Rather than bother everybody's Twitter stream with updates, I thought it would be better to provide presentation thoughts here (and serves as good note-taking for me).
Guenther Scherelis and Tommi Paris, Volkswagen Group of America: “Building a New Plant with New People in a New Place: The Role of Internal Communications at Volkswagen Chattanooga”
- Many don't know that the Volkswagen brand family includes Audio, Bentley, Lamborghini and Bugatti. In 2010, Volkswagen was third internationally in vehicle sales.
- Volkswagen closed a US plant in 1988 due to poor internal communications. Opened a new factory in Chattanooga, TN, in 2011.
- 2,000 jobs were available when the factory opened but Volkswagen received more than 85,000 applications.
- Internal communications' purpose is to strive toward serving as the company voice, support a positive employee relations strategy and improve company efficiency and performance.
- The strategy is to supplement supervisor communication, highlight team contributions, enhance team member experience and utilize communication tools that DO NOT accentuate the divide between hourly & salaried.
- VIN (Volkswagen Information Network) is a digital signage network the company uses to deliver dynamic communication. Also includes printed communication boards. The key here is to blend dynamic and static. Their network is updated on a weekly basis.
- Interesting that Volkswagen doesn't have digital signage to support global communication.
- Great to see that the company still relies on printed communication for many of their communication updates.
- Volkswagen still mails newsletters (quarterly) to employees' homes. Many companies have cut this practice to eliminate cost.
- The culture at Volkswagen is "Passion for detail." Their group theme is "Think Blue. Factory." (i.e. beyond just environmental)
- There are unique challenges for companies opening up a brand new factory versus those that are working in a dated facility.
- Glad to see they are citing a difference between language (German vs American) and culture.
- The key to success is finding the middle point between what management wants to say and what employees want to hear.
- Surprised that Volkswagen hasn't yet surveyed their employees to know what their preferred communication methods are and really aren't doing any measurement either.
The fact is I have very high expectations for today's
Connect 11 conference. And it's not meant to put any kind of pressure on the organizers or speakers. It's the exact kind of conference I've been looking for since I've been in employee communications.
The conference focuses on the more difficult and challenging side of employee communications. How do you communicate to a
"disconnected" workforce who doesn't have ready access to email, voice mail, the intranet and so forth?
The fact is that
communicators have gotten lazy. We assume that just because we post something or email something, that people are chomping on the bit to click it. When a communicator doesn't have those options they have to get creative.
And this is the challenge I sent to communicators who say their employees are all "connected." Are they?
Do all of your email get opened? Hardly.
Do employees check the intranet every single day? Maybe but not likely.
So how are you ensuring your messages are getting delivered. This is what I hope to hear from the Connect 11 speakers. The event has a great selection of corporate communication pros all on one track.
To say the role of a corporate communicator is diverse would be like saying the Sistine Chapel has a nice ceiling painting. And maybe that's laying it on a bit heavy but the point is that corporate communications staffs have so much on their shoulders.
When it's being responsible for tracking public relations activities, managing corporate social responsibility or coordinating employee communication activities, they carry a hefty load. (And this is just highlighting the "fun" activities. It's always about improving communication. . . or should be.
This infographic from PRWeek shows the "anatomy" of a corporate communicator. Not the blood and guts part (thought I'm sure you'd find that most have an ulcer), but more the breakdown of what the communicator's responsibilities are and the pressures they face.
Probably the two least surprising stats on here are:
- 66% expect no change or a reduction in staffing in 2012
- Budget restraints are the #1 cause of job stress.
Is there any statistic that you find alarming or do the figures reflect the challenges facing corporate communications in 2012?
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Infographic, courtesy of PRWeek
Corporate social responsibility is one of those that often falls on the plates of corporate communication pros. And while it used to be a bit of an afterthought, this article from
PRWeek, corporate social responsibility is becoming more of a differentiator for companies.
