the real optimisation now lies in how well your content speaks for itself.Source: SocialMediaToday
Meta has confirmed a small but interesting detail about Facebook video ads: if your ad is under 30 seconds long, it’ll automatically loop for up to 90 seconds.
That means shorter videos could play 3–6 times in a row, depending on length, giving your message more chances to land.
For example, a 15-second ad might loop 6 times in a row.
Meta says it dynamically adjusts looping time (between 90–180 seconds) depending on what’s likely to drive the best results.
Why it matters: We live in a world where attention spans are shrinking, so shorter ads already tend to perform better, and now, they might get more exposure too.
While viewers can always scroll past, if someone stays, your brand message could play multiple times within a short window.
Takeaway for marketing managers and CMOs: Test short, punchy video ads under 30 seconds.
They’re not just cheaper to produce, they may earn more plays, brand recall, and overall impact thanks to Facebook’s looping behaviour.
Source: SocialMediaToday
New data from SimilarWeb shows that Threads, Meta’s rival to X (formerly Twitter), is rapidly closing the gap in mobile daily active users. In the US, Threads now has around 16 million mobile DAUs, up from 8 million last year, while X sits at 23 million.
On iOS devices alone, the gap is even narrower: 13.1 million for Threads vs 15.3 million for X. Web traffic still heavily favours X, but if Threads keeps leveraging its ties to Instagram and Facebook, mobile could be its way in.
Why it matters: Threads was written off by many after its buzzy launch faded, but clearly, it’s gaining momentum. While X still leads overall, particularly for news and trending topics, Threads’ steady growth suggests Meta isn’t done building its alternative to the bird app.
Takeaway for marketing managers and CMOs: If you abandoned Threads after the hype died down, it might be worth a second look, especially for mobile-first audiences.
The platform’s connection to Instagram makes it a natural fit for brand discovery and community building.
Source: Forbes
Following June’s ban on hashtags in promoted posts, X is now turning its attention to emojis.
Advertisers using more than one emoji in their ad copy or creative may now face higher ad costs and lower “quality scores,” according to new guidance.
Why the change?
...It’s not clear, but it follows a pattern of Elon Musk’s personal taste shaping the platform’s design and ad rules.
Elsewhere on X, new AI-powered age verification tools are being rolled out in response to EU and UK regulations.
These include government ID checks, selfie scanning, and email verification to restrict access to sensitive content for underage users.
Oh, and Musk says he’s bringing back Vine “in AI form.”
No further details yet lol.
Why it matters: Ad rules on X are shifting fast, and often without warning.
Between hashtags, emojis, and creative format quirks, the cost and performance of your ads could change overnight.
Takeaway for marketing managers and CMOs: If you’re advertising on X, keep your creative clean and minimal to avoid surprise penalties.
And stay tuned; platform volatility means your strategy may need frequent adjustments.
Source: PR Daily
IIn the 5 years that we’ve been in business, we’ve never seen the social media landscape so volatile.
The only constant is change, and so we strive to keep out ahead of all of the changes as much as we can, in order for us to provide the best services and create the most effective content possible for our clients.
In the next issue, we’re going to be doing a deep dive on the latest changes on Instagram.
Basically, there have been too many to feature in a section of this newsletter; they need their own issue!
If you've got a question about anything in this instalment, get in touch!
Until next time 👋
– Team Social Advantage
