A fellow blogger in the digital signage space, David Weinfeld wrote a post this week about how digital signage needs Facebook. While I agree with many of the points David makes about the strengths of the technology, I do not agree with his headline.
David is spot on with this comment.
But in my opinion, digital signage does not NEED Facebook. There certainly are ways I believe that Facebook and "likes" on certain pages could and should influence content managed by the network operator but a major challenge is that Facebook is constantly changing the rules. Facebook was not built for businesses. Though businesses should be taking advantage of the data that exists on sites like Facebook and Foursquare.
It's a big enough challenge maintaining and creating unique content for a digital signage network. I think providing timely contextual relevance from a third party source like Facebook could make this even more difficult in the day-to-day operations.
I'm a huge fan of Facebook and I love the "like" component to it. But just because I "like" things on Facebook does not (necessarily) mean that this is also content that I would like to see in the store.
I think Facebook can teach us a lot about individual behaviors and how people engage or like to engage with content, but I can count on one hand the number of retailers and companies who I think are doing a stellar job with the Facebook fan pages.
And if work and creativity aren't being put into these pages then it's not going to help digital signage. There are tons of digital signage examples, especially those networks embedded in corporate communications, that are widely successful. They've been successful because the content is fresh and relevant. They did this without Facebook.
What I would like to see, especially in the retail environment, is to see digital content on the screens promoting their Facebook presence. Maybe this retailer is running a promotion on its fan page. Digital signage is a perfect vehicle to drive traffic to Facebook. Because as the promotion changes, so does the message on the digital network.
So while I don't believe that digital signage needs Facebook, I will argue that Facebook can bring out the best in digital signage.
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Photo credit, DJ Waldow
David is spot on with this comment.
"The power of digital signage lies in its flexibility, immediacy, and relevancy. The medium draws its strength from the information and data that we don’t see. Rather than functioning as the means through which a canned playlist is distributed, digital signage can function as an omniscient marketing and sales tool."
But in my opinion, digital signage does not NEED Facebook. There certainly are ways I believe that Facebook and "likes" on certain pages could and should influence content managed by the network operator but a major challenge is that Facebook is constantly changing the rules. Facebook was not built for businesses. Though businesses should be taking advantage of the data that exists on sites like Facebook and Foursquare. It's a big enough challenge maintaining and creating unique content for a digital signage network. I think providing timely contextual relevance from a third party source like Facebook could make this even more difficult in the day-to-day operations.
I'm a huge fan of Facebook and I love the "like" component to it. But just because I "like" things on Facebook does not (necessarily) mean that this is also content that I would like to see in the store.
I think Facebook can teach us a lot about individual behaviors and how people engage or like to engage with content, but I can count on one hand the number of retailers and companies who I think are doing a stellar job with the Facebook fan pages.
And if work and creativity aren't being put into these pages then it's not going to help digital signage. There are tons of digital signage examples, especially those networks embedded in corporate communications, that are widely successful. They've been successful because the content is fresh and relevant. They did this without Facebook.
What I would like to see, especially in the retail environment, is to see digital content on the screens promoting their Facebook presence. Maybe this retailer is running a promotion on its fan page. Digital signage is a perfect vehicle to drive traffic to Facebook. Because as the promotion changes, so does the message on the digital network.
So while I don't believe that digital signage needs Facebook, I will argue that Facebook can bring out the best in digital signage.
_______________________
Photo credit, DJ Waldow
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The adoption by the both sides (social media/digital signage) to converge will take a lot less time than we think, but there are some big kinks that need to be cleaned out.