Digital Signage Solutions

My name is Chuck Gose and I'm a MediaTile employee -- and a former customer. Companies are discovering every day that it's critical to keep employees informed and up to date. An engaged and educated workforce is a productive workforce. And with the challenge of competing messages adding to the clutter, how do your employee communications rise above it?

 

In this blog I will discuss how to install your very own MediaTile digital signage network for your company and how to integrate digital signage into your communication tool belt. We hope to help you understand how to best use the technology, including ardware and software, to engage your workforce and enhance your internal communications and corporate communications activities. If the blog helps, great. If it doesn't, let me know. You're free to use the comment sections after each posting to contribute your own ideas.

Happy July 4th from us at MediaTile.

The video is above is part of our Media-Moments subscription package. Created by our MediaServices team, it's digital signage content  that network operators can use to supplement their existing messages. We keep the messages simple enough so that you integrate them into your existing office signage communication.

In recognition of the Fourth of July, our corporate headquarters in Scotts Valley, CA, will be closed Friday, July 3, 2009. The office will re-open Monday, July 6, 2009.
 
For those reaching out to us over the extended holiday weekend, all phone calls will be routed through our standard after-hours call center. In the event you should experience a Tier 2 or Tier 1 (moderately severe/most severe) digital signage support issue during this time frame, please indicate the severity of your situation to the call center and you will be routed to an appropriate MediaTile support person.

MediaTile notifies customers about issues, software updates, portal updates, release schedules and maintenance through an emailed MediaTile Support Bulletin. We'll also use this blog in a dedicated effort to improve communication.

Should you have any other needs or issues, please send a note to support@mediatile.com, or call our direct number at 877-881-6900 and ask for support.

I admit. I got a bit excited when I received the latest PRSA's PR Tactics in the mail yesterday. Aside from the usual ranting of the same people, it has some really good and insightful articles in it from pros doing the work.

But the headline on the current edition is "Fast Forward: Video's continued evolution." That's right up my alley. I was hoping to there would be content focused on employee communications and not just PR and I wasn't disappointed.

So on page 13, I make it to an article by Mike McDougall, APR, titled, "The changing rules of the video game: Integrating online video into everyday communications."

Reading through the article, I agree with most of Mike's comments, with the key word being "most." He writes about the use of glossy corporate video compared to more home grown versions with employees shooting their own. Solid advice. Along with reminders about how inexpensive video is now. Couldn't agree more.

So I make it to the subhead, "Video for employee engagement." Now we're talking. The good stuff. . . . right?


What!?

Maybe a decade ago it was the rage, but the rage continues as small and large corporations are looking at digital signage as a way to reach all employees, not just those who don't have traditional access to email, voice mail and the intranet. Many like to single out the manufacturing workforce as if they are some sort of neanderthal workforce because they don't have easy access when actually many organizations (retail and hospitals for example) have thousands upon thousands of workers who don't stare at computer screens all day.

Also what I'm seeing and hearing is that employees are growing tired of always staring at their computer screens (if they have them). If you've been working at your desk all day, are you going to stay sitting there and watch (and pay attention) to a 5 or 10-minute video? So this is where communicators need to reach out and communicate in different ways. For many companies, digital signage is that different way.

And if dust was gathering on the screens as Mike suggests, it was because various communication departments lost focus and neglected the tool. It wasn't because employees weren't paying attention. And let's say it was because employees weren't paying attention, then the content must have stunk, which will kill any communications vehicle out there.

I'm all for video being pushed to the intranet. It's great, especially for remote or mobile employees who otherwise wouldn't have access. But even today, you mention to your IT department that you're interested in hosting lots of video and possibly even stream it, you'll likely either be met with blank stares or bouts of laughter. Yes, IT people do laugh.

And I guess I'm a bit confused by Mike's statement that intranets killed the video star but then he goes on to talk about the use of video on the intranet.

The video star is alive and well. You, the communicator, are the video star. You just need to make sure you have the right vehicles in place to deliver that video message.

Nice to get that all off my chest.

When this commercial first aired, it was pretty funny. America was in love with Mark McGwire. Now that many of our baseball heroes are tainted, that love has justifiably faded.


