September 2025 Digital News Updates: Gaining IG Followers, Post Frequency Report, TikTok Hashtag Limit and More!

Members of our All Access Pass get the first look at the latest digital marketing news updates each month. We cover what matters to marketers during a live, interactive session and answer questions. We spend hours combing industry news sites looking for the most critical updates, so you don’t have to! September 2025 has major updates from Meta, LinkedIn, Facebook, AI, and Google Search.

Meta News Updates

• Marketing API: Upcoming Change to Dynamic Media Default Opt-in – Meta is changing the defaults in its API for third-party ad creation systems. These systems will now default to opt-in for Advantage+ catalog ads, which incorporate AI-generated creative. This means that AI creative generation will be “opt-out” rather than “opt-in,” requiring advertisers to actively monitor and adjust their AI settings.
• Meta AI Translations is Expanding for Creators on Facebook and Instagram – Meta is introducing AI translations for Facebook and Instagram, including voice translation with lip-syncing capabilities. This feature has the potential to expand reach to global audiences, especially for businesses that operate internationally but lack the resources for manual translation.
• Meta is Updating its Page Insights API – Impressions and page fans will be deprecated from the data available through the API. This change means that third-party social media management tools used for reporting will no longer have access to this specific data, potentially causing differences in reports compared to direct Meta Business Suite data.
• Meta is Consolidating Some of its Core Audience Targeting Options – Behaviors, interests, and advanced demographics are being consolidated. Advertisers heavily relying on these core audiences may need to adjust their ad sets to prevent campaigns from pausing. This also reflects a broader trend of AI targeting becoming more prevalent, reducing the relevance of traditional interest-based targeting.

Instagram News Updates

• Instagram is Testing a Picture-in-Picture Feature for Reels – Allows users to watch Reels while simultaneously using other applications on mobile. While this could increase view counts for Reels, the quality of engagement might be lower as viewers’ attention may be divided.
• Instagram Shares Guidance on Gaining More Followers – It emphasizes creating engaging Reels, feed posts, and carousels to boost distribution. Top creators often post ~10 Reels per month (2–3/week). Due to the discovery-based algorithm, increased visibility doesn’t always equal more followers; focus on business goals over follower count.
• Instagram Launched Reels Retention Insights – Creators can now see where viewers drop off in their Reels, including retention and skip rates, to improve future content and keep audiences engaged longer.
• CEO Confirms Longer Captions Do Not Affect Reach – Adam Mosseri says caption length doesn’t impact reach positively or negatively. The algorithm prioritizes engagement signals; caption context is helpful but not required for reach.
• Instagram Adds Reels Linking for Multipart Content – Users can now link to other Reels, enabling multipart series and connecting related content, which could help increase views across interconnected Reels.
• IG Posting Frequency: What Data from 2 Million Posts Tells Us – Buffer’s study suggests posting 3–5×/week can increase follower growth and reach per post. Correlation ≠ causation, but consistency matters for sustained growth.
• Using Native Edits Can Slightly Boost Reach – Instagram confirmed that posting Reels via the native “Edits” app can provide a small, temporary reach boost, encouraging use of built-in tools.

TikTok News Updates

• TikTok Implements Hashtag Limit – TikTok has imposed a limit of five hashtags per post. Discovery is increasingly driven by content context and user behavior rather than long hashtag lists.

Pinterest News Updates

• Pinterest Reaches 578M Users, Improves Revenue Intake in Q2 – Pinterest now boasts almost 600M users, maintaining a loyal, engaged base. Revenue per user is growing, appealing to idea/inspiration-seeking audiences in design, fashion, DIY, and recipes.
• The 2025 Pinterest Autumn Trend Report – Highlights rising trends across visual and fashion-oriented categories. Useful for businesses to spot emerging themes for content and product ideas—even if only adjacent to these categories.

X (formerly Twitter) News Updates

• Grok 4 is now free for all users worldwide! – Grok 4 is now available for free to all users in “Auto mode,” expanding access and encouraging broader testing of capabilities.
• New Feature: Turn Any Photo into a Video – X is rolling out a long-press feature on iOS to convert any photo into a video, simplifying on-platform video creation.
• Elon Outlines the Future of X Ads, Including AI Targeting – X’s roadmap increases focus on AI for targeting and brand safety, despite prior restrictions in ad formats (e.g., limits on hashtags/emojis).

LinkedIn News Updates

• Posting Frequency on LinkedIn in 2025: Data from 2 Million+ Posts – Higher posting frequency is associated with increased reach per post. Consistency and cadence are key to growing followers and maintaining reach.
• More Detailed Per-Post Analytics – LinkedIn is surfacing richer per-post analytics in notifications, giving creators more performance insight.
• Promoting Premium Business Suite Subscriptions – LinkedIn is promoting Premium Business Suite with clearer benefit explanations; offers may include a $50 credit for boosting posts and job promotions on annual plans.

Google & AI News Updates

• ChatGPT vs Google AI: 62% Brand Recommendation Disagreement – BrightEdge finds 62% disagreement in brand recommendations between Google and ChatGPT. AI optimization isn’t as formulaic as traditional SEO, though some signals overlap.
• Unlock More Visibility and Control in Performance Max – Google is adding more data and controls to PMax. While AI seeks lowest cost per result, marketers still need levers to align with broader objectives.
• AI Mode in Google Search Adds Personalization & Agentic Features – Google’s AI mode is integrating agentic capabilities, including an AI agent that can call businesses to make reservations or appointments.
• ChatGPT Launches More Integrations – New integrations aim to enable agentic workflows across apps (e.g., Gmail connector for calendar management). Early versions can be rough, but rapid improvements are expected.
• Google Says AI-Generated Images Will Not Cause Ranking Penalty – Google indicates AI-generated images don’t incur ranking penalties; usefulness and originality remain the primary visibility drivers.