Web Psychology, Snackable Content, Flow, and… Boobs? Roger’s Picks

Here we go again – great reads from around the web, and a batch of new interviews with brilliant persuasion experts!

Want to get creative? Don’t sit around waiting for inspiration to strike. Instead, boost creativity the scientific way. Belle Beth Cooper (@bellebcooper) starts with brain research in How Our Brains Work When We Are Creative: The Science of Great Ideas, and then tells us how to use those insights for practical idea generation.

The Daily Egg’s (@CrazyEgg) Kevin Gao (@Comm100Corp) posted the third in a five-part series on website conversion: The User Interface: How to Create a Buying Environment on Your Website. This segment looks at UI factors like color, visitor behavior, flow, and more.

Long content may be highly desirable, but sometimes user preferences lean toward something short. In a post that is anything but bite-sized, Sonakshi Babbar (@Sonakshi_Babbar) gives us The Why And How of Creating ‘Snackable’ Content. As an aside, isn’t “snackable” a tasty word for a very clickable headline?

Is this really neuromarketing? You can decide… Talia Wolf reports on Simple Neuromarketing Hacks That Increased Revenue by 65% In The First Round. What’s not to like about real test data?

Chances are, you’d like to be more productive. It’s equally likely that you don’t want to spend more time to get more work done. Rachel Feltman (@rachelfeltman) offers up The complete guide to structuring your ideal work day to tell us how to organize every part of our day to get more done without working longer hours.

My stuff

This is an exciting week for Neuromarketing readers: we launched The Brainfluence Podcast, featuring audio interviews with brilliant marketers, scientists, and other experts. Find out more in The World’s Top Persuaders, Inside Your Head.

On the very first our podcast episode, we have a lively interview with THE Web Psychologist! Check out Web Psychology and Online Persuasion with Nathalie Nahai for the audio, links to the content we talk about and a full transcript. Memorable quote: “Can I say boobs on this podcast?”

What separated Instagram from dozens of other photo sharing tools? If you’ve read my review of Hooked by Nir Eyal, you know the answer. And, you know why we had to have him as one of our early guests on The Brainfluence Podcast! Episode #2: The Psychology of Habit-Forming Technologies with Nir Eyal, Nir Eyal (@nireyal) walks us through the four stages of his Hook Model and explains how to make your website, app, or other product embed itself into the daily lives of your users.

I read a lot of marketing books, and find many interesting. Few, though, are as close a match to my own interests as Webs of Influence by Nathalie Nahai (@TheWebPsych). I got to know Nathalie at last year’s ConversionSUMMIT, and finally review her book in Webs of Influence by Nathalie Nahai. This one’s a must-read for every web marketer!

Have you ever achieved a state of near-perfect concentration? Most of us have, at least once or twice, but can’t reach that state, known as “flow,” very easily. One of the world’s top experts on flow is author Steven Kotler (@kotlersteven). In Episode #3 of The Brainfluence Podcast, The Seven Characteristics of Flow with Steven Kotler, we talk about Steven’s new book, The Rise of Superman. The focus in the book is on extreme athletes, who, as a group, count on a state of flow to accomplish their seemingly impossible feats. On a more practical note, Steven answers my questions about open offices: do they destroy flow, or can they enhance it?

Lend a hand?

If you haven’t done so already, please check out The Brainfluence Podcast. We’ve got three episodes up now, and we’ll post a new one every Thursday. Each episode post has links to related resources, a playable audio version (plus links to iTunes and other player options), and a text transcript!

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And, of course, please feel free to post your own fave content of the week in a comment!