Intrinsic Social Motivation & Learning Factors Applied to Digital Signage

It’s always important to consider digital signage strategy before you create any content. After reading Jay Deragon’s article Intrinsic Social Motivation, it occurred to us that Social Motivation can be applied to your digital signage strategy.

The five levels of Motivation Hierarchy (Physiological, Safety, Social, Esteem (Ego) and Self actualization) used by Abraham Maslow for his theory of human motivation referenced by Deragon shows how adults are driven. Deragon continues along this line by providing six factors that enhance individual growth for adults utilizing social media forums. It is easy to see how one can expand on the six Factors of individual growth to show how they can be used in the digital signage industry. By doing so, you can attain not only a greater audience but greater participation as well.

The Learning Factor – Adults are drawn to the new and exciting, to ‘learn’ about them, and to see where it fits in their lives. This then places the burden upon content creators to keep information fresh on their digital signs; to ‘draw’ them in. It is this freshness that will provide ways in which to keep your audience ‘learning’. This can be done by a series of event messages, tweets, and statuses; and presenting it in such a way that digital signage continues to be looked at as new and exciting as well.

The Connection Factor – Adults love to find connections, whether it be with fellow adults or with information. This gives content creators opportunities to increase interest about content that will generate communication and interest in their audience. By knowing your audience and learning what connections they have in common, you will be able to provide better and more read content.

The Affinity Factor – Adults also love to find associations with other adults. Again this then falls into the lap of content creators to find ways to use digital signage to promote events, clubs, causes and other affinities for their audience. By providing more association thru digital signage, you will then in turn make digital signage itself an association.

The Business FactorDigital signage provides ample opportunity for businesses of all types. By providing an easy way to promote just about anything to a large audience in an efficient and timely manner, it is easy to show and sell management on why it is important to use digital signage in the workplace/university. Is there a way to use digital signage at your location to generate revenue? Can it be used for product placement or to move previously unmovable merchandise (overstocked items or perhaps leftover promotional items). The opportunities are endless.

The Creative Factor – Creativity is important for digital signage. It is the creative process, both artistic and textual, that will tie in all of the above factors to your audience. The use of new ideas (Texting Polls, QR Codes, etc.) or existing ideas in a new way keeps your audience captivated and you motivated.

The Expectation Factor – Adults ‘level set’ or have certain expectations of receiving something for their participation. The ability to provide information in creative ways, provide business opportunities, receive attention for their participation in a group, and find connections should help to satisfy their expectations. It should also help them to consider how to use digital signage to its fullest potential in the future.