As we enter the holiday season, social media platforms are kicking into high gear with their biggest innovations of the year. From Meta’s bold $10B infrastructure plans to platforms racing to enhance their holiday shopping capabilities, November’s updates are reshaping how brands and users interact online. While established networks continue to fine-tune their offerings, emerging players like Bluesky are gaining notable traction, creating an increasingly dynamic social media ecosystem.
Let’s dive into the major developments that defined social media this month.
Meta’s Bold Infrastructure Move: The $10B Global Subsea Cable Project
Meta has unveiled its most ambitious infrastructure project to date: a planned $10 billion global fiber-optic subsea cable network. This massive undertaking, spanning over 40,000 kilometers, represents a significant shift in Meta’s infrastructure strategy. The investment reflects Meta’s position as one of the largest drivers of global internet traffic, with its properties accounting for 10% of all fixed internet traffic and 22% of all mobile traffic.
The cable’s planned route takes a distinctive “W” shape around the globe, extending from the U.S. East Coast to India via South Africa, then connecting to the U.S. West Coast via Australia.
This dedicated data pipeline would give Meta unprecedented control over its global data traffic, ensuring more reliable service for its billions of users worldwide. While the project is still in its early stages with detailed plans expected in early 2025, it signals Meta’s commitment to building resilient infrastructure to support its growing network demands. For marketers, this infrastructure investment promises more stable platform performance and improved global reach capabilities.
Instagram’s Evolution: Enhanced User Control and Creator Tools
Instagram is rolling out several significant updates aimed at improving user experience and content discovery. A standout addition is the new “reset” feature for clearing content recommendations across Explore, Reels, and Feed, giving users more control over their content experience. The platform has also enhanced its search functionality with improved filtering options.
In a notable move to enhance user experience, Instagram has discontinued its controversial “rug pull” feature, which caused preloaded videos to disappear abruptly when the app refreshed with new content. The practice, originally intended to boost engagement, was acknowledged as “really annoying” by Instagram head Adam Mosseri, leading to its removal.
Additionally, Instagram has released a new Collage option for Stories, allowing users to combine photos and videos into a single frame directly within the app. This feature aims to make Story creation more dynamic and engaging by offering customizable layouts for users to showcase multiple moments at once. For brands and creators, this provides new creative possibilities for visual storytelling and content presentation.
Direct Messaging Enhancements
Instagram has significantly upgraded its DM capabilities to help creators and brands manage their messaging more effectively. Here are the key updates:
Live Location Sharing: Users can now share their real-time location with friends for up to one hour. This feature comes with built-in privacy controls and is disabled by default, making it particularly useful for businesses coordinating event meetups or local promotions with customers.
Enhanced Communication Tools: Over 300 new stickers have been added to the platform, giving brands more creative ways to engage with customers. These stickers can be used to add personality to customer service interactions and create more engaging responses to follower messages.
Advanced Message Sorting: The new sorting and filtering tools allow users to organize message requests by follower count, verified accounts, brands, and creator status. For businesses and influencers managing high volumes of messages, this means being able to prioritize high-value interactions and potential collaboration opportunities more efficiently.
Story Replies Management: A dedicated “Story Replies” folder now consolidates all responses to Stories in one place, making it easier for brands to track engagement and respond to customer interactions from their Story content.
These enhancements are particularly valuable for creators and brands managing high volumes of incoming messages, as they provide more sophisticated tools for prioritizing and organizing customer communications. The updates reflect Instagram’s growing focus on improving business-customer interactions through direct messaging.
TikTok: Platform Growth and Valuation
ByteDance, TikTok’s parent company, has demonstrated significant growth with a recent valuation of $300 billion through a share buyback program – a substantial increase from its $225 billion valuation in 2023. This impressive rise reflects the platform’s growing dominance in the social media landscape and its increasing importance as a marketing channel.
The buyback provides liquidity to investors amid IPO delays, while the platform continues to expand its influence globally. For marketers, this valuation milestone underscores TikTok’s stability and potential as a long-term marketing investment, particularly as the platform continues to develop new features and expand its advertising capabilities.
Threads: Refined Features and Growing Competition
Threads continues to evolve with a new home screen redesign that enables swipe navigation between feeds, providing quick access to “For You,” “Following,” and custom feeds. The platform has introduced AI-powered summaries in the “Trending Now” section and improved search functionality with date range and account filters.
The platform’s strategic shift in content algorithm now prioritizes posts from followed accounts while reducing recommended content from unfamiliar sources. For marketers, this means focusing on building and engaging with a loyal follower base rather than relying on algorithmic reach. The change encourages brands to create more meaningful connections with their existing audience.
Pinterest: Record Growth and Holiday Innovation
Pinterest has achieved remarkable growth this quarter, reaching 537 million global monthly active users – an 11% year-over-year increase. The platform’s Q3 revenue hit $898 million, representing an 18% rise, driven by successful implementation of AI-powered features and enhanced advertising tools.
Pinterest has introduced new features to enhance holiday shopping, including customizable product wishlists and expanded Gift Guides curated by celebrities like Paris Hilton, RuPaul, Emma Chamberlain and K-Pop group TWICE. Users can now easily save items from these guides to their wishlists, streamlining the shopping experience.
Additionally, Pinterest is rolling out an experimental, machine-learning-powered “Holiday Finds” tab that offers personalized product recommendations based on individual user activity. These innovations create new opportunities for brands to reach holiday shoppers through curated collections and AI-enhanced discovery tools, making Pinterest an increasingly valuable platform for e-commerce and seasonal marketing campaigns.
These innovations create new opportunities for brands to reach holiday shoppers through curated collections and AI-enhanced discovery tools, making Pinterest an increasingly valuable platform for e-commerce and seasonal marketing campaigns.
LinkedIn: Strategic Features Adjustment and Growth
LinkedIn is discontinuing its Audio Events feature, which was introduced in 2022 as a competitor to platforms like Twitter Spaces and Clubhouse. The feature will be fully unavailable after December 31, 2024. LinkedIn plans to integrate audio functionalities into LinkedIn Live, requiring users to utilize third-party streaming services for live events.
The platform has also shared new posting tips to help users enhance their presence. The guidance emphasizes sharing original insights, avoiding spam and engagement bait, and maintaining professionalism to foster meaningful discussions.
LinkedIn also advises against content that promotes products without offering value, irrelevant comments, and posts that explicitly solicit likes or shares. For marketers, this underscores LinkedIn’s commitment to maintaining its professional environment and the importance of creating value-driven content that genuinely engages professional audiences.
Looking Ahead: Key Trends for Marketers
As we approach 2025, several trends are shaping the future of social media marketing:
- Enhanced Engagement Tools: Platforms are investing in features that facilitate deeper connections between brands and audiences
- AI Integration: Artificial intelligence is becoming central to content optimization and targeting
- Cross-Platform Strategy: Success requires adapting content strategies for platform-specific features
- Creator Economy: New tools are empowering brands to create more engaging content
- Personalization: Platforms are emphasizing customized user experiences
With each platform carving out its unique space and expanding into new territories, the competition for user attention and engagement remains fierce. Meta continues to lead with bold infrastructure investments, while other platforms are rapidly refining their strategies to meet evolving user needs and preferences.
For businesses and marketers, staying on top of these updates is crucial—especially as we head into the holiday season, bringing major opportunities for growth. Success will come from leveraging the latest features and tools from each platform while maintaining authentic connections with your audience.
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