But in corporate communication, just like in baseball, the home runs get noticed. You conduct employee focus groups for the first time in years AND do something with the information? That's a homerun. You get your IT department to begin adding social media elements to your intranet? Dinger. You reach out to those employees who don't have access to email or the intranet with a digital signage solution? It's outta here.

Homeruns get attention but they don't win championships all by themselves. You need stolen bases. You need solid pitching. You need to be solid defensively up the middle. These things and many, many, many more.

If you're only out there swinging for the fences with your employee communications, you'll get attention. Your employees will love you for it. But you'll also strike out a lot, too. You have to balance getting attention and being effective.

Both are crucial.

For corporate communicators, your job is to communicate. No, it isn't the only thing you do, but take it all down to the root level and you're expected to take your company's news and information and deliver it to various audiences, whether they are internal or external.

And from what I'm seeing, people are pretty successful at communicating. It's easy to just regurgitate info that some department head or exec is giving you. Sometimes it feels like it's not worth the fight to suggest or make changes. So you just pass it on through to your newsletters and intranets.

But if you weren't the middle man in the process, would you read your own corporate communication? I started to wonder that myself at my old gig where I managed internal communications.

Your audiences are fickle. They can tell how much time and energy you put into a communication. How much creativity and thought you put into it all. And I guarantee you they will give it the same amount of time that you did.

So it's your job, whether you're rewriting an announcement for your intranet or creating a message for your digital signage network, to give the content the time and attention it needs. Your audience will then do the same.

Though a few scheduled posts appeared last week, I (for the most part) took the week off to refresh. If you have the afforded luxury of taking a vacation away from work, it truly can help you recharge, especially if you're like me -- Macbook and BlackBerry, 24/7. But it's good to get back at it this week. After dropping the kiddos off at daycare this morning, I heard the Go-Gos "Vacation," which provided the headline inspiration.

This week, I'm meeting with a colleague I met through PRSA to talk to her about some of the employee communication trends and issues she's seeing. In her current role, she consults with companies on the communications needs so I'm curious to hear what she's seeing on site at companies. Maybe she'll let me do some Q&A. We'll see.

I'm also hoping to write about some of the various digital signage uses I saw during the travels -- some good, some bad -- but not any using our technology. Just an honest assessment of what how I'm seeing businesses and organizations using digital signage.

I remember when I started this blog last year that I was excited the first weekend to see that a whole six people read the blog. Six! And that number could probably be attributed to my family.

Now several months and more than a 100+ posts later, I thought it would be interesting to see which posts were the most popular according to the readers.

Here's the Top 6 visited posts:

1. The cost of poor internal communications (March 3, 2009)
2. Security is important, with or without zombies (January 29, 2009)
3. Do you rely on line managers for employee communications (March 9, 2009)
4. Who is the "THE" in digital signage (January 27, 2009)
5. Download today's USA Today supplement on digital signage (March 20, 2009)
6. Fill in the workplace communication gap (March 27, 2009)

Looking at the dates, I must have been on a roll in March and January. In a future post, I'd like to highlight my favorite posts, which I'm hoping will at least differ slightly from the list above.

Happy Tuesday!

Growing up, I couldn't tell you how many times I heard that when I was a kid. AND it was always an annoyance because it seemed interrupt my GI Joe cartoons. And thankfully, it always only seemed to be a test. But the Emergency Broadcast System was in place a valuable crisis communication tool, giving the government the ability to alert communities if there was a crisis at hand.

We are now giving that same ability to MediaTile digital signage network operators. Just announced last week, users can now implement what's called an Emergency Media Trigger (EMT), allowing them to interrupt their normal broadcast with an emergency message to be played on the screens. It's designed to integrate within existing emergency notification systems and control centers on college campuses and at corporations.


The EMT feature will enable network operators to use an external triggering mechanism, such as email, to interrupt a regularly scheduled program while automatically triggering an emergency message to play across a digital signage network.  A second "all clear" external trigger will reset the network to its previously scheduled programming.

It is scheduled for release late summer, and will be supported on all installed MediaTile displays and networks.

Think about how important this could be for your crisis communication planning at your company or college campus. It's comforting to know that you would now have the ability to interrupt you normal messaging to convert your network into a vital communication tool during a crisis.

