There are a few ways to become THE place in town everyone visits regularly. Some businesses are known for their cutting edge offers and frequent new arrivals. Meanwhile, there are places which radiate with comfort and a sensation of visiting a second home. This benefit is added on top of the quality of service and products you provide. It’s certainly the easiest to spot in restaurants and coffee shops. In order to connect to the community and be the local favorite everyone relates to and loves to visit, you may want to try to focus on providing local information through your digital signage. Once you get all your ducks in a row, you’ll find just how much you can achieve. Take a look at some ideas!
Highlight local interests
Alongside social media walls, seek out local events and interests of importance. Highlight a nearby art installation or a gallery exhibit which is taking place. Inform locals briefly on what it’s about, its availability, and share more about the artists showcasing there. You could even provide a QR code your guests can scan to get to a website or register for the event. In short, give inspiration for locals to support others and connect to the community.Â
If you take this task seriously, you will steadily become a good source of news and direction to your locals. Highlighting local events and sparking interest, you will position yourself as a valuable part of the community. After all, keeping content relevant and up to date is precisely when digital signage shines brightest!
Seek out partnerships and promote events
Firstly, if you have already built partnerships with other local businesses, there is no better way to bring it into the spotlight than with digital signage. Meanwhile, if you haven’t, or if you don’t plan on building partnerships of this sort just yet, there is still a lot you can do!Â
Promote events relevant to your audience. Naturally, these events should not come from competitors. Rather, they should show that you are aware of your audience’s interests and that you’re trying to provide content they value.Â
If your audience is primarily families with young children, promote kid friendly events, a pumpkin patch, or a holiday celebration, for instance. Similarly, if your audience consists of young professionals or grad students, promote networking events and pleasant spaces to work remotely. Adapting to the target audience will enable you to successfully connect to the community.
The result of this sort of promotion shows understanding of your customers’ interests and provides them with relevant content. Ultimately, it builds a loyal following and enhances customer satisfaction as a whole.
Provide opportunities for growth
While the aforementioned points make their impact mainly based on the interest of locals, you can approach it from an entirely different angle. Instead of simply alleviating boredom, show content which inspires people to seek out growth. For a start, show historical information about local landmarks, museums, or other points of interest. Tell viewers where they can access more information.
Similarly, share educational opportunities in your city. Seminars, workshops, and classes of all sorts are always popping up. Promoting them informs viewers what is happening around them and inspires them to take advantage of these opportunities.Â
You may also highlight information about available community resources. Post content about libraries, community centers, and other public resources your city offers. This becomes especially important when there’s a big renovation happening or a big change is taking place.
Focus heavily on social media
Social media is the cherry on the cake after everything we said above. Promote it through your displays and lead your locals to your social media accounts to connect further. Keeping your social media posts relevant to the local community and frequently updated, the bond strengthens. Furthermore, you get another source of content to deploy on digital signage! This includes both your own posts and posts coming in from your audience.
Social media walls are easy to implement with digital signage. Using a variety of apps, including external services, social media walls can convey a steady stream of user-generated content. The key in this context is to set up social media walls which display data which is relevant to the local community. For instance, set up streams from social media accounts which post local news or topics which are of interest to the every-day local. This content can include posts, photos, and videos. If you run a coffee shop, post recent photos customers created, enjoying coffee or using the space to work or socialize.
In the article above, we went over just a few ideas and a handful of examples on how to connect to the community via digital signage. Every community is different, even if those differences are subtle. Find out what makes the residents tick, what interests them, and which local events they value most. In the end, the first step to building a bond with the local community is to know it. Once you’ve got that covered, take a look at OnSign TV and explore the variety of tools you may use to neatly and professionally give the locals what they need.
Cover image by Clay Banks.
