Digital signage is an industry dependent on evolving communication technologies. The really cool part is that every one of us has a hand in this by the way we are using digital devices in our day-to-day lives. 2012 has been a banner year for digital signage as the industry adapts and integrates these technologies in many helpful ways.

http://www.onlinebusinessdegree.org/2012/12/06/the-future-of-big-data/

Digital signage communicators must begin looking for ways to leverage the ubiquity of smartphones and media tablets.

If you are like me and drawn to science fiction, fascinated by quirky views of the future, you might remember a mid-1980s TV show called Max Headroom. While the particulars of the series have blurred in my memory over the years, the one thing that hasn’t is the ubiquity of television in the society portrayed in the show.

I’m not talking television simply being convenient; in the world explored in the series, TV literally seemed to be everywhere. Not just in homes and apartments, but on the streets, resting on a pile of trash, in the trunk of a car. You get the idea. It was impossible to get away from the blasted things.

That feeling of society being overwhelmed by the tube –now there’s an antiquated term- seemed so impossible, so remote, so “sci-fi” just a couple of decades ago. But today, I would argue, we are well on our way to similar television omnipresence.

In May 2011, the Nielsen Company estimated the number of TV households in the United States to be more than 114 million, or 96.7 percent of all households in the country. In January of the same year, Nielsen estimated there to be on average 2.5 TVs per U.S. household. Impressive, but nowhere near ubiquitous –at least not by “Headroomian” proportions.

But TV households don’t tell the whole story. According to an online Time Business article published a few weeks ago, Apple has sold 55 million iPads in the two years they have existed. When all media tablets –not just the iPad- are factored in, market research firm IHS iSuppli projects that 275 million tablets will be sold by 2015, or about 16 times the number shipped in 2010.

Getting a little closer to ubiquity? Perhaps, but don’t forget about smartphones. A CNN report from July 2011 quotes a report from the Pew Internet and the American Life Project estimating 35 percent of Americans own a smartphone. Another study from research firm In-Stat, quoted in an August 2011 CNET article, forecasts that 65 percent of Americans, some 200 million people, will have smartphones and/or tablets by 2015.

Now, it seems to me, we are approaching the Headroom threshold of TV ubiquity. Granted they are more likely to take the form of a sleek tablet, smartphone or flat panel TV than a beat up set teetering on a mound of broken TVs in an alleyway, but ubiquitous nonetheless.

This sort of near omnipresence would seem to raise a fundamental question for digital signage communicators: What is the value of communicating via a digital sign, if hundreds of potentially competing screens are literally a few feet away in the pockets and purses of passersby?

I would argue digital sign communication is not threatened by the broad availability of smartphones and media tablets, but potentially enhanced in at least three important ways.

First, those portable devices offer a means for digital signage communicators in the future to continue their dialog with their audience once they leave the store, arena, lobby or other venue.

Second, if television-viewing habits are any indication, many people don’t replace their TV viewing with online viewing, they complement it. Millions of people today regularly interact with their friends online via Facebook and other social media about a show while they are watching. It’s not too far-fetched to envision similar sorts of interaction while in front of a digital sign, depending upon the circumstance.

Third, total viewing time of video entertainment is increasing. Rather than cannibalizing an existing audience, new media devices are driving greater viewing. For digital signage communicators, this increased viewing means it should be easier, not harder to attract people who have demonstrated a willingness to watch media on flat screens.

To me, it seems the Headroom-like availability of screens on the whole will complement the communications efforts of those who market and message with digital signs. Not embracing the ubiquity of these screens and looking for ways to leverage them would represent a major missed opportunity.

Enhancing digital signage content may be as simple as tapping the power of social media.

Here is a remarkable statistic published online by USA Today's Technology Live website in October 2010. As of that date, there were 6.8 billion people in the world, 1.96 billion Internet users and 517 million Facebook users.

As Byron Acohido, author of the piece noted: "Put another way: about 7 percent of the world's humans are on Facebook." Just over a year later, Facebook notes on its statistics page that there are now 800 million active users of the social media network.

How many of those Facebook users carrying smartphones will visit somewhere that relies on a digital sign? One can only imagine the number for a particular venue. But consider this: Facebook's statistics page says there are 350 million users who actively interact with Facebook via their smartphones. So it's a pretty safe bet that the closer the demographics of the audience for a digital sign match those of typical mobile Facebook users, the more likely there's a vast opportunity to be realized.

