Digital Signage Best Practices

That's the mission of a one-day conference being put on by PRSA and MSL Atlanta next week down in Atlanta, GA. I'm attending, not just to hear ideas about digital signage, but to learn from other corporate communicators about how they are getting creative communicating with "disconnected" workers. 

The Connect '11 conference is the first of its kind (or at least that I've heard of). And I've worked for two different global manufacturers. Reaching disconnected workers has always been a challenge and will continue to be a challenge. 

If you are interested in attending and are on a tight corporate communication budget, the event is very affordable if you are a PRSA member (and even cheaper if you are a member of the Employee Communications Section). And something else to keep in mind. Even the most digitally connected companies can learn new strategies. Just because you email it, it doesn't mean they open it. Just because you post it, it doesn't mean they read it. 

Here's the information about the conference:

• Navigate through organizational change (e.g., mergers and acquisitions) using communications.
• Socialize and create understanding of company vision, mission and values across all levels of your organization.
• Create a positive employee culture despite geographical challenges.
• Foster open, two-way dialogue that relies more on conversations and less on channels.
  

You will learn:

• Key strategies for reaching employees who don't sit at desks or aren’t always wired.
• How to empower your digitally disconnected workforce with smart rewards and recognition program.
• How to evolve from one-way, “push” communications to facilitating meaningful conversations and dialogue at the frontline level.
• What specific programs, campaigns and tactics have worked for companies just like yours.

Sign up today. 

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All this month, we've been sharing 31 reasons not to be afraid of digital signage. And given the rather spooky month October is, we thought it was a great time to share this information. It was a lot of work but also a lot of fun. 

We know it can be intimidating launching a network, but that's why we're here. We try to take as much fear out of the equation as possible through education and awareness (hence, this blog). We are open to having as many conversations or demos as needed to help you get your project off the ground. 

So in case you missed any of our 31 reasons or want to stroll through memory lane, here they all are:

1.  Networking
2. Cellular
3. WiFi
4. LAN
5. Scalability
6. SaaS
7. Unlimited users
8. Cost of installation
9. Complexity of installation
10. Variety of file types
11. Scheduling
12. Digital signage hardware
13. Content management
14. Content expansion
15. Component players
16. The Cloud
17. Touch screens
18. Training
19. Digital signage content creation
20. Custom-branded templates
21. Video
22. Security
23. IT involvement
24. Custom training
25. Support
26. Content best practices
27. Screen placement
28. Project management
29. Return on investment
30. Enterprise deployments
31. Roles and permissions

We hope everybody has a safe and fun Halloween. We'll leave you with this spooky message. 

In light of October being a rather scary month, we thought we would highlight 31 reasons not to be afraid of digital signage. We hope you enjoy them.

Reason #26: Content best practices

Whether it's your first digital signage network or you're a seasoned vet, there are always three basic principles to follow when creating content for your digital signage network.

1. Simplicity - choose your words wisely and think of single words as the "headline" versus using full sentences. The last thing you want is to make your digital signage screen look like a wordy power point slide, so don't use too many text heavy messages in one segment of your screen.
2. Repetition - You know the audience you are targeting your communications to, so it's imperative you also know how long they will be at particular screen locations and thus how long your message should be on screen. Point of Sale content usually changes in intervals of 10-12 seconds as the audience is usually on the move. Conversely, Point of Wait content can be on screen longer as the audience's dwell time increases
3. Call to Action - Lastly, make sure your audience understands the point of why you are communicating with them and what they should do next. Be clear on the "next step" and have appropriate deadline messaging in place. Interactive content - such as touch screen and quick response codes - can make this process much easier as it empowers your audience to take control of the "call to action" (touch screen) or have a literal walk away with a QR code.

Remember that your content is meant to evolve over time because fresh content demands audience attention. MediaTile offers an experienced team to help answer your content questions or even help create your initial content to help you get started.


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"How do I measure digital signage internally?" has been an age-old question without an easy answer. I faced this challenge back when I managed my own network at Rolls-Royce. It's a lot of anecdotal feedback, mixed in with focus groups and surveys, and sprinkled with gut feelings. 

