Digital Signage, etc

In the digital signage world, the retail industry is a clear focus for many looking to launch networks to support customer marketing. The primary driver is to communicate messages to drive customer behavior. 

But what about the concerns of the retail employees (not customers)? We are working with several retailers who are using digital signage to just that, support internal communications to a very disconnected and dispersed workforce. 

So what's on the minds of retail employees? What's keeping them up at night? The American Society of Employersde...

If you're launching a new digital signage network from scratch, it can be a bit messy. As Digital Signage Connection points out in this article, there are a lot of "ingredients" that go into a new network. You can go read their thoughts on each of the ingredients, but I've added mine in the following:

Hardware. This is a big decision and arguably the most visible one. As THIS is what people see as "digital signage." Our hardware is simple and we mean it to be that way. You can either purchase our Digital Sign in a Box, which includes a...

So often when companies have good news to share, they spend valuable time and resources to develop a solid public relations campaign to let the public and media know. 

But often they also neglect the most important audience of any campaign - the employees. 

In this Huffington Post article, "The Importance of Effective Internal Communications for a PR Campaign," Phillip Keightly writes:

The internal stakeholders, especially your employees, are a business's greatest asset; therefore it is important to ensure they are informed of good and bad news. 

An...

Health and safety videos are a dime a dozen. So many companies have them and just go through the motions when creating them. And by not putting extra thought into them, they will largely go ignored, which is not the point of safety videos. 

But check out what Air New Zealand did with what normally would be a stereotypical safety announcement during take-off. The key is to find who your corporate Richard Simmons is. . . if you dare. 

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Employees love to be recognized. I just read a study that showed 67% of employees said their performance improved due to recognition. That's amazing. (But also kind of sad that a simple thank you is all it takes and managers struggle with that.)

But the biggest key for managers is determining how employees want to be recognized because each is unique. Some like a simple "thank you" and a pat on the back. Others might want to be mentioned in a meeting. And for some (though less than you'd think), money is the ultimate recognition. 

But there's...

I know a lot of companies are struggling instituting social media-like tools and features INSIDE the company. As we all know, companies tend to be very risk averse and there is a "risky" side of social media. The horror stories scream louder than the successes. 

But if your organization is launching social tools or is thinking about it, watch this video. I'm curious if you had the same thoughts I did. 

Social Media @ Work from Red Sky Vision on Vimeo.

My first thoughts are these...

• Blah, blah, blah. I feel like some of the people interviewed are...

We hear amazing examples of customer service, as well as truly awful ones. But I believe that most companies and people do strive to provide great service to their customers, whether in retail, banking, hospitality or any other markets where we interact face to face with businesses. 

But what about those times when we aren't face to face, maybe stuck on hold waiting for "the next available agent." Companies can still provide great service, but you lose that value of seeing the person. Sometimes all it takes is a smile. 

Enter our HumanKiosk.

The Hu...

I just spent the last two days in San Francisco at CETW – Consumer Engagement Technology World – and I found the show to be as “engaging” as ever.  It’s refreshing to see an event live up to its name, and this one does.  From interactive video walls (courtesy of NEC), to a scan-scratch-win QR Code generator (courtesy of frontflip.com), and HumanKiosksolutions powered by MediaCast (courtesy of dfitech.com), customers are finding themselves more immersed in interactive digital signage and kiosk solutions than ever before.  The result:...

Every now and then, we like to feature posts on our blog from guest authors who are outside of the digital signage world, but who have expertise that can impact content strategies for internal communication networks.

We hope you enjoy this post from Rocky Walls, CEO of 12 Stars Media. He works with businesses to create video that's so real and simple it changes audiences into relationships. 

Recently 12 Stars Media posted  10 Tips for Conducting an Executive Video Interview. Let's say someone, Joe Schmoe we'll call him, read the post and not only...

For the second straight year, I'll be moderating a panel at Digital Signage Expo focusing on digital signage networks for corporate and employee communication.

But I'm taking on a new challenge this year. See at last year's panel, we had three corporate communicators all talking about their networks and they all did a wonderful job. I know this because the surveys submitted after the event said so. 

But you know what the lowest score was last year? The moderator. Ouch. Now I know I'm not to be the center of attention, but I clearly need to a...