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Learn from the TV networks: Unbundle your workplace comms

Workplace digital signage expert gives corporate communicators a roadmap of what their internal content distribution strategy should be.

October 22, 2015 by Frank Kenna — President, The Marlin Company

Over $30 billion of market value was destroyed in early August as investors abandoned mainline media companies due to falling advertising revenues. Examples of some stock decreases were Viacom by 20 percent; Walt Disney, 9 percent; Comcast, 6 percent; and Fox Television, 11 percent. Just as people want songs, not albums, they want to watch only certain shows and don't want to pay for hundreds of channels they don't care about.

So how is this good for workplace digital signage? Because it gives communicators a roadmap of what their internal content distribution strategy should be. That is, what works in the multibillion-dollar TV/media industry is directly applicable to workplace communications.

Think about it: What things could you unbundle to achieve better readership? One example is the company newsletter, which is pretty much obsolete. Today, the same information is conveyed by posting separate, shorter articles on digital signage.

Or how about your company's policy manual? When was the last time anyone read that? But there is important information in there that your employees need to know, so convert some of it into bite-size pieces each week and post on your digital signage.

Another place to look is in your network content repository, e.g., SharePoint. Just as people don't channel surf any more, your employees aren't likely to wade through all that stuff to find one piece of information. Instead, break out the important items and get them onto your digital signage in small, easily consumable pieces. 

The bottom line is that people, particularly millennials, just don't go searching through reams of channels or folders or files. The smart way to communicate with employees is by serving up the information so it's right in front of them where they can consume it quickly and move on.

In my next blog, I'll address the other dynamic that is causing this unbundling, that being the move to mobile. 

About Frank Kenna

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