Though it's probably something you never hope you have to use, it's nice to know you'll have it if you need it.

Here is another rundown of a very busy week...

Monday, June 15
Getting face to face with customers
In the world of corporate communications, getting face to face communications is primo. And in my world, it's not much different. I'm out on the road visiting one of our key customers today and a potential customer (fingers crossed) tomorrow. This is the part of the job I love the most.

Tuesday, June 16
Talking TCO at the Digital Signage Technology Summit
I'm on my way down to Orlando for the Digital Signage Technology Summit and will be talking about total cost of ownership (TCO) Wednesday with MediaTile chairman Keith Kelsen. We'll be highlighting two of our more prominent corporate communication customers, one of which is Rolls-Royce (very near and dear to my heart).

Wednesday, June 17
Video from the IABC Employee Communications panel up on YouTube
In case you couldn't tell, I really had a great time speaking at the IABC World Conference's panel on Employee Communications last Tuesday. And it always makes you a little bit nervous when you're speaking and you see someone pop up with a Flip video camera.

Thursday, June 18
Another great Digital Signage Technology Summit
Great lineup. Great attendees. Great enthusiasm. That pretty much sums up my impression of this week's Digital Signage Technology Summit. What I loved about the attendees to this event is the variety. There's a mix of AV integrators, corporations, health care, entrepreneurs, and even a few schools this time. I've noticed over the last few years is that a lot of the fluff has worn away and the attendees are now focused on what they want to accomplish with digital signage. And this mix of attendees achieves this.

Friday, June 19
Happy Father's Day from MediaTile (video)


And here's a few other interesting readings that crossed my plate this week:

• Employee policies: Yes we can!
  
  
• Six ways to measure the ROI of employee engagement
  
  
• Leaders ignore internal comms advice during recession

MediaTile would like to wish all of the dads out there a Happy Father's Day this coming Sunday.

This video is part of our Media-Moments subscription package. Our customers have been playing this it on their digital signage networks for the past couple weeks. Sure it's not groundbreaking communication but maybe it was a gentle reminder to those who may have forgotten about the holiday.


Father's Day can be a bit bittersweet for some. My father passed away 10 years ago, but I'm blessed to have the two greatest kiddos in the world. They prove everyday that life is more fulfilling when you have special people to share it with. And it doesn't hurt when they are so damn cute.

Happy Father's Day from one father to the rest out there.

Great lineup.

Great attendees.

Great enthusiasm.

That pretty much sums up my impression of this week's Digital Signage Technology Summit. Unfortunately, I couldn't be there for the first day of the event but again I only heard great things from those I chatted with.

What I loved about the attendees to this event is the variety. There's a mix of AV integrators, corporations, health care, entrepreneurs, and even a few schools this time. I've noticed over the last few years is that a lot of the fluff has worn away and the attendees are now focused on what they want to accomplish with digital signage. And this mix of attendees achieves this.

The session I spoke on was all about total cost of ownership (TCO) and used two of our corporate communication customers as examples. Simplicity is what helps to drive TCO down and that's what MediaTile's solution is built on.

We received a lot of questions about content for digital signage, which is great news. Though getting proper hardware and networking installed is important, the content is what will determine the success of a digital signage network.

Plus, kudos goes to the Strategy Institute staff for putting on a strong show yet again. I'm just bummed that I couldn't stick around the the last two days of Infocomm. I think I only got to spend a total of 15 minutes on the floor but there was some pretty amazing stuff out there.

Special thanks to Paula Cassin at Cut Through Communications for recording the embedded video.

In case you couldn't tell, I really had a great time speaking at the IABC World Conference's panel on Employee Communications last Tuesday. And it always makes you a little bit nervous when you're speaking and you see someone pop up with a Flip video camera.

Here were my initial comments during the panel. (The Flip is great technology but it's tough to get good audio when you're not next to someone so please turn your volume up.)


I also recommend checking out all of the other panelist's videos and comments. The session overall was very strong thanks to not only the panelists but the audience provided tremendous feedback and commentary. Many of them could have easily been up there with the rest of us.

