5 Ways to Digitize Santa

It’s nearly time for Santa to round up those reindeer and hit the skies for another round of gift-giving.

A couple of years ago, in the spirit of the season, I put out some suggestions on how Santa could fix-up his PR. This year, I got to thinking what I’d do to digitize Santa.

1. @Santa

Santa already has a Twitter account – @Santa. However, it’s dormant most of the year. Dial-up the activity throughout the year and keep that Christmas spirit alive. Oh, and get a decent Twitter background!

2. SantaBook

Santa also has a Facebook page, with a reasonable number of fans (nearly 17,000). However, he’s clearly not optimizing it given the number of potential fans out there. A few suggestions:

  • Custom landing tab: Santa’s elves need to convert all the people searching for him into fans. Right now his landing tab is the info page. Buddy, we know who you are. Find a way to get people to “like” you – maybe an extra present in your stocking, or the ability to use what’s next…
  • Claim that URL: He may have the Facebook.com/Santa URL, but this guy ain’t Santa. The real deal is losing traffic and fans when people search for him because of this. Get in touch with Facebook and contest it.
  • Christmas list application: Snail mail is so 1990! Time to dial-up the digital a bit. Given that the kids, we hear, aren’t even sending email now, Santa should consider creating an application that enables people to submit their Christmas lists via Facebook. Add sharing functionality to let them spread the word (make the most of those newsfeeds!)
  • Naughty/Nice application: Making a naughty/nice decision at the end of the year is a bit like doing an annual review for someone at the end of the year without giving them any feedback throughout. Not cool. Instead, why not offer an app to let kids connect their Facebook account and see where they sit on the scale at any point during the year.

3. Augment Santa’s reality

As the Earth’s population inches ever further up, that naughty/nice list must be getting hard to manage. Santa would benefit from an AR app (like this) that could recognize kids’ faces and determine which of the lists they’re on. Even better, recognize the houses they’re in so Santa can know whether to even land the sleigh on their roof or not.

4. Blog.Santa.com

Santa needs a property he owns that he can drive people to. Santa.com is parked right now; it’s the logical choice for a domain. As part of that hub, Santa (and his elves, if he’s pressed for time) could blog about the whole process of getting ready for the holidays. Think “Elf” but spread throughout the year. Talk about a must-read!

5. Protect Santa’s online identity

Don’t let people like this guy hijack your name (local Santas?! That’ll never catch on ;))! Santa should claim his identity widely on social networks to safeguard his reputation.

Bad Idea: Location, location, Rudolph

Picture this: Santa checks into kid’s house on Foursquare. Kid gets notification. Kid comes down and catches Santa in the act. Then, the next morning, family wakes up and finds that Santa is the mayor of their house. Not cool.

What else?

Dave Fleet
Managing Director and Head of Global Digital Crisis at Edelman. Husband and dad of two. Cycling nut; bookworm; videogamer; Britnadian. Opinions are mine, not my employer's.