What’s New in the Social Media world

• X Experiments With Paid Promotion Tags
  It looks like X will soon have its own paid partnership tags in-stream, with the feature spotted in testing in the back-end code of the app. So you have to say, in your post, that it’s an ad, which most creators do by using the #ad hashtag.

• Instagram Tests Displaying ‘Friends’ Instead of ‘Following’
  Instagram is currently testing out an update to the profile display, which would change your “Following” count to “Friends” instead, the people who mutually follow you in the app.

• TikTok Adds More Control Options to Smart+ Campaigns
  TikTok has announced some new updates to its AI-powered Smart+ campaigns, including enhanced creative selection for promotions, the expansion of duplication and draft mode, and ad previews for creative combinations.

What’s trending right now?

• The Proposal

  This trend is focuses on highlighting your product as an engagement ring.

  Design a graphic with an engagement ring box open, but instead of a ring, you put your product inside.

  

👋 Hey there,

There’s something I keep seeing. A lot of people are posting consistently, but very few are actually showing up with a real presence.

And that’s why social feels exhausting instead of useful.

Posting is just ticking the box. Getting something up so the feed isn’t empty.
Having a presence is what makes someone scroll your page and think, “okay, these people know what they’re doing.”

If social feels like a chore you’re constantly trying to stay on top of, rather than something that supports your brand quietly in the background, that gap is usually why.

Posting content vs building a social presence

Posting content is execution-led.

You start with “we need to post” and work backwards.

A social presence is strategy-led.

You start with what someone should understand, feel, and trust about your brand, then create content that reinforces that over time.

What most brands get wrong

They optimize for output instead of interpretation.

They ask:

• How many posts are we doing?

• What format should we use?

• What’s trending right now?

But they skip the more important questions:

• What should someone walk away believing about us?

• What role does social play in our broader funnel?

• What signal does our page send if someone is seeing us for the first time?

This is why strategy has to come first. Before you design anything or schedule anything, you need a clear plan for what your social is meant to do. Once that’s defined, content creation becomes easier, faster and way more effective.

AI Tip of the week

If your social feels busy but not intentional, this is where AI can actually help (and not in a cringe way). Instead of asking AI to “come up with content ideas,” use it to audit the signal your page is sending right now.

This works best when you treat AI like a strategist, not a copywriter.

Final Thoughts 📝

If there’s one thing I want you to take from this, it’s this: social media isn’t a task to tick off. It’s a signal you’re sending, whether you mean to or not.

When someone lands on your page, they’re not counting posts. They’re asking, “Do these people know what they’re doing?” Presence answers that question quietly, over time.

Additional Resources 🪄

If you want a couple of helpful things to read this week, these two are worth your time. They pair really well with building clearer systems and smoother client relationships.

How to Use Instagram Reels
This guide will walk you through everything you need to know about using Instagram Reels, from understanding the feature to creating, sharing, and analyzing your content.

How to Create an Effective Call to Action
This article explores the steps to create a powerful call to action. We discuss its significance, identifying your target audience, crafting a compelling message, designing eye-catching buttons, and more.

Take what you need, bookmark what you don’t, and make your workflow a little easier this week.