The challenge of demanding audience attention is more difficult than ever before. We live in a world dominated by screens, and every last one of them is jam-packed with items that require awareness. From fielding emails to perusing Instagram, people are continually balancing work responsibilities with personal interests. Almost all of that information comes from computers and smartphones. Your audience engagement is one of the most important facets of your organization’s success.
At times they are your naysayers, your yay-sayers, and your customers. While you and your coworkers are responsible for your organization’s performance internally, your audience is the stakeholder of your external successes. This is why is it pivotal to engage with your audience at every opportunity possible.
To do this you must know what your audience wants. You have to know who your audience is, what they are seeking, and what subjects they care about. If you are a retailer specializing in cosmetics, tell your viewers about your latest line of lip liner. Explain why it is better than the competition’s product, and give them the inside scoop on who is wearing your product.
We all know that today’s optimal medium for sending messages is purely digital. Bulletin boards and printed signs carry no impact or sense of urgency. More importantly, they simply don’t have the eye-catching capabilities of a high-definition screen. But grabbing glances isn’t as easy as tossing a few graphics up on a screen.
Audiences don’t always know what they're supposed to do with your content. They need a spoon feeding. Tell them to ‘click here’ or ‘follow your twitter handle’ or ‘read your latest blog.’ Example: “Follow us on Facebook to stay in the loop on our latest releases!”
Give them news stories or interesting facts. No one wants to hear and see the same logo and slogan a million times. People crave information that they can pass on to their friends, family, and followers. Strike an emotion with them through a charity campaign or showing support for good work in the community. Example: Read the latest report about animal testing in cosmetics. You won’t see our name on that list! Our products are NEVER TESTED ON ANIMALS, EVER!
Ask a question that leaves the floor open for discussion. If you ask a fan or viewer for advice, and the advice is good, implement it quickly! Customer testimonials, survey responses, and even social media posts are great content options for your campaigns.
Most viewers are modest and need an extra nudge to take part in the conversation. Have a contest that offers a prize to the viewer that publicly interacts with your brand’s social media account. Example: Tweet us your favorite *Brand Name* lip gloss flavor for a chance to win a $50 gift card.
Relationships take time to build, be consistent, engage with your responders, retweeters, and likes. These are your potential brand advocates, (Read our Brand Advocate blog). Use your personality- humor and empathy when responding. Remember, you’re a person representing an organization- not a robot. Example: Thanks for the input @twitteruser. We love hearing from you!
You can put as much informational messaging on your screens as you want, but that doesn't necessarily mean that people are looking at it. Keep your viewers' attention by letting them have an interactive relationship with you via your signage. Your team will be able to have a finger on the pulse on your viewership if you implement interactivity, and you can actually see return on investment for your signage system day by day.
That’s not all! Be sure to grab a copy of our Ebook: Maximize Audience Engagement with Digital Signage
