There are two aspects of human nature that are always fascinating to me. The first is that people, generally speaking, rarely take immediate action when they have a positive customer experience. The second is that people, again generally speaking, rarely like to say bad things to someone’s face. Combine those two aspects of human nature and you’ve got the fuel for social media.

Regarding positive customer experiences, I am referencing the immediate-type responses like — “Wow! Dragonfly Farms just blew my socks off with the bag of vegetables they provided this week – nice work. #CSA.” You see them – but not as often as you hear the griping and dinging.  Positive customer feedback is often delivered when someone asks your opinion on a particular brand/experience at a later point in time. For example, next spring when people are considering joining a CSA and they ask my opinion, I willingly go on and on about what a wonderful job Dragonfly Farms did and how much value we derived from their products.

That positive customer experience is very important – don’t get me wrong – but don’t expect immediate feedback from your efforts. This is important for companies to remember when launching and maintaining social media efforts. You may not truly understand the impact of your actions on the customer experience until much later. And, you may never be privy to those conversations because they will happen between the customers. Don’t underestimate your role in the experience, though, just because you are not seeing direct feedback. I like to encourage folks to pay it forward with providing immediate positive customer experience feedback because it is very motivational for organizations and the people that work for them, but the truth of the matter is that it doesn’t always happen.

Regarding our tendency to hedge on saying bad things to someone’s face – in my opinion this is probably one of the most important reasons to participate in social media. Every negative comment is an opportunity to engage and turn that experience into a positive customer interaction. The minute you engage with the person making negative comments they step back and rethink the directness of their delivery and approach. I am not suggesting that they will not provide any feedback, but rather that it will have been inadvertently filtered if it’s not given spontaneously and more anonymously. People speak their spontaneous thoughts which may be more brutal than you would prefer to a broad anonymous audience, but in this situation there is an opportunity to gain critical insights into what your customers think of your business. Then, when you address the situation you have the opportunity to engage on a more professional level with the customer and hopefully improve the overall interaction.

I had such an experience when working from my home office. I had the windows open and heard a very heated and unprofessional exchange between two men installing cable at my neighbor’s house. A quick tweet on my part, detailing how awful I thought the situation was being handled was quickly downplayed when a representative of the cable company tweeted back within moments of my tweet hitting the “wires.” I quickly back pedaled and made my tweets more professional – you see, it is easy to forget that your negative feedback can have human impact until a human is actually talking to you and reminds you of that fact.

This brings me to the point of my post.

Customers will not knock on your door and tell you how much they love you, but they will tell you that you are not so bad when confronted after a negative post – even if they still cringe at the mention of your name. It is only your effort to rectify the situation that will change their perception.

Sounds a bit like seventh grade hallway conversations doesn’t it?

Social media is very much the same  – especially for small businesses. It is a necessary ingredient in the marketing mix, but too much too fast can make or break your business.

I have been reading a lot of Jay Baer’s Convince and Convert posts. The following two come to mind:

How to Integrate Social Media Into Your Marketing

Social Media Makes Everything Marketing

In addition, I’ve been reading a lot of IttyBiz posts. Specifically:

How to stop being an information product slut and start creating the business you want

101+1 Small Business Marketing Questions For People Who Don’t Speak Marketing

It all makes me think that striking the match to ignite the flame in the first place might be the hardest step. Walking at a slow and steady pace while keeping a keen eye on your environment is the second hardest thing to do. And the final step is having enough courage to decide if your second matchstick should be cardboard, or perhaps wood this time.

Going for the propane stick lighter? Probably not a good idea.

I have learned an unbelievable amount since leaving Ciena on October 13th. I know it does not make logical sense that I would learn more AFTER losing my job, but it is true. I have been spending my time speaking with brilliant people about their work and what inspires them. It has helped me articulate what I want to do next and has taught me that I will be a better person – and employee – if I take my eyes OFF the target occasionally.

That is right – I said, “take my eyes off the target.” We get caught up in processing our daily lives and work, and do not often take a moment to lift our eyes to look around and  learn and experience new things.  Taking the time out from aiming to hit our targets, allows us to take in our environment and will ensure a bulls eye, or near-bulls eye, hit.  Lift your eyes from the target to determine if perhaps, one of your colleagues produces a better bow you could use — more efficient and accurate. Lift your eyes to see if the tip of your arrow is, indeed, appropriately affixed to ensure a straight shot. Lift your eyes to check wind speed and direction. Will your arrow drift off course? I am not suggesting you lift them for long. It is not a time to admire the gorgeous cloud formations passing slowly over-head — save that for after the arrow strikes the coveted red center.

The time I am spending talking to those around me, doing new things, reading more articles and just generally being more present in my own life – has me energized and excited about my next opportunity.

A new 64-count box of crayons sits on the table in front of me. I crack the lid, thinking about how I only have 64 of the 120 core Crayola ® crayon colors. I think, too, about the more than 400 colors they have introduced since 1903. For years I have been fascinated with their color and naming trends, and have even noticed that crayons color differently now then they did when I was a kid. I have surmised it is most likely due to ingredient changes and can rattle off what economic and health-related concerns have probably caused the shifts. To say I am a crayon aficionado, is putting it lightly.

Watching the way people interact with crayons is also a bit of a social experiment for me. Crayons elicit habits and emotions in people. For example, some people love the newness of an unused box of crayons and will keep a box on the shelf for years; saving them for some special coloring occasion that never arrives. Other people are not phased at all by old crayons and will color for hours with a worn-down, rounded tip. Their box of crayons has a beaten up package and when you lift the lid the crayons have ragged wrappers and are of all different heights. These two distinct groups of people would have very different opinions as to whether the sharpener on the back of the box actually works.

There are still others, who will sit with a new box of crayons and a blank piece of paper and design a masterpiece derived from their mind’s eye. Others need the direction and structure of coloring books and some feel foolish coloring without a child present.

A simple thing like a new box of crayons represents endless possibilities. They represent the smiles on my children’s faces, blooming creativity, an outlet for individuality and personal expression – and, hours of fun. You can melt them and use candy molds to make fun-shaped crayons, grind them up into shavings for confetti, peel their labels off and make leaf rubbings, and even conduct science experiments.

As a marketer fascinated by the use of color and words, the crayon naming trends and ever-evolving color list makes getting a new limited-edition box of crayons (when you are lucky enough to find one) an exciting prospect.

So I sit – with my box of crayons – and ponder my new blog. What should the title be? What should it be about? Should I focus on a particular topic? How much of myself do I weave into my posts? I have so many questions and so many possibilities. Just as with my new box of crayons.