If you’re using digital signage software, chances are you’re constantly on the hunt for more engaging content to display. Have you considered leveraging social media to supercharge your digital signage efforts and easily generate engaging content?
At Enplug, we’ve done exactly this for hundreds of businesses using our social media apps for digital signage, and I’d like to share the reasons why it’s been so successful:
1.) Generate more content than ever before
In a random sampling of 100 small businesses using Enplug display software, we found that the average business receives 2 Instagram photos and 5 Tweets per day. That’s 60 photos and 150 tweets per month. Most businesses set up an app like our Twitter wall once, and just let the content roll in from there without any additional effort.
Businesses can use the photos and customer quotes in their marketing collateral. There’s no need to pay a graphic design firm thousands of dollars to create your images and video for your digital signage — let your customers do it for you. It’s more authentic anyway.
2.) More interesting content
In our random sampling of 100 small businesses using Enplug display software, the average venue received 98 “likes” and 5 comments on their Instagram photos per day. This means when customers shared photos and tweets of Enplug-powered businesses, their peers actually liked it.
You can take this a step further and use the number of likes or comments on photos from the Instagram wall to determine the top 10 best photos or comments about your business. You should feature these images on your website, newsletter, menu, etc.
Once you’ve done this you should reach out to those customers and reward them for sharing your business with their friends. You should also re-share these top 10 images with your own followers.
3.) Brand your business as modern and fun
Social media is here to stay. Instagram has 200 million active users, Twitter has 284 million, Facebook has 1.35 billion, and Swarm has 50 million. When those millions of active social media users are your customers, you should speak their language. By doing so, they’ll be able to relate to your business and will feel inclined to come back more often. It might even help them pick you over your competitor that doesn’t “get it”.
4.) Word-of-mouth marketing
On average, an Instagram photo reaches 718 followers and a tweet reaches 5,711 followers. In order for an Instagram photo or tweet to appear on your digital signage screens, the customer must use your #hashtag. So every post shared with their peers includes the name of your business, spreading the word about your brand.
Because ice cream never tasted so good #creamistry #liquidnitrogen #blogdate @ Creamistry https://t.co/uyEx7btmnt
— Rae [to the] Wyn (@raetothewyn) December 7, 2014
5.) Grow your social media following
Many businesses have posters or printed materials along the lines of: “Like us on Facebook”, or “Follow us on Twitter/Instagram”. I’m happy to dispel the mystery: these don’t work and you shouldn’t spend money on them.
Instead, integrate your existing digital displays with your social media and give your customers a reason to engage with you on social media. They’ll be much more likely to follow your accounts if they see you’re active and entertaining. In the example below, Amoeba Music has grown their following online to over 161,000 consumers by actively engaging on Twitter and responding to customers posting to their Enplug display near their check-out counter.
6.) Give your customers a voice and hear what they think
Customers love talking about businesses, but they need a specific call to action and a simple way to share. Platforms like Yelp don’t have a trigger to encourage sharing, and users must already have an account. These limitations mean businesses miss out on great social reviews. Even worse, businesses aren’t in control of the messages.
By integrating digital signage and social media you’re sending a signal to your customers that you want to hear what they think. You’re also making it easy for them to share their thoughts. We see overwhelmingly positive messages being shared on Enplug displays because it’s so easy. The best part is you’re in control of the screen, so you can easily remove any negative posts.
You should use digital signage images as call-to-actions encouraging customers to share their thoughts using social media. The example image below is included with Enplug digital signage software.
7.) Create loyal customers through conversation
The best businesses engage with their customers. According to research, 71% of users who have a positive experience with a brand’s customer service over social media recommend the brand afterwards.
Once a customer has shared a message about your business on social media, you’re able to respond to thank them, strike up a conversation, or even just re-share their positive message with your own followers. Engaging with your customers after they’ve left your business will leave a more lasting impression and increase the likelihood that they’ll become a loyal repeat customer.
Losing my nearly filled @tenrenstea stamp card is almost worse than the guy getting his audi towed in the parking lot.
— Alyza ϟ Malunao (@alyzacm) November 20, 2014
8.) Establish a brand on social media
I’ll let you in on one of the secrets of how Enplug drives engagement on social media for businesses: the “CTA bar”. CTA stands for call-to-action, and the CTA bar is the component of our software at the top of any screen that indicates to your audience how they can make their Instagram photo, tweet, etc appear on your screen.
The secret to the CTA bar is that it gives your customers a reason to use your business name and hashtag in their social posts. Your customers have always posted about you on social media. The trouble is often times they’ll post a photo or leave a positive comment like “Great food!” without mentioning the name of your business. But as a result of the CTA bar they’ll use your hashtag because it means their post will show up on your live social display, and customers love the moment of fame when they see their post on your TV.
Using a well-defined and branded hashtag to spread awareness of your business is an important part of any successful social media marketing strategy. The CTA bar takes care of that for you.
9.) Save time and scale your marketing
If you’re already posting your specials, upcoming events, or other updates on a social media channel like Facebook, then you should share those updates with your customers too. Integrate your digital signage with the social media channels you use, and the work you’re already doing to promote your business will be even more effective. Below is an example of how 220 Fitness uses their instagram wall to promote their training classes.
10.) Increase morale for your employees and yourself
Employees love to feel proud of the business they work for. You’ll love seeing customers talk about the business you’ve built, and your employees will enjoy seeing customers (who are sometimes their peers) posting positively about their work on social media.
More motivated employees give better service, which will cause more customers to share their positive experience on social media, further motivating your employees.