Digital Digest: Do Something Different in 2012

Digital Digest: What Edelman Canada is reading in digital marketing, technology and strategy. Fresh links served up Fridays.

“The most dangerous poison is the feeling of achievement,” said IKEA founder Ingvar Kamprad. “The antidote is to every evening think what can be done better tomorrow.” The reality is that it’s easy to keep doing the things that we know will work. But sometimes we want to do more than deliver the same old results – we want great ideas that enable us to exceed the expectations of our peers, competitors, bosses and clients.

Fortunately, these days there is no shortage of new ideas that are also great. To help you kick off the new calendar year, this week’s edition of Edelman Canada’s Digital Digest rounds up six articles that show off new strategies and tactics in public engagement for 2012.

New Ways to Leverage Facebook, Google+ and Twitter

The Next Web predicts an increasing rivalry between the three leading (English-language) social networks. To keep up with competition from giants like Google and startups like Path and Flipboard, Facebook is churning out new features fast (see last item). This article identifies five major events in social networking that communicators and marketers can take advantage of to increase business value in 2012.

The Next Web: What 2012 holds for social media

Howard Stern Personally Calls Twitter Fans on New Year’s Eve

The King of All Media brought a personal touch to fan engagement on New Year’s Eve, tweeting:  “Beth and I are drunk dialing. What’s your phone number?” Stern is obviously no novice at causing a stir, as Today Entertainment follows his antics over the next several hours.

Today Entertainment: Howard Stern personally calls Twitter fans on New Year’s Eve

Crowdsource your Content Ideas

Crowdsourcing has delivered impressive results for software development, malaria research and fundraising for the arts, writes Wil Merrit for SmartBlog on Social Media. This article shows three ways crowdsourcing can engage your audience and customers, speed up program development and apply the latest technology and social media tools.

SmartBlog: 3 ways to effectively crowdsource ideas

New Social Analytics Strategies

If 2011 was the year companies got serious about measuring online influence, in 2012 the major social networks are going to start offering comprehensive insights for their platforms, argues Chuck Hemann, VP of Digital Analytics for Edelman Digital.

Chuck Hemann: Five Social Analytics Trends for 2012

Facebook takes on conflict resolution

In 2011, many companies demonstrated they could do well by doing good. But few companies operate at Facebook’s scale, or have as much to gain by nurturing positive social relationships between individuals. That’s why Facebook has been breaking new ground in how the Internet (and the apps we use on it) can make human lives better.

Fast Company: Meet Facebook’s Compassion Czar

New Features for Twitter, Facebook, Google+ and YouTube

December was not a quiet month in Silicon Valley as social networks rolled out new feature after new feature. Edelman Digital’s Emma Gannon shows how Twitter, Facebook, Google+ and YouTube have updated their designs and introduced new tools for sharing with friends, leads and customers.

Edelman Digital: December, Month of Social Media Updates

Edelman Canada’s Digital Digest is a weekly bundle of links, served up on Edelman Canada’s Our Ideas blog on Fridays. It’s also available by email. If you know someone who would like to be added to the mailing list, have any questions or just want to share some thoughts on anything you read here, email me. Let’s get a conversation going.

Digital Digest is edited by Matthew Hayles.