Making online content that people not only want to consume, but want to share with their friends, talk about at parties, and remember for more than five minutes, is the ultimate Internet challenge. Here are some tips for creating a strong brand presence with online content, and where to look for inspiration.
Undercurrent has worked with Destilería Serrallés, a premium, family-owned rum distillery in Puerto Rico, since 2009. Over the past four years we’ve made some pretty awesome internet things for their biggest seller, Don Q. When BlackBeard Rum, a younger and lesser known Serrallés brand, wanted to relaunch their site and create something fun for their fans to do online, we knew we had be smart about our budget and the platforms we chose to focus on.
We all know why Instagram is great: The smart design and welcoming interface hook you from the first visit. The filters make photos from rank amateurs look awesome. And they get sharing right with private accounts that make it easy to control who sees your pics. (Confidential to Mark Zuckerberg: Please don’t screw up our favorite platform!) The only downside is sometimes you wind up in the uncomfortable position of unfollowing friends who don’t get proper Instagram etiquette. So here’s a word to the wise with ten reasons I’ll drop you from my feed. Read more
—Bored Kitty Is Bored
Hungarian psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi suggests that boredom is what happens when one’s skills are greater than the challenge posed by an activity. In other words, people are most tuned-in when their skills are equally matched by the challenges they face.
Recently, I’ve been thinking about how Csikszentmihalyi’s theory extends to interpersonal relationships. How can people trigger feelings of boredom in one another? We decided to explore the subject over lunch last week and a handful of theories emerged: You feel bored when you don’t think you can learn anything new from another person. When you’re presented with repetitive information. When there are no controversial views addressed. When you’re speaking to someone who insists on having a one-way conversation and fails to pick up on non-verbal cues. Read more
—New school approach to breakin'
How can understanding the psychology of habits improve the way we do strategy? Biting your nails. Chewing on a pen. Twirling your hair. These are behaviors we commonly refer to as habits. But these are only the obvious ones. Last week I read Charles Duhigg’s new book, The Power of Habit, in which Duhigg argues that people don’t even make conscious decisions most of the time. Instead, we’re merely acting out of habit. On a personal level, this is fascinating and empowering stuff. It also made me think about how habits affect businesses. Read more
