Go with the Flow

By Corey Smith, Creative Director at Xapsis Integrated Marketing  

If you have a smart phone, chances are you've heard of a fun little game app called Temple Run. The goal of the game is very simple. You run and leap over obstacles through a winding path. The challenge of the game is to avoid tripping or falling off the edge of the path. It's a very addictive game and is all the rage among teenagers (of which I have 2). Aside from mobile gaming, console games such as Modern Warfare and Skyrim are insanely popular as well. These games completely immerse the player in another world and reality through sound, music, challenges, and the visual beauty of the game itself. Of course we can't forget Facebook, the largest social media entity in the world. Facebook immerses it's users in a world of interactivity through sharing photos, videos, status updates, and gaming apps with family and friends.

What do all of these activities have in common? They generate a euphoric sense of intense concentration with all of your focus on that activity. This immersive experience or sensation you feel is called Flow. 

Flow is a behavioral science theory proposed by Hungarian psychologist Mihály Csíkszentmihályi(pronounced chick-sent-mih-high) . Csíkszentmihályi's theory is that when a person is completely absorbed in an activity, they reach a state of mental consciousness where they feel a sense of energized focus, complete effortless success, and total immersion and concentration. Csíkszentmihályi especially observed this with artists, and particularly, painters. He noticed that while painters were in the act of painting, they were so immersed in their work that they lacked the need for food and sleep. The physical act of painting, not the final outcome, was their passion and fueled their desire to create. They became completely absorbed in the process, loosing track of time and the outside world around them. 

According to Csíkszentmihályi, there are 10 components to experiencing flow:

• Clear goals (must be challenging, yet still attainable).
• Strong concentration and focused attention.
• The activity is intrinsically rewarding.
• A feeling of serenity
• Timelessness; a distorted sense of time.
• Immediate feedback.
• Knowing that the task is doable; a balance between skill level and the challenge presented.
• Feelings of personal control over the situation and the outcome.
• Lack of awareness of physical needs.
• Complete focus on the activity itself.


Why is flow important and how does it affect our lives in a positive way?
Flow can increase performance and challenge you to hone your skills while stretching your abilities. Flow is an extremely positive experience that can boost self-esteem, give you more satisfaction in life, and increase your quality of life. If you haven't experienced flow, explore activities that bring joy and happiness to your life.  Challenge your skill level, set goals that will provide clear and immediate feedback, and go with the Flow!

For further reading, check out this article:
http://www.pursuit-of-happiness.org/history-of-happiness/mihaly-csikszentmihalyi/



References:
Csikszentmihalyi, M. & Rathunde, K. (1993). The measurement of flow in everyday life: Towards a theory of emergent motivation. In Jacobs, J.E.. Developmental perspectives on motivation. Nebraska symposium on motivation. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press.Murphy, Curtiss (2011). "Why Games Work and the Science of Learning". Retrieved 2011-07-25.

Girl Power in Social Media

By Julie D. Sanders, Director of Client Services at Xapsis Integrated Marketing  

I was pretty pleased with my first blog about Pinterest, the social media site that is exploding all over the web.  Then the male members of Xapsis were giving me a hard time by saying that Pinterest is for girls.   I, of course, began to school them in the inherit values of the site and how it might change the world.  Who am I kidding I said something like, “Nuh, uh” and sulked away.

So I went to the man who never lies to me, Mr. Google. Turns out that the X chromosomes of the office were right (relish that because I may never say that again).  A quick search shows that right now the demographics of Pinterest site is made up of about 82% women, according to Google Ad Planner.

That got me thinking, is social media a woman’s game? Mashable.com confirmed to me that in general women are engaging more on most social sites, including on Facebook and Twitter. Women are the majority of social networking users, and spend 30% more time on sites than men. Plus, mobile social network usage is 55% female, according to Nielsen.

Apparently social networks give women a voice, a soapbox to stand on and a place to connect.   A voice that is now being not only heard but listened to. This is the same voice that may have struggled to be heard before these venues. Social media has become a place to meet other women with the same interests and develop business opportunities. And these women aren’t just talking about shoes and babies, social networks are giving female entrepreneurs a place to nurture and grow their ideas and businesses.