In the competitive environment that we're in, it's imperative that companies communicate their philanthropic efforts to ALL stakeholders, including employees. Here are four tips the author provides on how to create better overall engagement with CSR:
- Develop clear and concise messages that demonstrate the benefit to the philanthropic cause, the value it brings to the company's corporate reputation, and the impact on the employee as an individual
- Deliver the message consistently year-round and not just once a year during a charitably campaign (it has to become part of the company's DNA)
- Create a means to measure the campaign's impact and communicate results to all stakeholders
- Encourage feedback from employees to ensure a sense of ownership and a deeper connection to the overall CSR strategy.
We've seen many of our clients successfully use
digital signage to communicate their CSR strategies and successes and has become a bigger part of overall workplace communication.
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:
You will hear best practices from some of our industry’s best practitioners who will show you real-life examples of how they:
- 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.
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:
- Networking
- Cellular
- WiFi
- LAN
- Scalability
- SaaS
- Unlimited users
- Cost of installation
- Complexity of installation
- Variety of file types
- Scheduling
- Digital signage hardware
- Content management
- Content expansion
- Component players
- The Cloud
- Touch screens
- Training
- Digital signage content creation
- Custom-branded templates
- Video
- Security
- IT involvement
- Custom training
- Support
- Content best practices
- Screen placement
- Project management
- Return on investment
- Enterprise deployments
- 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 #30: Enterprise deployments 
A nationwide or worldwide
digital signage deployment can scare the pants off even the most hardened IT or marketing professional. It can be a nightmare between all of the logistics of purchasing and IT networking.
But just because it CAN BE doesn't mean it HAS TO BE. We've helped both large and small companies deploy signage networks, here in the states and abroad. Because our hardware just needs a data connection (
LAN, WiFi or cellular), you can put them anywhere. Our MediaCast software is web-based, which means you can give users access anywhere they have an Internet connection.
And we can provide enterprise-level pricing for those looking at large digital signage deployments. Giving you an "all-you-can-eat" signage solution (hence the zombie image). We've made it as easy possible to deploy your digital out of home network, especially if you're trying to deploy across multiple locations or countries.
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 #25: Support 
Nobody likes having to call support. But from time to time, it's an inevitability. And we try to make it as easy as possible. For one, we never charge for support. You can email us or call us several times a day if you want. No fee.
And here's the not-so-scary part. We WANT you to get in touch with us if you're having problems. Because not only do we know that our customers are on track, but it also helps us improve our
digital signage software and
hardware. Customer feedback is the biggest part of our product roadmap.
Support is available weekdays, 8am EDT to 8pm EDT. But we're also proactive. Every week, our support team sends out helpful tips to not only educate our customer base but also give them some new ideas on how to use our software.
So don't be afraid to call or email support. That's why we have it.
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 #24: Training 
As with any new hardware or software, users are going to need to be trained.
Digital signage is no different. But what can be horrifying is that amount of training that's needed for some systems. I've heard scary stories of people going to two- and three-day trainings just to get oriented with the signage platforms. And that's just the first step.
With ours, it requires a basic 2-3 hour web training with our customer support team. That's it. Most of our users are up and running immediately after. And some even before. Built right into our
MediaCast software is video support. Once logged in, users can watch helpful videos about some of the more basic tasks.
We ask new customers to watch these even before going through our training. It allows them to become familiar with the software and then they come armed with questions to the official training.
But the best training of all is using the
digital signage software. The more you use it, the better you will get at it. And for those who want more, we offer custom advanced training for our power users.
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 #23: IT involvement One of the scariest phrases to a marketer or communicator is, "You'll need to get IT involved." They've likely worked with IT in the past on projects and probably clashed. Not because either group is in a feisty mood, but because often their priorities are vastly different.
If a company chooses cellular as the networking choice, IT doesn't HAVE to be involved, but I still recommend it. It will be helpful for them to understand how the network works. And if LAN or Wi-Fi is chosen, a marketer will need IT's support to add the
digital signage network to the internal network.
Many IT people I've worked with love the cellular solution because it's NOT on their network. But because of the
security measures we've built into our platform, more and more IT pros are supportive of adding a MediaTile network to the corporate LAN or Wi-Fi.
So don't be afraid to call IT when you're looking to launch a network. Their hearts are in the right place. . . usually.