Every month, the fine folks at Digital Signage Expo asks an industry-related question its Advisory Board. This month's question focused on properly measuring digital signage. 

“What do you believe are the best practices in measuring viewership? Is employing a marketing analysis firm to determine viewership worth the cost?”

Most of the responses related to ad-based or retail networks but a few of the answers were from network owners who manage internal screens and I was very happy to see this. Here are their thoughts. (None of them are MediaTile clients.)

Ron Danielson, Vice Provost for Information Services & CIO

Paul Bennett, Manager, Creative Services IT

James Velco, CTO

The John Marshall Law School

There's nothing Earth-shattering in these answers, but it does reinforce (in my opinion) the need to come up with some sort of measurement that corporate communicators can point to. I like that the John Marshall Law School is looking at using interactive as a way to get some data on network use and awareness, as well as AFLAC looking at QR codes, which can be tracked.

You can read all of the answers provided by Advisory Board, but there's a great and simple piece of advice provided by Kimberly Sarubbi, president & CEO of Saddle Ranch Productions. 

"Test, adjust, optimize." This is exactly what digital signage network owners should be doing regardless of where their network is. 

What are your thoughts on measuring digital signage that isn't ad- or retail-focused?
______________________
Flickr image, StevenHarris

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Most of our digital signage network owners know exactly what type of content they want to put on their screens. For banks, it's put up the latest promotional messaging to reinforce their brand. Hospitals? They want to reinforce their brand just like banks, but also add in softer health-related messages. And corporate communication networks are never in shortage of content.

But the big question comes down to balance. How much is too much of one thing or not enough of another?

Kim Sarubbi, the president & CEO of Saddle Ranch Productions, weighed in with her thoughts on the 5 best practices for creating an effective digital signage content mix. 

The areas she outlines are:

1. Objective
2. Reach
3. Relevance
4. Engagement
5. Call to Action

These are not in any order of importance, as they will all weight in how audiences react to the content. Most of our clients seem to do a great job with objective and reach as they've thought through these long before installing a network. 

But the last three have been a struggle for some. With regards to relevance, our system enables marketers and communicators to direct key messages to individual screens if needed. But very few do this. It requires a little more strategic work but you are guaranteeing relevance by doing so.

I encourage our customers to have some fun with their network to help with engagement. Give your audiences content they haven't seen anywhere else. This will draw the eye. And #5, call to action, is where the rubber meets the road to so speak. 

If you're a bank, are you getting customers to ask about new products. If you're in corporate communications, did employees respond to your most recent request. The call to action is key with digital signage, just like it is with websites and other marketing vehicles.
_________________________
Image courtesy of William Klos

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We still have a few seats left for our "Enhancing Employee Communications with Digital Signage" webinar this afternoon (or later this morning if you're on the West Coast). The free webinar takes place at 2:00 pm ET (11:00 am PT) and should last only about 30 minutes. 

We have Lyn Riggins, a MediaTile customer and corporate communications pro at WSSC, on the webinar. She'll be discussing the basics of their signage network, how they manage the day-to-day activities, content advice, and some valuable lessons learned. At this year's Digital Signage Expo, Lyn received rave reviews for her content on the "Best Practices in Corporate Communication" panel. 

So if you have 30 minutes today and haven't signed up yet, this is a great chance to learn more about a growing technology in the corp comm arena. WSSC's "Splash" (one of the more creative names for an internal signage network that I've seen) has made great strides in helping WSSC with employee engagement and overall corporate literacy. 

Today is your chance to learn more. 

You have clients interested in digital signage but they may not be sure how to apply this technology to maximize their return on their investment. Please invite them to our webinar on Thursday April 14 at 2pm Eastern and hear first hand from Lynn Riggins, a MediaTile customer and recent speaker at the Digital Signage Expo on the Best Practices in Corporate Communication, on how her organization - The Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission - has successfully leveraged our digital signage solutions for employee communications and improved efficiencies.

