Welcome back to the final TEAM LEWIS Social Round-Up of 2025. And wow, it’s a whopper to see the year out. This week, we’ve got wholesome parent chats in the car, Facebook is doing a Christmas clean up, Instagram’s letting everyone reshare everything, and TikTok has put a super calculator on your ads. Also, Pinterest wants to make it easier for you to make dinner, WhatsApp is trying to reboot voicemail, and ChatGPT won 2025 in the US App Store.
Let’s get into it 👇
Latest News
🚗 Instagram launches “Carversations”
Instagram has launched a new video series shot in the car, it’s like carpool karaoke, but replace James Corden and bands with parents and teens talking social media and online life. It’s built to spotlight Teen Accounts and supervision tools, but it’s also a smart move for Meta to look helpful and human while the world debates teen safety. Expect this to become a regular format, because nothing says “authentic” like a family chat with a camera mounted on the dashboard. 👉 Read more
📘 Facebook cleans up the Feed and makes posting less fiddly
Facebook’s doing a Christmas clean-out. Cleaner navigation, easier browsing, a refreshed way to create Stories and feed posts, plus search results shifting to a more visual grid, so it feels less like 2009 and more like 2026. It’s also pushing profiles as interest hubs, surfacing friends with shared hobbies. Big takeaway for brands, content is getting easier to make, easier to share, and the platform is clearly betting on interests over throwing sheep and poking each other. 👉 Read more
🔁 Instagram now lets you reshare public Stories
You can now repost any public Story to your own Stories, even if you weren’t tagged. It’s basically “share” culture getting a bit more official, with proper credit baked in, making it easier for brands and creators to spark amplification without screenshot gymnastics. It’s also another quiet step in Instagram’s war on aggregator accounts, because they’d rather sharing stays connected to the original creator. Expect “share this to your Story” calls to action everywhere. 👉 Read more
🤖 Instagram is using AI to write SEO summaries for Google
Instagram’s apparently generating AI-written summaries of posts so they show up better in Google search results. Helpful in theory, but also a bit “bots talking to bots,” with Meta AI writing copy to please Google’s systems, not humans. The big watch-out is accuracy and intent, because AI can confidently summarise the wrong vibe, and nobody wants their heartfelt post turned into keyword soup. Still, if this drives more discovery for creators and brands, it’s another reminder that social content is now part of search strategy. 👉 Read more
📊 TikTok teams up with DoubleVerify for deeper attention metrics
TikTok’s giving advertisers more insight via DoubleVerify’s attention measurement, looking beyond clicks to viewable time, share of screen, and audibility. This is a big deal if you’re trying to prove impact when the customer journey is “saw it on TikTok, asked a chatbot, googled it later, bought it at midnight.” It won’t magically solve attribution, but it does give you more ammo when you’re defending spend on upper funnel formats. 👉 Read more
🛒 Pinterest rolls out shoppable recipes with Walmart
In the US Pinterest is piloting recipe Pins where you can add ingredients straight to a Walmart cart. It’s pure “inspo to action” and exactly where Pinterest wants to live, that moment where someone’s hungry, optimistic, and one tap away from spending money. For brands, this is the dream scenario. Discovery, intent, conversion, all in one flow, especially around holiday cooking when everyone’s searching “easy sides that look like effort.” 👉 Read more
💬 WhatsApp adds holiday features and tries to relaunch voicemail
WhatsApp’s rolling out missed-call voice or video notes, reactions in voice chats, speaker spotlight on group calls, plus more Status stickers and cleaner link previews. Meta AI image generation is also getting a boost for holiday greetings, because nothing says “warm family message” like an AI-powered card you made in 6 seconds. The broader theme is WhatsApp pushing harder into creator-like formats and making Status feel more interactive, which is worth watching if your audience lives in messaging. 👉 Read more
📲 ChatGPT was Apple’s most downloaded iPhone app of 2025 in the US
ChatGPT topped Apple’s list of most downloaded free iPhone apps in the US this year, ahead of Threads, Google, TikTok and WhatsApp. That’s a pretty loud signal that “ask AI” is becoming the default behaviour for a lot of people, not a novelty. For marketers, it’s another reminder to think beyond classic search and social. Brand discovery is increasingly happening inside AI interfaces, and the winners will be the ones who show up clearly, consistently, and credibly there too. 👉 Read more
🔧 Quick Tip of the Week
With Facebook simplifying creation and making the Feed more immersive, take the hint and make it easier for people to engage. Refresh your page templates, check your cross-post settings, and test a few “easy to react” formats (short native video, carousels, quick opinions). Then watch what gets saves, shares, and actual comments, not just drive-by likes.
✨ Campaigns We Love ✨
🍺 Vocation – Builds a Tiny Pub
Vocation Brewery’s pint-sized travelling pub is the most British thing imaginable, and a brilliant way to celebrate local pubs by literally showing up where the people are. 👉 Read more
🥐 Lidl – Eau de Croissant
Lidl releasing “Eau de Croissant” is exactly the kind of unhinged seasonal stunt that gets free PR, social chatter, and a thousand “I need this” comments from people who definitely do not need this. 👉 Read more
🗓️ Mark Your Calendars
Opportunities to celebrate this week
- Wednesday 17 December – Wright Brothers Day ✈️
- Thursday 18 December – Bake Cookies Day 🍪
- Friday 19 December – National Ugly Sweater Day 🧶
- Saturday 20 December – Go Caroling Day 🎶
- Sunday 21 December – World Basketball Day 🏀
- Monday 22 December – Mathematics Day ➗
- Tuesday 23 December – National Christmas Movie Marathon Day 📺
And next…
- Wednesday 24 December – Christmas Eve 🎄
- Thursday December 25 – Christmas Day 🎁
- Friday December 26 – Boxing Day 🥊
- Saturday December 27 – Visit the Zoo Day 🦁
- Sunday December 28 – National Call a Friend Day 📞
- Monday December 29 – International Cello Day 🎻
- Tuesday December 30 – National Bacon Day 🥓
- Wednesday December 31 – New Year’s Eve 🎆
- Thursday January 1 – New Year’s Day 🥂
And that’s a wrap for the last time in 2025.
Between AI summaries, reshares and shoppable everything, social’s moving fast again. I’m off to ask AI what I still need to buy for Christmas, how to cook the perfect Turkey, could Santa do that many deliveries in one night, and the most unlikely of all, do England have any chance of retaining the Ashes?
If you want to talk through any of this, get in touch; we’re always happy to chat.
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