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 #22: Security Without a doubt, having the proper security in place for your
digital signage network is vital. And if you work with us, we've done that for you. Whether you are connecting your network over cellular, Wi-Fi or LAN, we've hardened our devices and only allow permitted communication to take place. Our platform is a "pull" technology so there's no way for anybody else to "push" content onto your network.
We've shown why security is important on a
past blog post, but here are
security tips we provide to our customers:
- Audit your user list regularly; make sure that former employees or contractors are removed from the system, and that those who are active only have access to what they should.
- Use role-based separation; enforce a work flow process by way of internal procedure. Only allow the content producers to upload content; the digital sign network operators should review and approve content for scheduling - don't allow one person to perform both functions if you want an opportunity to review content before it goes live.
- Require password changes; enforce a password rotation policy for MediaCast logins. Prohibit users from using their web browser to 'remember' the login for the site! Any laptop with a remembered password that gets stolen automatically grants the thief access to your digital signage network. (Note: this is a real security risk, but it might incite panic - what do the marketing folks think?)
- Require strong passwords; passwords should include upper and lower case letters, numbers, even symbols from the keyboard, and should be at least 8 characters long. Users should be discouraged from using something that's too simple, or something they routinely use for other logins around the Internet.
- Don't use email; email is a notoriously insecure method of communication is a preferred method for hackers to sniff out usernames and passwords to systems that they shouldn't have access to. If you need to send a login to someone, pick up the phone!
- Digital signs are valuable; don't tell too many “interested” people where all your signs are located. If they want to see one, select a couple flagship locations to send prospectives to check them out. you never know who might be looking to take advantage of you for an easy score. (Again, something we want to mention? maybe it's over-stating the obvious, but I think a lot of people in business just think about business and don't take a step back and think about reality...)
- Beware of URL Files; though the MediaCast system supports URL Files which can be automatically retrieved and displayed on your signs, be certain that you trust the source of the content and whoever has access to it because you will not have any oversight as to what gets displayed.
We do everything we can to relieve you of any fear related to the security of your signage network.
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 #20: Branded templates In
yesterday's post, we talked about about our Composer tool (it allows you to create content for your digital signage network right in our software). In this post, I want to spend more time talking about customizing the templates for your company.
The general templates are available to be used and abused by all of our customers, but they are a bit generic (on purpose). The real benefit of Composer comes in when you upload custom-branded Composer templates for your network.
Content that's on
digital signage for banks should look a lot different than a network for a college campus. Retail networks should look different than a corporate communications one.
But even though the looks are different, they can all still be professional through a template system. One of our corporate communication customers themed all of their templates so that employees would know what sort of content was on the screen before even reading the message. This type of planning can be very beneficial to a network's success.
It's no secret that content is critical to a network's success and Composer is a tool that makes creating content not so scary.
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 #19: Content creation Previously we talked about the variety of file types that you can play on our
digital signage solution, but there is also another option. Through our tool called
Composer, users can use embedded templates to contribute content.
We've built in standard ones that any customer can use, or you can upload or have us create your own custom-branded templates. This way you can ensure that no matter who is contributing content you know what it will look like. Your colors, your schemes, your brand. No stretched logos or goofy clip art.
In fact, one of our corporate communication customers has locked their users out of doing anything BUT using Composer to add content. This guarantees consistency with the corporate content at an international and regional level.
If you'd like to see the Composer tool in action, check out this
demo. It can make creating content for your out of home network not so scary.
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 #16: The cloud We've all seen commercials touting the benefits of "the cloud." If you're on Facebook or Twitter, you're using cloud computing. And since our beginnings,
MediaTile has been in the cloud with our digital signage offering. We are 100%
SaaS.
Other than the physical player units or screens, there is no other on-site hardware or applications to manage. This is what "the cloud" refers to. We host everything for you so that you don't have to worry about it.
And if you choose cellular to manage your digital signage network, your signage is truly cloud-based in that it doesn't even require any on-site networking to speak of. This has been a tremendous benefit for many of our corporate communication networks who either couldn't get access to their internal network or the network was too fragile to handle any more connections.
