Social Media Updates - October 2025

Social media never stays still for long. For busy comms and marketing professionals, especially across the public sector, staying informed is key. So, here’s your monthly digest from Orlo Partner and Social Media Consultant, Luan Wise, highlighting the latest platform updates you need to know from October 2025.

LinkedIn made a few notable changes last month. First, it’s limiting competitor analysis for non-paying company pages – meaning detailed insights into rival organisations will soon be behind a paywall. 

Thought Leader ads are getting more visibility within Campaign Manager, making it easier for public sector teams to promote expert voices and share insights. For those who aren’t familiar, Thought Leader ads let you boost posts from a personal LinkedIn profile to reach a wider audience. These ads are useful because they build trust and allow your key voices to engage directly with stakeholders rather than only through a generic company page.

Meta has had a busy month across its family of apps:

• It’s introducing warnings aimed at protecting older users from common scams, helping ensure that more vulnerable audiences are alerted to potential fraud or misleading content. These in-app prompts provide timely guidance directly to users, promoting safer interactions across the platform.
• AI translations for Reels now support even more languages. You can now use Meta AI to translate Reels in Hindi and Portuguese, in addition to English and Spanish, with more languages coming soon. This makes content more accessible and inclusive, helping important messages connect with communities across different regions and backgrounds.
• On Facebook, new topic search recommendations and the return of friend likes in Reels aim to make discovery more personal again.
• Instagram users can now go back and rewatch Reels they’ve already seen –  a small but handy feature for anyone who’s ever lost track of a great clip. 
• Instagram has further tightened content restrictions for teen accounts, part of its ongoing effort to improve safety and wellbeing for younger users.
• Threads has introduced ‘ghost posts’ that disappear after a set time – adding a playful, temporary twist to posting. 
• Also on Threads, you can now filter your activity feed, approve replies, and even start group chats as Threads expands its direct messaging tools.

X is preparing to launch a marketplace for inactive handles, allowing users and brands to purchase long-abandoned usernames. 

It’s also splitting verified organisations into two tiers: Premium Business (for commercial entities) and Premium Organisations (for governments, multilateral bodies, and public-sector organisations). The new tier clarifies verification for public-sector accounts, brings advanced features like impersonation protection, premium support, and priority account management.

YouTube’s updates this month focus on both viewers and creators. For viewers, there’s a new daily limit feature for Shorts to help manage screen time, and the Communities feature is expanding to desktop, making it easier to engage with content beyond video uploads.

For creators, YouTube is rolling out AI-powered Q&A stickers for interactive engagement and improved Shorts editing tools to streamline content production.