The likely proximity of a smartphone to a digital sign creates an important opportunity for anyone communicating via a digital sign who possesses a bit of an imagination and a willingness to experiment. Consider a noisy environment, such as a popular bar, dance club or even certain restaurants. Could designating on-screen real estate of a digital sign to a special Facebook page, give a business owner a way to help patrons connect with one another on screen and in so doing cut through the noise, attract the attention of customers and promote goods or services in other zones on the sign?

Leveraging social media in this way could be as simple as giving patrons a virtual bulletin board on which to post vetted observations and pictures or as complex as giving them a way to play bar games, like trivia, with one another. Imagination, budget and creativity would seem to be the only limitations.

The good news for small businesses looking to take advantage of this opportunity is many are already quite familiar and fluent with Facebook. According to the quarterly Merchant Confidence Index released in February 2011 by MerchantCircle, 70 percent of local merchants are using Facebook for marketing -up from 50 percent the preceding year. In fact, MerchantCircle, among largest social network of local business owners in the United States with more than 1.6 million members, found Facebook has passed Google as the most widely used marketing method for local merchants.

In addition to its wide use by local merchants, the rapid growth Facebook saw over the past year saw among merchants is positive. It appears to indicate local merchants have proven themselves to be quite willing to explore the potential of this social network. Thus taking the next step to integrate a Facebook page as digital signage content doesn't seem to be too far of a stretch for merchants with a knack for the platform.

It's also important to note that Facebook isn't the only social media platform that can be leveraged for digital signage content. Twitter, too, easily fits into the same mold as a convenient way to let patrons publicly interact with one another on a digital sign via their smartphones. Like Facebook, Twitter also is familiar to local merchants. The Merchant Confidence Index found about 40 percent currently use the platform, which is up from 32 percent in the fourth quarter of 2009.

As business owners, outside creative agencies and internal graphics departments consider what digital signage content to present to the public, they would do well to remember that adding engaging, attention-grabbing element to their digital sign may be no further away than a Facebook page or Twitter account.

Timeliness of messages and availability of your intended audience may be the most fundamental reasons digital signage is effective.

Two of the most basic reasons digital signage makes sense as a communications medium are its timeliness and availability.

In terms of timeliness, short of actually telling someone something face to face in a place of business, there may be no way to communicate more quickly with your co-workers, employees or customers than digital signage.

With digital signage, the time between actually conceiving a message and delivering it can be measured in seconds in many instances. When used properly, tapping into this extraordinary advantage means digital signage content will be fresh and relevant, both key factors in attracting and holding the attention of an audience.

When it comes to availability, digital signage may even have face-to-face communications in a business setting beat. Because the location of digital signs should be strategically chosen before a single message is ever created, they can be located where they are most available to their audience. For example, imagine a lunch room in a manufacturing plant, a break area in a mechanics shop, suspended from a ceiling above a production line. Each of these locations makes communicating some messages to employees much easier than finding an employee or group of workers and having face-to-face conversations.

Taken together, the timeliness of digital signage message and their availability to employees can be leveraged to improve productivity, enhance safety performance and even to boost sales.

I am familiar with one factory manager who regularly updates production figures on the company's digital signage network to inform his workforce about how well they are doing in meeting production targets. Given the ability of digital signage systems to tap into databases, it is possible for this manager to keep groups of workers apprised of their performance as data is updated in the database the company uses to track production.

Similarly, in some sales settings, digital signage is an effective way to encourage production, recognize performance and reward success in a public way that taps into the competitive nature of many sales people.

Customer service and support, too, can benefit from the addition of digital signs to help employees at a single glance keep track of wait times, percentage of problems resolved, open tickets and even customer satisfaction.

Businesses should also consider tapping into the timeliness and availability digital signage offers when it comes to safety. Not only can digital signage networks offer admonitions aimed at keeping the workplace safe, they also can be used to remind employees of their ongoing safety record.

Equally important in that regard is the ability of digital signs to offer timely emergency messaging to a workforce spread out through a factory or corporate campus. Potentially lifesaving warnings and emergency information can be communicated in seconds during severe storms and tornados and when other hazards may occur. Modern digital signage can even tap into public address systems to mirror an audible warning with visual emergency information. This can go a long way to meeting various disability requirements in work or public places.

There are many reasons digital signage makes sense as a communications medium, but none may be more fundamental than its ability to serve up timely information -be it production figures, customer service wait times or even warnings of a threatening storm- where that information is most available.