One unsuspecting attendee asked me what tool I recommend using to reach workers who don't have access to traditional electronic communication. This set me up perfectly to talk about the success digital signage can have in improving communication. She worked at a zoo in Canada and the typical zoo worker does not sit in front a computer all day. They are, as you should guess, taking care of the animals.

Needless to say, she's going to look into the technology. Digital signage would be perfect for them.

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On a completely unrelated note, if you double click on the video and go to the YouTube page, it's kind of cool that I'm related in search with Chuck Norris and Chuck D. But I'm not sure how I feel about all of the Chuck E. Cheese videos.

I'm on my way down to Orlando for the Digital Signage Technology Summit and will be talking about total cost of ownership (TCO) Wednesday with our chairman Keith Kelsen. We'll be highlighting two of our more prominent corporate communication customers, one of which is Rolls-Royce (very near and dear to my heart).

I don't want to give away the presentation details but we'll be discussing four elements of TCO in the corp comm market:

1. Connectivity
2. Hardware
3. Software
4. Content

We'll then examine two unique corp comm installs and their TCO. The one element that stands out to me is content because it is typically handled in-house by communicators. It's often overlooked as part of the cost. Your time is money. You need a digital signage solution that's easy to manage yet still gives you robust content.

If you're at the Summit, please check out presentation at 9:30 on Wednesday. I hope to see you there. If you're on Twitter, you can follow along at #ic09.

In the world of corporate communications, getting face to face communications is the primo. And in my world, it's not much different. I'm out on the road visiting one of our key customers today and a potential customer (fingers crossed) tomorrow. This is the part of the job I love the most.

Being the employee communications nerd that I am, I truly do enjoy seeing how companies of all sizes embrace communicating to employees. And sometimes it's helpful to have someone like me come in and be able to step back and evaluate what's going on.

We all know that when we get our head involved in projects, it's tough to take a step back. In my job, I'm able to now do that and it's very rewarding.
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Photo credit, Jim Brayton

Attending last week's IABC World Conference provided a wealth of content. Here's the rundown...

Monday, June 8
Day 1 recap from the IABC World Conference
Day 1 is about to officially come to a close and it's been a strong first day. Though it shouldn't come as much of a surprise given that it is a world conference, much of the content and sessions is focused on communicating to a global audience. Global communication is a challenge for any organization with people scattered about time zones and geographies. Just when some employees are showing up to work, others are going to bed.

Tuesday, June 9
Discussing trends in employee communications
I'm really honored to take part in this morning's "expert" panel on employee communications at the 2009 IABC World Conference. Though I feel the expert label is a bit of a misnomer and widely overused, hence the quotation marks. I'm not expert (though others on the panel may be). I'm an enthusiast. I love everything involving employee communications.

Employee communications a hot topic at IABC
I feel like a lot of internal communicators get stuck in their own worlds sometimes. Our audiences are the people inside the four walls so sometimes we don't look outside for help, or maybe just don't realize where help is. At least I never did. We've heard we all need to be better story tellers, and sometimes are stories are the ones best told. I'd like to thank everyone for sharing their hard work.

Wednesday, June 10
ROM for Corporate Communications is a game-changer
It's quite timely that just as we wrap up a successful IABC World Conference, we've announced a special new version of our ROM (Return on Message) Methodology for corporate communications. In my biased opinion, this is a game-changer. The topic of measurement came up again and again at the IABC World Conference.

Friday, June 11
What role will communicators play during the recovery period?
For the employee communications expert panel at this week's IABC World Conference, I was asked to talk briefly about a communications trend I've seen recently. Aside from the obvious one (social media), the only thing I've seen is internal communicators getting beat up on a daily basis.

And here's a few others that peaked my interest...

• Talk your way to employee engagement
   
• Communicators split on digital implementation, impact
   
• The key to fast and effective communications

___________________
Photo credit, bingbing

For the employee communications expert panel at this week's IABC World Conference, I was asked to talk briefly about a communications trend I've seen recently. Aside from the obvious one (social media), the only thing I've seen is internal communicators getting beat up on a daily basis. For the last six months they have been in crisis mode because announced layoffs, business cuts and other fun news.

