Digital signage powers corporate communications

4 min read

You've spent all this money on a digital signage system, and put in many hours of work to craft attractive, succinct and informative messages. So how do you know that your efforts are working? If you haven't been using digital signage for corporate communications, think about doing so – it saves time and money, and makes everything run smoother.

You can use ROI triggers to measure results, which is always a good idea, but there are more general ways to determine if your digital signage is effective, and easy fixes if it needs improvement.

Avoid Confusion

Just ask around – if your employees seem to be unclear about your company's mission, policies and procedures, then something isn't right.

Make sure you have messages on your displays that clarify and explain these things. If you already have some of these messages, maybe they need to be re-tooled to be clearer. Or maybe your messages are fantastic, but people just aren't retaining the information. Think about finding memorable ways to present what you need them to know.

Humor is often a good way to get things lodged in people's memories. Instead of simply saying what a policy is, show the pitfalls of not following it in a funny way. Storytelling also helps with retention – having a long-tail campaign involving a character who constantly gets into difficulties because he or she doesn't follow the procedures (with some sort of tag line, like "Don't be a Marvin – do X instead") would certainly get people interested and help them remember what they're supposed to do.

Cut Paper Waste

One of the reasons you bought a digital signage system was to save paper – not just the cost of the material and ink, but the time spent printing, distributing, and later removing and disposing of flyers and memos. Look at your paper and printing costs – if they haven't gone down, then something needs to change.

Think of how you can craft messages for your digital displays that convey the same information as your printed materials so you can replace them, not duplicate them. It can sometimes be a challenge to get older managers to think in terms of digital signage. Take these folks on a short tour, showing them the possibilities that digital signage offers. Let them talk to employees who enjoy this method of information dispersal. If they see that people like digital signage, and that it works, they will be more likely to adopt it.

Increase Participation

You promote the office holiday party or latest blood drive, but then almost no one shows up. That sort of defeats the purpose of team events.

If you aren't promoting events on your digital signs, start doing it. You will get far more message saturation with your displays than with emails (that are most likely either never read, or looked at once and then forgotten). And seriously think about your designs for these promotional messages. Make sure they stand out and are different from the purely informational messages. Choose brighter backgrounds, or different layouts from your usual corporate communications. This will draw people in, even if they have become used to simply "phasing out" the regular messages on display.

Recognize Employees

Do your employees feel appreciated? Survey them to find out. If not, their work quality will suffer, and employee turnover can become a real problem.

Use your digital screens to let them know that their work is being noticed. Display leaderboards and shout outs for landing a big contract, or for going above and beyond the call of duty. Mark work anniversaries, and spotlight employees so everyone gets to know one another. When there's a new hire, make them feel part of the team with welcome messages. Anything you can do to motivate and recognize your teams will result in higher morale and bottom-line results.

Relieve HR Teams

Check in with your Human Resources department – how are things going? Are they completely overwhelmed with issues and problems? If so, your digital signage can take some of the burden off of them.

If there are many instances of the same issue – complaint, questions, accidents, etc. – post message on your displays addressing these concerns. Often an employee feels like they are the only ones with a problem – but when they see the solution on all the screens, they know that they aren't, and that management is paying attention and taking steps to help.

This is especially true in organizations that have multiple locations. And if your company has overseas facilities, you'll probably have things come up that are unique to that facility. HR can post answers and advice specific to that location, culture and language on localized playlists, no matter where their department is located. Localizing your communications with different designs will again show that management is taking a keen interest.

There is almost no medium- or large-scale issue that cannot be efficiently addressed using digital signage. You can reach more people than with any other communication medium, and can respond to issues instantly.

Increase employee satisfaction and motivation, get more people to come to your events, save money and waste, and make sure that everyone is playing from the same rulebook. That's the power of good digital signage.

Credit: by Debbie Wilson-dewitt

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This article was written by Debbie Wilson-dewitt from Digital Signage Today. News Features and was legally licensed through the NewsCred publisher network. Please direct all licensing questions to legal@newscred.com.

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Debbie Wilson-dewitt

TAGS: CORPORATE