👋 Welcome back Reader

This week in The Roundup we're discussing:

→ The 2025 Community Trends Report from Circle
→ The latest social media news
→ How Trying Became Cool Again

Let's dive in...

🔥 Building a Community? Here's what to focus on!

Everywhere you look, people are talking about the importance of community.

But HOW do we build one successfully?

Circle share their insights in their 2025 Community Trends Report, here are my 3 favourite takeaways:

While social media is great for discovery (with Instagram, YouTube and LinkedIn taking the top spots), relationship-building is happening in private community platforms
Quality > quantity as 1 community member is worth 234 social media followers on average
Newsletters and IRL meetups have a big impact on community growth and live virtual events are great for engagement and retention. The most popular types are: educational workshops, small group discussions, peer support, open office hours and Q&A sessions

In 2025, community building is all about fostering genuine connections beyond the algorithm. Prioritise quality over quantity, create spaces for meaningful conversations and focus on real engagement to build something truly impactful.

📰 In the news

TikTok revamps its desktop platform with a new modular layout and refreshed feeds
TikTok prepares to sunset its creator marketplace on April 1 and replace it with TikTok One
Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian has joined Frank McCourt's bid to acquire TikTok's operations in the USA
Instagram shares more details about its Edits app, like being able to manage multiple projects and a Cutouts editing tool, as the release has been delayed until March 31st
Threads tests Interests on user profiles
YouTube rolls out ad-free 'Premium Lite' subscription offering
Pinterest experiments with removing the Visit Site button
Pinterest start labelling AI-generated images and reducing their reach
Study shows that Facebook is more influential than TikTok for purchase decisions
The creator economy is facing an authenticity crisis
A recent survey by Vox Media found that 42% of people believe Google Search is becoming less useful. And that 61% of Gen Z and 53% of Millennials use AI tools instead of Google or traditional search engines
Chegg files a lawsuit against Google claiming that AI-generated summaries have hurt their traffic and revenue
Digg is set to relaunch in the coming weeks
Adobe launch free Photoshop app for iPhone (Android coming soon)
The latest Social Media Trends Report from Dash Social discusses The Creator Effect
Substack is expanding its platform to include video
Microsoft to shut down Skype in May
WordPress 6.8 is due for release on April 15th

💭 From my desk

Is "trying" uncool? I came across this video this week talking about how putting in effort has become uncool. Everything we do is meant to look effortless, like we didn't try too hard to succeed. But that's led us to everything looking the same. AI hasn't helped matters. But as the need for authenticity has risen, are we finally moving away being nonchalant? It's an interesting topic!