What’s the lesson to learn from this? Besides Girls Rule Social Media! Advertisers and businesses have a readymade audience of women that are waiting to hear about your products. Are you getting what I’m saying? If you put this in a real world scenario it would be like a football stadium full of pre-qualified and interested consumers waiting to hear more about your business. Pretty cool, huh!

So if you are looking to speak to women consumers, your audience is waiting.  What are you waiting for?  Start using your social media to engage your audience today!

P.S. I know this great little company called Xapsis that could help you with a strategic social media plan.

Brand Commitment

By Clay Deal, Integrated Marketing Specialist at Xapsis Integrated Marketing  

I, Clay, take you, Apple Inc., to be my lawful wedded…Brand?

Believe it or not, or in some cases, like it or not, consumers form relationships with brands.  It’s true.  I am currently involved in a courtship with Apple through my MacBook at work. How, you ask? It’s really very simple.  I was handed a MacBook Pro, and told, “Here is your new computer!” At that time, it felt very much like an arranged marriage instead of a courtship. We didn’t know each other; we had never really even been introduced. But here we were joined together, neither one of us having a say in the matter. “Clay here’s MacBook. MacBook this is Clay.  You two go enjoy your lives together.”

Much akin to a first date, or a courtship, I was apprehensive about going out with Apple.  I had never used an Apple product before, I always used PCs or Android based devices.  I was nervous, shy, even a bit scared.  Slowly, after a few dates, I began to warm up to Apple.  I guess you could say we are going steady at this point.  I think about the future with Apple every once in a while.  iPhone 5 crosses my mind sometimes, or iPad 3 will pop up in my dreams.  Am I ready to make that type of commitment to Apple?  I’m just not sure Apple and I are ready for marriage yet. Our relationship is still so young….

OK, so the above is a bit exaggerated, but the principle is true. Consumers form bonds and relationships with brands, more so than they do individual products.  As a business, you want to strive for that marriage relationship.  A marriage relationship between an individual and a brand is much like one between two adults.  It is a long lasting, mutual relationship that involves trust and commitment.  A marriage relationship between a brand and a consumer is the ultimate goal for firms. This means repeat business, this means forgiveness for an accidental hiccup in quality, this means referrals to other possible consumers, to get down to it, this means profit.  

This brand/consumer relationship must be nurtured.  It cannot be a simple give-take relationship (you give them product, and you take their money).  Brands must be open to communication with consumers; otherwise, a brand will find itself in divorce court.

Brand performance has a great deal to do with establishing these healthy brand relationships; the products produced must perform as advertised.  Additionally, how these brands are advertised play an extremely important part to the relationship. What thoughts and feelings does your brand evoke in its current marketing measures? How have you positioned your brand in the market versus competing firms? Does your firm give the message of being a “fling”, high short-term rewards, but low commitment and little future promise?  What can you do to help get more “marriage” relationships with your clients? Easy… contact your New Media Marriage Councilors. Contact Xapsis.

*Research and information on brand relationships can be found in the following source:

Fournier, Susan (1998), “Consumers and Their Brands: Developing

Relationship Theory in Consumer Research,” Journal of Consumer

Research, 24 (March), 343–73.

Confessions of a Type Junkie

 By Sueann Hoppock,  Graphic Designer at Xapsis Integrated Marketing 

I must confess that I am a type junkie. I actually like watching the title credits at the beginning of a movie and trying to guess what font they used and I get outraged when I see bad kerning, especially on huge billboard signs (I mean, come on, the type is 10 feet high and you didn’t notice that huge gap between the P and e?!) My husband doesn’t get it, but then he’s a lawyer. And I know that are much more pressing problems in the world than my crusade against terrible kerning, but it’s a quirk of being a designer I guess. I have spent so many years immersed in the world of typography that I just don’t understand when a non-designer doesn’t see what I do.

