Digital marketing is a ubiquitous term that encompasses any platform that incorporates the latest in digital technology. Of the available outlets, digital signage and social media are the two platforms that have showed the most promise in capturing consumer attention. If both methods work amazingly well on their own, then it makes sense that the integration of the two is even better. In fact, most businesses that have put this into practice can attest the effectiveness of such a campaign.
Statistics at a glance
It is already well established that digital signage and social media work wonders by themselves in a marketing application. Some statistics will illustrate just how prevalent these two digital platform phenoms are:
- There are expected to be 22 million digital signage displays employed for marketing use by 2015
- 42% of shoppers have indicated that they would prefer to shop at a place with in-store video displays
- Stores with digital signage displays experience a 31.8% average increase in upswing sales volume
- In a four year period from 2004-2008, Facebook users increased from one million to 845 million
- 70% of local businesses use Facebook as a marketing tool, as indicated in a 2011 Merchant Confidence Index survey
- In 2011, Twitter had nearly half a million new signups per day, with 460,000 new registered users
- 72% of the world's population is active on at least one social network
Digital Signage + Social Media = Long-term Marketing Success
The key is to implement a game plan that regularly integrates your social media channels with your digital displays. So what is the best way to merge the two together? There are multiple ways of achieving this end; the simplest method is to add a message in your signage display encouraging consumers to subscribe to your social network channel. However, it does pay off to get a little creative and think outside the box.
Consider the following examples:
- For Twitter, show what some people are tweeting about your business and encourage others to send their own 140 character tweets. This way, they will see their own tweet as it pops up on the screen in real time. This is also a good way to spread the use of hashtags to get a particular topic to trend.
- Images are much more memorable than words. A toy store, for example, can place some life-size figurines of characters from trending cartoons, movies or other children's programs and have parents take pictures of their child posing with the figurines. The photo can then be added to the company's Pinterest page where the photo along with others will be shown in a collage format on the digital display.
- An employment agency or company in the recruitment industry can use digital displays to show its LinkedIn page and show the profiles of users who used the agency's services and landed a job. It can also show comments submitted by these individuals praising the agency for helping them find a new career.
- A university campus can use its social media channel to remind students of an upcoming varsity game and encourage students to leave behind supportive comments and posts that instill school spirit.
Most of the examples above encourage customer interaction. Most seasoned marketers agree that consumer engagement is extremely important and if done right, can dramatically increase brand recognition, which ultimately leads to better ROI.
Why the Combination of the Two Works
The two used together produces stellar results because it encourages interactivity through the platform of social media, which is a global trend. When customers engage with your brand, they will feel more compelled to explore your products and services in greater depth, which ultimately leads to more purchases and long-term consumer loyalty. It's all about fostering communication and treating your customers as actual people rather than dollar signs.
The trend of social media and digital signage isn't going away anytime soon. In fact, they're only going to evolve over time as technology improves. Now is a better time than ever for aspiring businesses to get into the fray and combine social media with digital signage for a powerful marketing effect that most businesses are already reaping the benefits of.