This is a great opportunity to either introduce your clients to the digital signage technology platform, MediaTile, or just to further educate them on the benefits of cloud-controlled digital signage.  There are limited seats available for this webinar so it is meant to be for your clients only, please refrain from signing up yourself. MediaTile ensures that any and all information shared will remain strictly confidential.

Next Thursday, April 14, at 2:00 pm EDT we are hosting a free webinar called "Enhancing employee communication with digital signage." It's geared toward these audiences:

• Corporate communicators and marketers who are interested in learning more about the technology.
• Professionals who are already running a network and want to see how another company uses it. 
• AV integrators so that they can see where the pain points are for corporate communication departments
• Anybody else who just wants to learn. 

For many corporate communicators, they completely recognize the value signage brings to employee communications but they struggle with getting financial support. While others maybe just seem overwhelmed by the challenge of managing one more communication tool. We'll put those fears to rest. 

I'm delighted that Lyn Riggins, spokesperson for WSSC, agreed to participate in the webinar. She is a MediaTile customer and also recently spoke at Digital Signage Expo on the Best Practices in Corporate Communication panel this past February.

Lyn is a great speaker and has a firm grasp of how digital signage has helped her company excel at employee communications but also has many lessons learned to share about her experience. No matter which bullet point you fit into, you'll learn from Lyn Riggins. 

I had the easy job of just introducing the panelists and managing the Q&A. . . at least I thought that would be the easy part. The speakers did such a good job discussing how their companies used digital signage for employee communications that the Q&A portion ran long. . . really long. 

The session started at 9 and was to conclude at 10. We were still in the room at 10:30. Speaking on behalf of the panelists, we were thrilled with the turnout (close to 50 attendees) and pleasantly amazed with the quality of questions from the session attendees. I hope that DSE will continue to promote internal networks by letting corporate communicators take the stage. 

******

Others have asked what my impression of this year's show was. And I left with a very positive one. The show did not feel bigger (despite what some of the announcements said) but it did feel better. And that's a good thing. Everybody seemed well prepared for the 2011 show.

Next week, I'll be out in Las Vegas attending my fourth Digital Signage Expo but this will be my first time being part of any session. Last year, I was able to lead a few of the corporate communication lunch and learns but this year, I'm moderating the Best Practices in Corporate Communication session (S10). 

It takes place bright and early Wednesday, February 23, at 9 am. That early in the morning can be brutal for the Vegas crowd, but I'm hopeful that my panelists and I are up to the challenge. In addition to Andrea Scott from BNSF Railway, two MediaTile customers are on the panel: Chris Bias from Eli Lilly and Lyn Riggins from Washington Surburban Sanitary Commission. 

What I like about the panel is that though they are each expert corporate communicators, they come from vastly different companies and organizations. 

So if you're attending this year's Expo, please attend our session. But if corporate communication just isn't your thing and/or are interested in other sessions, here's a few that I'd recommend. I'm sure there are others of equal merit (or maybe better) but these are the ones that caught my eye. 

Wednesday, 2/23 at 9am
S4 - Content Strategy & Development
S9 - Driving Industry Growth through Standards (Check out Bill Gerba's comments about his session)

Wednesday, 2/23 at 3pm
S12 - Planning a Digital Signage System
S19 - Software platforms: Selection Considerations

Thursday, 2/24 at 9am
S27 - Managing the Maze of Third-Party Content
S32 - Digital Signage in Healthcare

Thursday, 2/24 at 10am
S39 - Tips & Techniques for Connectivity and Signal Distribution (we hope there's a lot of talk in this session about the benefits of cellular)
S40 - Using Interactive Technology to Engage and Entertain Customers and Visitors

Last August, I pulled together a group of corporate communication pros who are each responsible for managing digital signage networks inside their respective companies. And based on the feedback from the event, they want more. 

I'm currently working to pull together a panel of speakers for the second Digital Signage for Corporate Communication conference, tentatively scheduled for late April or early May. The goal again is to provide sessions that give corporate communicators real tips on how to better manage their networks. We'll also host the event at a company who's currently taking advantage of an internal network.