My years of designing in the print world have made me a “Type A” personality when it comes to type, which is why I was so reluctant to jump on board the web design train until now.  I hated that there were so many limitations on typography when you design for the web. I had no control over what typeface your computer might bring up on the screen when you viewed my web page. What if the only font you had was Comic Sans? Ugh…the humanity!

Then I was turned on to Google web fonts (www.google.com/webfonts). Finally there was a place where I could go and peruse a large selection of fonts that will work specifically for web design. When I use a Google web font, I know that what I have created in my design will be what you see on your computer screen.  Our web programmers love it too because Google also generates the code to use for each font which makes their job easier, so it’s a win-win all around. Those people at Google are geniuses I tell you!

I highly encourage all you type-lovers out there to check it out for your next web site design project. It still doesn’t combat the bad kerning tragedies that still take place every day, but it does help a type junkie like me cope a little better in the web design world.

Windows 8 - Cross Platform, Nice For Developers

 By Matt Miller, Director of Programming at Xapsis Integrated Marketing 

Microsoft has been relatively quite in the mobile device world, even though they have been working on a mobile platform since before Y2K. Microsoft released the Pocket PC back in 2000, one of the first handheld mobile computing devices with the ability to browse the web, and send and receive emails. How and why did Microsoft get left so far behind in mobile device race, when they were on the front lines in the evolution of handheld devices? Whatever the answer may be, Microsoft has been revving up and gaining hype towards a big release in 2012, which might be a game changer. Microsoft unveiled a new logo today for its upcoming Windows 8 operating system.

Microsoft Windows 8 is a cross platform operating system, which from what Microsoft has shown will take on the same Metro interface as the windows phone. This will allow your phone, your tablet and your home PC, even your Xbox to all be running the same software, same programs, and same apps. Microsoft said, according to PCworlds, it has created a new kind of app for Windows 8 using HTML5 and JavaScript. This will help increase the amount of apps in the market, because developers will not need to learn an unfamiliar programming language to create native apps, unlike with IOS having to use Objective C to create native apps, at least before the introduction PhoneGap.

There are some issues with regards to the existing Metro OS (which is the current phone OS) and Windows 8 not working together. Metro uses WinRT architecture and Windows uses win32 architecture, which means most of the existing XNA phone apps with not transfer over to the windows or the Xbox OS. That may become an issue later, if not dealt with before the official release. No release date has been set yet, but it’s projected to be anywhere from mid-summer to early December.

What are your thoughts on having all your devices running the same OS? 

5 Tips to stay creative in a creative position

By Tyler Jefford, Web Developer at Xapsis Integrated Marketing

Have you ever hit a creative wall? After producing countless creative products you finally come to a point where you feel your creative cup is empty. This happens to everybody, not just in the creative field; runners, even body builders can hit their wall. How can you get over the wall though? There is no definite answer, some things will work for you, and others may work for your colleagues. Here are five good tips on how to stay creative when you come against that wall.

Crowds of Creative People

Colleagues, friends, family, neighbors find people that stimulate your brain and make you see the world through a new pair of eyes. When you surround yourself with people who share the same passion as you, you will begin to notice new and possibly innovative ways to conquer problems and hopefully, chip away at that wall.

Challenge Yourself

This seems impossible if you are stuck in a rut right? Challenge yourself to pay your bills early, or to go to bed earlier, or drink more water. It doesn’t need to be creative. Learning to challenge yourself in seemingly minute aspects of your life may be a way to challenge yourself to power through the creative wall and create a superior product.

Never Stop Learning

Possibly the most important, the world doesn’t stop evolving after you get out of school, in fact, it moves faster. In a creative profession, designs, trends and standards are rapidly changing and getting re-worked into the next big thing. If you are resistant to learning and don’t keep on top of these trends, you will feel stagnant and lose your drive to be innovative and to push the envelope.

Get Outside

When you sit and think about a problem too long, it becomes bigger and eventually consumes your reality. Turning off your computer and spending time with your family and friends is a healthy step to rejuvenating your creative juices. Going out on your lunch break, taking a walk, getting fresh air, and seeing new things can also improve your ability to overcome the creative wall.  

