Getting the Most From Native Advertising

https://emgonline.com/2018/12/getting-the-most-from-native-advertising/

You see them everywhere. On your favorite website, your Facebook feed, Instagram stories and Google searches. You might not even know it, but native advertising is all around.

That’s the point of native ads. By definition, “Native advertising is a form of paid media where the ad experience follows the natural form and function of the user experience in which it is placed.” Here are some ways to take advantage of the many opportunities native ads offer.

Where Can I Use Native Advertising?

The most recognized types of native ads are sponsored articles like the one in the photo above by Morgan Stanley, but they also come in the form of Paid Search ads, Paid Listings on sites like eBay and Amazon, In-feed ads across several of the social media platforms, or the “Recommended for You” section at the bottom a news article. The possibilities almost seem endless.

Social media  is also always expanding their offering in the market. Snapchat allows advertisers to design customer filters for users to put over their photos and videos. Want to send all of your friends with a snap of your face as a taco? Taco Bell has just the things for you.

How Can I be Effective with my Native Advertising?

There are many places and many ways to implement native advertising. With that there are also opportunities to be ineffective with your ads. Leaving consumers frustrated with your content will impact your reputation in the market.

When you start developing your content, keep in mind this quote from Eric Goeres, former Director of Innovation at Time Magazine:

Don’t Trick Them; Don’t Piss Them Off

A consumer is smart enough to know if they’re being sold something. Trying to hide the fact that your content is an ad will just make the people upset and will reflect badly on your brand. You also don’t want to be “loud” and distract from the rest of the content on the site. You want to get noticed by the consumer, but you don’t want to be dismissed for trying too hard to be clever.

Content is Key

The best practice with native content is the same idea as with any content you create. Make sure all the content you produce is high quality. Even if it is an ad, a thoughtful and engaging piece will attract readers and promote not only engagement with the article, but also with your brand.

Another thing to think of is to know what type of content works on which website. You don’t want to put a tongue-in-cheek listicle on the New York Times or Wall Street Journal, or a piece with a serious tone on Buzzfeed. Instead make sure that you’re pitching your content to sites whose content matches your goals, or vice versa.

As social media has become one of the cornerstones of our modern culture, everyone’s goal is to go viral. The are several examples of brands trying to copy what ever they believe to be the hot viral video on YouTube at the time, only to crash and burn and becoming laughing stocks all over the internet. Instead of chasing trends, stay on your message and produce quality content. A well-crafted video will stay in a customer’s mind longer than latest video trying to copy the latest trends.

Native advertising is a great way to encourage brand engagement. While there are many different ways to blend your content with a site’s native content, high quality content is king no matter the platform. Keep the content top-notch, and don’t ever try to trick a consumer, and you should be able to get the most out of any native ads you pursue

The New Google Ads and You

https://emgonline.com/2018/07/the-new-google-ads-and-you/

Google recently announced that they would be rebranding their advertising platforms. Going forward, Google AdWords will simply be known as Google Ads. DoubleClick products will be combined with Google Analytics 360 to make the Google Marketing Platform. Rounding out the new Google Suite is Google Ad Manager, a unified version of DoubleClick for Publishers and DoubleClick Ad Exchange.

As the new brands begin to roll out, many advertisers and small business owners are bracing for the changes that will come along with it. While we wait for the final product, find out more about what Google is up to with the new Google Ads:

The New Google Ads Logo

Why the Change to Google Ads?

The change from Google AdWords to Google Ads is simply a way to provide a broad brand name to all of the advertising services that were previously under Google AdWords. After 18 years, you can do more than just search engine advertising in the Google platform. By changing the brand name, Google hopes to more accurately describe the overall ad suite.

In a release from Google, Senior Vice President of Ads & Commerce said,

“These new brands will help advertisers and publishers of all sizes choose the right solutions for their businesses, making it even easier for them to deliver valuable, trustworthy ads and the right experiences for consumers across devices and channels.”

How Does this Impact Me?

According to an email from Google, “Changes to the Google Ads branding will not impact your campaign performance, navigation or reporting.” So breathe a sigh of relief, your campaigns are still running like they always have.

