Top Trending Digital Marketing & Social Media Topics (Week of April 21, 2025)

TikTok Ban Saga and Sale Bids: The fate of TikTok in the U.S. continues to dominate headlines. With a government-imposed deadline (previously April 5) to find a U.S. buyer or face a ban, major players have jumped in – Amazon submitted a last-minute bid to acquire TikTok, and even a group led by the OnlyFans founder made an offer​ Reuters.com. (The ban was averted for now, as authorities extended the deadline by 75 days into June.) This high-stakes battle highlights TikTok’s enormous influence and has the industry watching closely.

Instagram Launches “Blend” Feature for Reels: Instagram rolled out a new feature called Blend that lets friends share a custom Reels feed. It’s an invite-only option within DMs that creates a personalized, shared Reels playlist among you and your friends, refreshing daily based on each participant’s tastes​ techcrunch.com. The idea is to bring a more social, collaborative element to Reels (akin to Spotify’s group playlists) and keep users engaged by letting them discover content together.

X (Twitter) Plans “XChat” Messaging Overhaul: Elon Musk’s X is reportedly poised to replace the classic Direct Messages with a new platform dubbed XChat. Leaked details suggest XChat will be a full-fledged messaging service (more like WhatsApp) featuring end-to-end encrypted chats, file sharing (e.g. PDFs), disappearing messages, universal delete, voice messages, and more​ mashable.com. This move is part of X’s push to reinvent itself and offer richer communication tools, blurring the line between a social feed and a messaging app.

Virtual Influencers Booming on YouTube: In influencer marketing news, virtual influencers (computer-generated creators) are on the rise. YouTube’s latest trends report revealed that in 2024 a sample of just 300 virtual creators on the platform racked up over 15 billion views (about 1 billion of those from U.S. viewers)​ blog.youtube. These digital avatars – like Lil Miquela and others – are rapidly gaining fans, indicating a significant shift in consumer behavior and how brands might collaborate with “virtual” personalities in the future.

Threads Testing Multiple Profile Links: Meta’s Threads (Instagram’s text-post app) is experimenting with a long-requested update: allowing multiple hyperlinks in user profiles. Currently in testing, this small tweak would let users and brands add more than one link in their bio​ meltwater.com. It seems minor, but it’s potentially big for creators and marketers – making it easier to promote a portfolio of links (e.g. personal site, other socials, products) without relying on third-party “link in bio” tools​ meltwater.com.

Snapchat’s Generative AI Lenses for Brands: Snapchat’s new Sponsored AI Lenses allow brands like Coldplay to create generative AR filters that users can interact with (example: Coldplay’s “Moon Music” lens pictured). Snapchat introduced Sponsored AI Lenses, a new ad format that uses generative AI to create immersive augmented-reality experiences. These interactive Lenses “generate personalized, AI-driven images that put Snapchatters at the center of unique brand moments”​ meltwater.com – essentially letting users virtually try on styles, themes, or characters tied to a brand. Early campaigns (e.g. Uber’s Thanksgiving lens, Tinder’s New Year’s lens, Coldplay’s album launch lens) have driven high engagement, suggesting this could be a powerful, viral way for brands to diversify campaigns and reach new audiences.

Shifting Social Media Habits (Meta vs. TikTok): New consumer behavior insights show how attention is shifting toward short-form video platforms. Even Mark Zuckerberg has acknowledged that time spent on Meta’s apps (Facebook and Instagram) has “declined since the arrival of TikTok” socialmediatoday.com. In other words, TikTok’s addictive content and similar short-video experiences (Reels, Shorts) are eating into the hours people used to spend on traditional feeds. This trend is pushing platforms to innovate rapidly – from Facebook tweaking algorithms to YouTube investing in Shorts – in order to recapture user engagement.

Sources: TikTok/ban news​ reuters.com;
Instagram Blend​ techcrunch.com;
XChat leaks mashable.com;
YouTube virtual influencer report​ blog.youtube;
Threads update meltwater.com;
Snapchat AI Lenses meltwater.com;
Meta usage insight socialmediatoday.com.