The cloud isn't a scary place at all. In fact, we think it's the best place to manage your signage network, no matter how large or small.
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 #15: Media playersMaybe you've made a previous investment in
digital signage and just aren't happy with the product. And yet you still have leftover LCDs or plasma screens you want to still use. This is where our
media player comes in. We've helped company salvage their existing hardware investment and easily connect our media player to revitialize their digital signage network.
These players can still connect via
Wi-Fi, LAN or Cellular and give you the same benefits of our all-in-one solution.
Another reason customers have purchased our media players is simply because they want to purchase their own screens. Maybe they have a local supplier who can get them a good deal. That's fine with us. The media players connect via HDMI, DVI or VGA into the 3rd party screen.
So whether you've made a previous investment that you don't want to lose or just want to buy your own screens, there's no reason to be afraid of our media players.
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 #12: Digital signage hardware This is one of the areas where I feel
MediaTile has changed the game on people. Whereas launching a signage network used to be mess of IT equipment and hardware, it's no longer the case today. We've hung our hats on true "plug and play" digital technology.
Whether you use cellular, LAN or Wi-Fi to network your screens, you do not need any other equipment on site. No servers. No dedicated PCs. Just power and you are good to go.
Many of our customer like our
Digital Signs in a Box (DSB). This is a bundled package that includes the player and screen, all in one. But others who either have screens or just want to purchase their own, we sell a
media player that connects via HDMI into the third party device. Again, just add power and you're ready to go.
So no longer does signage hardware have to be a nightmare. Choosing the right hardware is very important, but it's also crucial that you pick hardware that lets you focus on running your network. That's what we've provided.
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 #11: Scheduling 
For a few
digital signage owners, scheduling is a major portion of their network. But for most, it can be a little bit of an afterthought. They don't really put that much thought into properly scheduling content on their network.
MediaCast, our web-based software, includes a complete and robust scheduling platform, including the ability to schedule down to the minute. So many in the industry use a term called "dayparting," but what it's really about is getting the right content to the right audience at the right time.
For
employee communications networks, they will commonly loop the same content throughout the day, and then use the scheduling feature to turn the signage off when they don't need it. But for our retailers and banking customers, they can schedule specific content to target their audience at specific times. This is a vital feature.
Another key scheduling benefit is the ability to make content expire. Let's say you have a specific marketing campaign that ends on a certain date. Instead of having to worry about removing that content from your playlist on that date, you can simply schedule it to expire. Once the date hits, the content doesn't get played.
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 #10: Variety of file types 
One of the first questions I get when I talk to digital signage newbies is, "What kind of content can I play?" And this is a good question, because it means they are focusing on the right things.
My answer back is, "Well, what are you currently creating content in?" The beauty of MediaTile's MediaCast
digital signage software is that we have no proprietary format types.
You have a video that's MP4? Upload it.
Have a simple JPG that you'd like to put on the screen? Upload it.
Want to feed content through an RSS feed? Send it on in.
Our platform plays videos, static imagery, Flash, Dynamic Flash, RSS and, yes, even the dreaded
PowerPoint.
And this is just the content that you've created outside the system or want to feed in. Later we'll talk about creating content
INSIDE MediaCast. (
Or you can check it out for yourself.)
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Flickr image, Norwichnuts
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 #7: Unlimited Users Yesterday, we talked about why people shouldn't be afraid of a SaaS
digital signage software offering. And one of those key benefits of SaaS is unlimited users.
Back when I first started managing signage networks, we had to pay for seats/licenses for individuals to access the network. And me being cheap, we all shared the same login. It worked but certainly wasn't ideal. It created all sort of security risks, in addition to content problems with people being in the system at the same time.
MediaCast is web-based and has always been web-based.
We encourage our customers to add as many users to the system as they want, logically speaking of course.
Within the software, there is a full right and permissions panel for admins. So not only can you have an unlimited number of users, but you can set up unique rights and permissions for each of them. You can have common roles similar to other CMS software (super admin, admin, editor, contributor, etc) or define each user experience to exactly what they need to be able to do.
This is great for international deployments, who are looking to improve global communication to employees and customers.
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Flickr image, Guerry
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