Try Something Different

As Seth Godin says "Poke the box", try something new. The worry of failure shouldn’t be a reason not to try, because if you don’t try, then you have already failed. This seems like a no-brainer, but is a very difficult task for many who fear the possibility of trying and not succeeding. When you do the same thing over and over your process becomes repetitive, boring and your creativity suffers. Doing something different you have the ability to try something out, and if it doesn’t work you have a better idea of what won’t work and what to do better next time.

Conclusion

Surrounding yourself with creative and positive people will help you learn new aspects and interact with people who enjoy the same things as you. With a common goal, you are more prone to new ideas. Give yourself challenges and aggressive goals. Setting goals will help you take control of your creativity and force you to come up with new ideas. Learn a new skill. Start learning how to play an instrument or learn how to use a bow and arrow. Attaining a new skill can help with overcoming new problems that surface in your creative position. Go outside, get fresh air. Stepping away from the computer screen gets your mind off of work and can help you better focus on the tasks when you return. Try something different, failure is okay. Failure is the best teacher you can have, without it we are doomed to repeat bad creative work. Wrap all these tips into a single call to action today, your creativity will thank you.

Website Vs. Web Presence

By Doug Fouts, Managing Director at Xapsis Integrated Marketing

Let me ask you a question, how many website designers and developer business and services do you think there are in a 50 mile radius of your company’s location?  Odds are, when you account for one man operations working from home, online services through the likes of 1&1 and Intuit, all the way up to ad agencies that offer a much greater degree of sophistication and an even higher price tag there are more than dozens all around you.

I’ll be honest; I’m not interested in Xapsis being just a website design firm.  I am all about our company becoming a WEB PRESENCE builder.  A fair question is certainly, what is the difference?

A website is something that potentially can be designed with little more than a logo, a third party content management system like Wordpress or Joomla, some pictures and a few paragraphs.  In that case it’s often a flat tool that does little more than hold a spot on the World Wide Web through a domain name and some hosting fees, and says little more than your company exists.  There are many businesses out there that have that kind of website.

What is required, to not just survive but thrive in today’s world, is for your business to have more than that, you need a web presence!  A web presence is a living, growing and changing strategy to announce, enhance and amplify your brand in a world that is increasingly digital-centric.  It includes not a static, dated or template designed website, but an interactive, online portal that makes your brand, who you are, what you do and why people should want to do business with you, jump off the screen and entice people to drive deeper into your message and services.   It also includes a strategy to take that portal and make it accessible in a mobile format, and it spreads the word virally through social media outlets.  A web presence is more multifaceted than just having a website, if it is done right, and it must leverage many new media channels to touch people and remind them of why they absolutely want to do business with YOU.

Think about being at a party or any large gathering of people.  Individuals are milling about making small talk, some you know, some you don’t.  Conversations are animated at times, subdued at others, and then suddenly someone new enters the room and all eyes are drawn to them.  There is something about this person that makes people sit up and take notice, the way they carry themselves, the confidence with which they speak with an air of authority or expertise that comes through.  You can’t help but want to interact with them; they just have a certain…presence. 

The parallel is clear.  Do an online search for your type of good or service in your area and what do you find?  You are surrounded by competitors who are trying to mingle with your target market segment.  Some of their sites are full of flash and noise, some are staid and stodgy, but what if when they hit your site they felt a certain presence?  What if they were drawn to your message, enticed by your brand and really desired to drive deeper in to get to know you?  What if you were set apart because of your obvious expertise in your field and your site spoke with an authority that made people want to interact with you?  In fact, they wanted what you had so much that they talked to you through their mobile devices, and followed you through your social media channels.  The next thing you know, they are asking you questions and engaging in discussions with you, and you are asking for and getting their business! Now THAT is having a web presence.

I began with a question, and I’ll end with a thought.  If you are involved with a company that has settled for the idea that you can only EXIST on the web, but technology and your competitors have passed you by, why not try to establish a real WEB PRESENCE that makes waves, stirs up leads and produces real results.

You CAN do something about it, and we would love to help! Contact Xapsis for a FREE website analysis.