So what I presented to the group was more a curiosity that I had. I'm really interested to see that as the economy moves from recession to recovery, what key role will communicators play?

One of the Canadian attendees provided some fantastic insight. She said what the US is going through now, several Canadian provinces went through in the mid 90s. In the down economy, employers held the balance of power. There were no jobs, so employees simply hunkered down. Once the economy rebounded, employees held the balance of power and could basically make demands of their job that they couldn't before. She said, for example, that Starbucks workers were making $16-20 an hour.

Though I doubt we'll see something that dramatic here in the US, it is possible that the power will shift to employees. I know of people who like to leave their job, but simply can't. And when the economy improves, they will have options.

So companies must engage the employees they want to keep, the good guys. It can be extremely damaging to a business to lose talented workers. So corporate communications professionals will play a vital role in adding this value and must continue to improve workplace communication. Proof that I'm not the only one thinking about this, I found this post from Melcrum this morning titled, "10 questions to ask leaders as businesses emerge from the recession."

It's a great read for those interested. One particular contributor cited the need for communicators to get out in front of the recovery period and begin communicating before it's too late.

In a future post, I'll talk about how and why communicators should begin now making plans as part of this recovery period, such as making investments in new tools (like digital signage) or updating existing vehicles.
______________________
Photo credit, Doublep1

It's quite timely that just as we wrap up a successful IABC World Conference, we've announced a special new version of our ROM (Return on Message) Methodology for corporate communications.

In my biased opinion, this is a game-changer. The topic of measurement came up again and again at the IABC World Conference. It's a tough topic to take on in internal communications. But with ROM Methodology, corporate communicators can now attach real data to their digital signage networks.

Here's a screen shot of the ROM radar map, along with the seven indexes used to evaluate the networks:


It's no secret that content is important and is #1 on the list. But the methodology also factors in relevance, interaction, schedule, placement, refresh and attraction. The map above shows where a network has its strengths and weaknesses so that a communicator can maximize the technology. And for those who haven't installed a network yet, ROM provides a road map to success.

We think ROM is key to digital signage analysis, but the techniques and application didn't come out of thin air. The system is based on best practices by the independent Digital Signage Association.

Measurement is difficult in communications but it's also a necessity. ROM provides communicators with a simple solution to a complex problem. In data-driven organizations (like so many are today), being able to provide leadership with measurement figures is huge.

I feel like a lot of internal communicators get stuck in their own worlds sometimes. Our audiences are the people inside the four walls so sometimes we don't look outside for help, or maybe just don't realize where help is. At least I never did.

The IABC World Conference lets internal communicators take a step back and see the success other companies are having with new strategies and technologies. There are so many great ideas, case studies and thoughts on how to improve employee communications.

This morning I was fortunate enough to be on a panel with Jeremy Schultz, Paul Barton, and Dave Meyer. Even though we each have internal communication backgrounds, we've had wildly different experiences. And I hope this helped those attending.

UPDATE: And there was this guy named Steve Crescenzo there, too. You might have heard of him.

I was pleased to see so many questions asked during and after the session from the session attendees. And frankly thrilled to see so many people up early to attend. Great communicators know that there are improvements that can be made, but not for not just for the sake of doing something different but more to engage employees with the business.

And even outside of this session, there are so many other great speakers sharing their employee communication stories.

We've heard we all need to be better story tellers, and sometimes are stories are the ones best told. I'd like to thank everyone for sharing their hard work.

I'm really honored to take part in this morning's "expert" panel on employee communications at the 2009 IABC World Conference. Though I feel the expert label is a bit of a misnomer and widely overused, hence the quotation marks.

I'm not expert (though others on the panel may be).

I'm an enthusiast.

I love everything involving employee communications. 10 years ago, I had no idea what employee comms was. And now? It's a passion of mine. Throughout my career, I've pushed for the use of technology to extend the reach and strengthen the impact of messages. That's how I came across digital signage. I drive people crazy with ideas of how to push executives and shun the status-quo of doing things the way they've been done.

I'm hoping the session provides some great discussion (and great blog fodder), and it should with Steve Crescenzo guiding the ship. The session starts at 8:15 am, awful early to be charming but we'll do our best. I hope to see you there with coffee in hand.