With this rebrand, Google is trying to highlight the ease users have in creating multichannel advertising campaigns in the Google platform.

Google is also highlighting a stronger use of AI and Machine Learning, hoping these technologies will help businesses “get results without any heavy lifting—so they can stay focused on running their businesses.”

Notable New Features

Advertisers are also getting a few new types of ads with the release of the new platforms:

• Responsive Search Ads will allow users to write up to 15 headlines and four descriptions, and Google will run different combinations based on performance. Now advertisers will have to the flexibility to test copy without multiple versions of the same ad clogging their ad groups.
• For the busy small business owner, Google has also introduced Smart campaigns. The campaigns will be almost entirely automated, including creatives and optimization.

A Higher Level of Transparency

As with all other advertising platforms (Facebook, Twitter, etc.), Google is hoping to increase transparency across all their advertising platforms. Along with the roll out of the new brands, Google is introducing improved Ad Settings. With the new Ad Settings, potential customers will be able to see all the topics that they are receiving ads for. They will then be able to make decisions to turn off ads related to these topics or update their information to receive more relevant ads. Google has also expanded the “Why This Ad?” function to allow users to know exactly why they are seeing a certain ad across all of Google’s services.

While you can’t stop a person from using these features to mute your ads, there are some ways you can help minimize the impact the new settings might have on your campaigns:

Google Ad Settings gives users the option to turn of tailored ads

• Make sure you are serving relevant ads to your audience
• Put a frequency cap on your campaigns
• Exclude people who have already bought your product
• Adjust budget allocations to other platforms

Google has already made the switch from the retired AdWords dashboard to the new Google Ads interface. Keep up to date with more changes in the Google Ads as they come on their blog.

Make Public Relations Easier With Social Media

https://emgonline.com/2018/08/make-public-relations-easier-with-social-media/

Social media is a part of every day life. 68 percent of American adults are on Facebook and almost 75 percent of those users are on Facebook on a daily basis, according to Pew Research. With this increased use of social media, public relations professionals have been quick to include social media platforms in their overall communications strategy. There have been successes and failures, but brands have found ways to use social media to their advantage.

Get Your Message Out

Social media can help you side step the traditional press release process. Instead of going through a newswire, you can get you brand’s updates out quickly through Facebook or Twitter. Using the right hashtags on your posts also help you get in front of the right audiences, and potentially in the hands of a key reporter or influencer.

Interact with the People Influencing the Story

Key influencers help brands establish credibility in their space. The rise in social media has made finding influencers easy. There are thousands of people with large followings that can help brands expand their voice to places they may not have been able to reach on their own. Getting one to help you share you message can be as easy and sending a message.

Interacting with reporters is also a key element of social media for any PR pro. Retweeting or sharing reporters stories can keep you top of mind, so the reporter is familiar with you when you make your first call. You can also send a quick alert or pitch about an update through direct messages. Reporters are busy people and will appreciate a quick heads-up as opposed to a long email they don’t have time to read.

Keep your public relations ahead of the game

One of the best and most underutilized tools for PR pros are social listening tools. These platforms allow users to keep their ear to the ground and see what the public is saying about their brand and messaging. Being in-tune with your audience can help you tune your message to be more impactful for your target audience, and even prevent crises before they start.

Some social listening platforms include:

• Hootsuite
• Keyhole
• TweetDeck
• Mention

But sometimes bad news gets out, and you’ll need to scramble to get out in front of the story to keep your brand’s reputation as clean as possible. Twitter and Facebook can help get you ahead of the news cycle, and give your brand a chance to tell its side of the story before it’s reputation is gone. You don’t want to be another United Airlines, who are still mopping things up after several hits to their reputation in 2017 and 2018.

Combining Social Media with your public relations efforts in a no-brainer. If you’re not using it to your advantage, you’re letting others tell your brand’s story or not telling that story at all.

For those starting out, here are some tip for using Facebook to maximize your PR efforts:

• Make sure you are putting out quality content, and not just bombarding your followers with posts
• Video can help boost both your paid and organic posts. Facebook Live is a great resource to help keep your content engaging, relevant, and fresh.
• Make things personable. Messaging coming from a real person is more effective than a voiceover and text.
• Leveraging paid option is also a good idea. Promoted posts show higher and news feeds, and will be seen by more people.
• Use every post a conversation starter. Post with high volume of comments will be elevated in user’s feeds. Just make sure to keep on top of the comments to avoid the conversation getting off the rails.