One topic area that we'll surely cover this time is measurement and engagement. We had a speaker scheduled to talk on that topic at the last event but they had to back out at the last minute. Another area that has been requested is a formalized "show and tell" portion. Communicators want not just to hear what other people are doing internally but see the content first-hand. 

I'm moderating a panel at Digital Signage Expo in February that will cover a few best practices in corporate communication. I'm hoping that this panel will shape the event a few months later.

If there are topics you like to see covered in this year's Digital Signage for Corporate Communication conference, please leave comments below. Or if you're interested in speaking, let me know that as well. You can check out last year's event to see what was covered. An industry publication published the key takeaways from the attendees. 

Now that the events are over it's only fair to ask what is next. It's off to the West Coast!!!!

I had a great time at Digital Signage Expo 2010 and here we are already getting ready for 2011. Last year, I had the fortune of leading two of the corporate communication "lunch & learns." This year it gets even better.

At Digital Signage Expo 2011, I will be moderating a panel of corporate communicators talking about the successes and challenges they've faced installing their own internal neworks. The session is titled "Best Practices for Corporate Communicators." Here's the description:


The event organizers have called out a special section just for corporate communicators with recommended seminars. It would be great to have more communicators and end-users make it out to Vegas.

If you're interested in going to the 2011 event, here's the registration information.

Sure, it's still a month and a half away, but I'm really looking forward to the 2010 IABC World Conference this June in Toronto. I've been a member of IABC for practically my entire career but my first world conference was last year in San Francisco.

Far and away, it was one of the best corporate communication shows I've ever attended. And according to the IABC website, they estimate more than 1,400 communications professionals will attend.

MediaTile exhibited last year and we'll be there again (booth #312). Many of the companies we are working with today on implementing digital signage at their companies I met at the 2009 conference. Given that Toronto is IABC's largest local chapter, I only expect more of the same.

As a brief introduction, my involvement with MediaTile dates back to 2004 when I was working with founder Keith Kelsen on prototyping a content management system for a revolutionary digital signage platform based on cellular networking technology. Thus was born the term, Cellular Digital Signage. The concept was exciting, broke new ground, leveraged technology components that were at the time far from common - it was a great opportunity for me to exercise my strengths in mixed-platform systems engineering to integrate disparate and discreet technology components into a cohesive, working system, so how could I resist?

Today I am a Vice President of the company leading the product development group and we are still blazing new trails. MediaTile has been an influential industry leader when it comes to innovation and establishment of best practices in the technology and Software as a Service (SaaS) - this is the kind of momentum that we will continue to pursue as we strive to lead the way for excellence. I know that I am on the right path when the MediaCast System is relevant, simple, robust, secure, and flexible.

Now let's get on to the nuts and bolts, so to speak. It is my desire to demonstrate through this blog the countless ways that the MediaCast system can be configured and linked with other technology to produce an awesome array of capabilities that may not be self-evident at first glance. I have gone to great lengths to enable this "Swiss Army Knife" of digital signage platforms, and I'd like to show you just exactly how this tool can be put to work in the real world to meet your goals for effective business communication.

While it is true that the Digital-Sign-in-a-Box concept couldn't be simpler with respect to getting a basic digital sign up and running, there are possibilities that extend the content system out to the farthest reaches of the Internet and that extend the viewer (and management) experience to new heights for a comprehensive solution that bears both depth and bredth - technically speaking...

Those of us who find ourselves spending most of the work day online (in one capacity or another) are aware of the power and effectiveness of social networking - but just as important is the power of traditional networking.  Industry organizations such as the Digital Signage Association (DSA) provide like-minded professionals an industrious and business-neutral forum for education, networking and advocacy. 

The DSA brings together vendors and users alike- everyone from display manufacturers, resellers and distributors, to content creators and network operators across all vertical markets.  Members and sponsors (including MediaTile) work together to move the industry forward, share best practices and business opportunities, and increase awareness about digital signage.

