Social Media Industry Round-Up #113: TikTok Ban BREAKING News, How to Share Posts Into The Fediverse & Pinterest Predicts 2025
The Social Shepherd
Awarded Best Large Social Media Agency 2023 & 24 with offices in Bath, London, NYC & Miami.
Every week, the team at The Social Shepherd puts together all the relevant industry updates in a round-up newsletter.
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TikTok’s Appeal Request Has Been Overturned
TikTok has just lost the appeal against the US Government and it’s set to be banned in the US as early as January 19th if the company doesn’t sell the platform.
The appeal, now rejected, tried to overturn the law in which the US Government asked ByteDance to sell TikTok or face a ban in the country. However, the court has upheld the law and TikTok now wants to take the case to the US Supreme Court, the country’s highest legal authority.
If this doesn’t work, ByteDance will have to contemplate selling TikTok to a US company.
A potential TikTok ban would mean that more than 170 million users won’t have access to TikTok anymore, especially impacting creators, influencers and businesses who advertise and sell on the platform.
Black Friday Sales
TikTok has reported that TikTok Shop tripled its single-day sales from Black Friday last year, and saw a 165% increase in shoppers year-on-year.
TikTok said: “Some of the most popular categories during the campaign included makeup, skincare, fragrances, bath and body care, personal care items, menswear, indoor furniture, kitchen appliances, fitness items, and sporting equipment.”
Year In Review
From very demure, to brat summer. TikTok has revealed its Year in Review summary, highlighting all the top trends and songs of 2024.
The report also highlights the impact of TikTok on books and authors, educational content, and the top 10 songs for global and US-specific audiences.
Some iconic moments & trends of 2024:
Pinterest Predicts
It’s tiiiime! Pinterest Predicts 2025 has finally been released.
This report is an annual listing of trend predictions based on search data and user engagement during the last year, across travel, fashion, home, beauty and more. Here are some of our favourites:
Zoe Shepherd, CEO & Co-Founder at The Social Shepherd, said: ‘So many brands are sleeping on Pinterest as a platform but also as a research tool to drive strategy. It’s probably one of the first, if not the first place, we go to understand consumer trends when delving into a brief or making content topic suggestions for clients. In the words of our team “Stop sleeping on pinny!”’
Into the Fediverse
Threads continues to work towards a decentralised social media model (similar to Bluesky), and is now allowing users to follow accounts from other fediverse servers who have interacted with their content.
Adam Mosseri, Head of Instagram, shared an example where users will get a notification when a fediverse user has replied to a post.
P.S.: The fediverse is a decentralised network of social media platforms and web pages that are interconnected but independent. It allows users to communicate across different servers by sharing information between them.
Post Insights
Threads is currently testing analytics for individual posts, as opposed to only the topline account analytics. Insights will include:
The platform said that now that posts will be shown to more followers, it’s important to understand what resonates with the existing audience.
Performance Talks
Meta has launched a new ‘Performance Talks’ hub, full of video interviews with brand and marketing leaders explaining how to utilise Meta’s performance tools to maximise success on the platform.
The videos are under 10 minutes long and can be filtered by region for more tailored case studies. Every video links to related content and guides.