News-sharing website Digg is getting something of a facelift, and several major brands are already starting to use the updated site to share their content with account holders.

News-sharing website Digg is getting something of a facelift, and several major brands are already starting to use the updated site to share their content with account holders. Last week, founder Kevin Rose announced some changes to the platform with the launch of "Digg Version 4," and marketers are wasting no time taking advantage of the site's new content stream options and social features.

As Rose explained in the Digg blog, the updated platform offers users a more social content-sharing experience. Once account holders start following "influencers [they] care about," news from these users will be put on their "My News" pages. The website says publishers will also have the chance to invite up to 1,000 account holders to follow their content. This means businesses have greater potential to become thought leaders via the social site.

Major brands are already jumping on board, using the site to share industry-related news culled from various web sources and, importantly, content from their own web pages. For instance, Red Bull's Digg page exclusively posts content – ranging from videos to news articles – from RedBullUSA.com. The company currently has more than 2,000 followers, and many of its posts have garnered "diggs" from fellow account holders. General Electric is having similar success with its Digg page and the content shared from its website, GE Reports. 

With this in mind, marketers may want to incorporate Digg into their social and content marketing strategies. It will be important to frequently update web content to share with Digg users, but providing fresh industry-related content is likely already be part of many firms' digital campaigns.

As Brafton previously reported, marketing blogs are on the rise, with 43 percent of companies predicted to use blog content to establish themselves as thought leaders by 2012.   

Katherine Griwert is Brafton's Marketing Director. She's practiced content marketing, SEO and social marketing for over five years, and her enthusiasm for new media has even deeper roots. Katherine holds a degree in American Studies from Boston College, and her writing is featured in a number of web publications.