Whether you're a brand manager, a corporate communications manager, or a display vendor, the Digital Signage Association has an event, a whitepaper, or a behind-the-scenes initative designed to grow your deployments and ensure your success.

We wanted to give a shout-out to the DSA for everything they do and for giving us a voice. Check them out, or better yet:

Digital signage content suffers from the same ailment that web browsers did in the early 1990's... a complete lack of agreed upon standards with which new technologies and content can/should be created. A lack of standards creates an environment where each technology provider is working in a vacuum resulting in industry uncertainty and significant migration issues.

We need a organization like W3C (World Wide Web Consortium) to develop a set of standards for digital signage so that we, as an industry, can work toward enhancing content rather than developing yet another new way to approach digital signage technology. While there isn't a W3C of digital signage with an established set of industry standards, there are a number of groups that are beginning to make significant headway in this regard.

POPAI, the global association for marketing at retail, has taken it upon themselves to become this consortium. They have brought technology providers together to publish standards on hardware and protocols, and recently they have begun working on software standards. I commend the efforts POPAI has taken, and it will certainly help the industry mature.

Additionally, the Digital Signage Association (DSA) has established the Content Committee to be a guide for "Best Practices" for creating content. Both of these groups are making big strides toward building a foundation for digital signage technology and content.

The most important action a digital signage company can take is to be involved with the standards process, because as we begin to see adoption of hardware and software standards across the industry content will become much easier to create and manage. We must get to the point where a single piece of content can be created and used on multiple networks, and digital signage technology becomes as transparent as web technology. We still have quite a long way to go.

You may only get one chance to make a first impression, but you get a second chance to listen to a fantastic webinar.

If you missed Best Practices in Digital Signage content webinar from a few weeks back, fear not. You can listen to a recorded version of the session. It was hosted by our very own Keith Kelsen and featured a panel of Michael Chase and Paul Flanigan.

It was largely focused on the retail environment but many a lesson could be gleaned for other networks, including corporate communication. Check out the post I did after the webinar and make sure to listen to the webinar this time. There are great examples of content from both Dunkin Donuts and Best Buy.

Very few people outside the industry know about this, but the Digital Signage Association (DSA) offers free memberships to qualified companies. If you're a user or are deploying digital signage, I highly recommend signing up.

What do you get with the membership? What are the perks? I contacted David Drain, the Executive Director of DSA, to get the answers. Here are the highlights he provided:

• Networking
• Access to best practices
• Expert advice
• Savings on research publications, conferences and trade shows
• Ability to participate on committees

If a free sign up is just too big of a commitment or you're still not sure, you can always get their free newsletter, too. There doesn't appear to be a large corporate communication membership presence but let's see if we can change that.

MediaTile is a proud DSA member. And if you'd like to learn more, visit their site or follow David Drain (@DavidDrain) on Twitter.

If you missed today's Best Practices in Content webinar by the Digital Signage Association, then you missed out on a lot.

There were two great case studies that spoke volumes about the success digital signage can have in the retail environment. Michael Chase, St. Joseph, referenced work he did with Dunkin Donuts and Paul Flanigan, Experiate, spoke about his project at Best Buy. In both cases, digital signage had a profound impact on sales.

I especially enjoyed Paul's focus on purpose, and not product. Meaning that their messaging was all around with their product could and would do for you, not necessarily a list of features and creature comforts. It created an emotional response, something that's tough to do with static signage. Paul had a few other key takeaways from his project. You can click on the image to see his complete list.

What I'd be curious to know in the cases of both Best Buy and Dunkin Donuts is if they saw a change in employee behavior as a result of the signage installation. I'd like to know if employees felt better informed or engaged as a result of this information being promoted. Did it positively impact employee communications? Inquiring minds want to know!

Continuing on this nerdy trend, if you're interested you can follow along to the tweets that myself (@MediaTile) and Digital Signage Today (@DigSignageToday) contributed during the webinar. Just follow the hash tag #DSA.