Technology powering the BlackCat wins the 2017 National Science Foundation’s Hearable Challenge

http://www.hearingrevolution.com/news/technology-powering-the-blackcat-wins-the-2017-national-science-foundations-hearable-challenge/

The minds behind the BlackCat recently announced that their new product won the 2017 National Science Foundation’s Hearable Challenge.

Samplified Audio, led by industry veterans Mario Augustyniak and Mark Kaal, won the Challenge with their newest product called SnowOwl. SnowOwl is designed to give users a personalized audio experience by matching the sound to the users hearing profile, which is almost as unique as a fingerprint. Using the same Clementine Wear technology powers the BlackCat, SnowOwl can amplify sound where the user wants it  while canceling or filtering out noise from other directions.

Announced in April, the Hearables Challenge brought together several different groups to try to find innovative ways to understand speech in noisy situations that could be able to be implemented into consumer audio products. Interest in consumer audio products has been on the rise since the Over-The-Counter Hearing Aid Law was signed on August 18.

SnowOwl will launch on Indiegogo on September 6. If you want to experience Clementine Wear for yourself, but don’t want to wait for the Indiegogo campaign to finish, Hearing Revolution has BlackCats available for purchase right now. Call us at 877-426-0687 for more information.

Researchers may have found a way to regrow auditory hair cells

http://hearingrevolution.com/researchers-may-have-found-a-way-to-regrow-auditory-hair-cells/

Researchers at St Jude Children’s Research Hospital may be close to discovering a way to reverse hearing loss.

In a study released on April 11, St. Jude announced that they had used genetic manipulation to regrow auditory hair cells in adult mice, giving hope that it might be possible to use the same treatment on humans one day.

Losing auditory hair cells is the leading cause of hearing loss in adults all over the world. You can lose these cells with prolonged exposure to loud noises, illness and due to several other factors. Currently, the hair cells don’t grow back once they are lost, leading to the need for hearing aids or cochlear implants.

To develop the new therapy, the researchers at St. Jude looked at fish and chicken, who can regenerate auditory hair cells. By manipulating the same genes in the mice that allow for regeneration in the other aforementioned species, researchers were able to grow new cells similar to the auditory hair cells.

While this breakthrough comes as some good news to hearing loss researchers, St. Jude, as well as other research institutions, are still looking to replicate other factors to help in the regeneration of auditory hair cells. There are still many other genes and proteins that researchers have recognized might help hearing loss, but not yet figured out how to make them work for the human body.

If you feel you are suffering from any hearing loss, don’t hesitate to call Hearing Revolution at (877) 426-0687 or visit hearingrevolution.com.

Signia unveils Pure 13 BT Primax, a hearing aid made specifically for iPhone

http://www.hearingrevolution.com/news/signia-unveils-pure-13-bt-primax-a-hearing-aid-made-specifically-for-iphone/

Today, Signia announced the latest addition to their hearing aid line up, the Pure 13 BT Primax, scheduled for release in May.

The new instrument offers some of Signia’s most innovative technology and will be the only hearing aid in Signia’s line-up that combines binaural audio exchange and direct streaming thanks to the e2e™ wireless 3.0 and Bluetooth wireless technology. The Pure 13 BT also offers better adaptability when the user is moving by connecting to an iPhone’s motion sensors via Bluetooth.

The Pure 13 BT runs on an updated primax star platform, which is compatible with TeleCare 2.0. This system lets hearing healthcare providers remotely modify hearing aid frequency. Provider can also access real-time data on the patient’s experiences in different settings through the myHearing App and make adjustments, saving both the provider and the patient multiple trips to the office.

The Pure will be available as a RIC model, offering advance technology in a discreet form factor. For more information on the Pure 13 BT and the revolutionary systems it use, check out the Signia website.

If you are interested in purchasing a hearing aid process, contact Hearing Revolution at (877) 426-0687.