by AJ
Feedback on Squidoo is sooooo important!
December 22, 2009 in AJ's musings, Editorial, Featured by AJ
AJ is Musing about feedback on Squidoo and how important it is to everyone – Lensmasters and Squidoo HQ alike.
Feedback in one form or another has been a major part of my life over the last 10 years. As a former teacher of adults, my students were asked to give feedback at the end of every completed training session. How else could I find out whether I had helped or motivated? How else would I find out if I had delivered expectations? But of course to be able to meet people’s expectations, you had to set them first, just so everyone is clear about what to expect and what is expected.
So I delivered the training. I ran courses that I knew how to deliver well. Then I had to be brave and invite feedback. With luck, plus a lot of effort, I got it all right and everyone was happy.
The Feedback Cycle
But sometimes someone made me stop and think, perhaps about how I said something or how I handled a situation.
Maybe in an attempt to be brief or move the proceedings along I came across as curt or dismissive? And in a way, being given THAT feedback was far more valuable to me than all the praise and kudos that I frequently received.
It stopped me from assuming I had always got it right. It stopped me from taking it for granted that I would always get it right. It kept me on my toes.
On Squidoo feedback is crucial
Most of us are hundreds, if not thousands of miles away from our audience. Even those we may work with closely could be a long haul flight away. It is rare to see anyone face to face – unless of course you live in Pendleton, SC. Where EVERYONE is either publishing lenses on Squidoo or reading them!
I often describe myself as sitting in an ivory tower, this side of “the pond”. It can be a lonely place sometimes and when you first start publishing lenses, it can be a nerve wracking experience.
You wonder how your lenses will stack up compared to the lenses you have been visiting, as you try to figure how to go about making that first lens, or two, or three, or …
Then you take the plunge. You create. You publish. Then you worry that you have just published the crappiest of crap lenses that were ever published in the history of Squidoo!
Then you start getting comments in your Squidoo Guestbooks. You get feedback and phew! It’s OK. Your lens was NOT the crappiest of crap lenses that were ever published.
Then you might get an email that tells you about a typo, or gives you a suggestion about how to improve it and all of a sudden you are not scared of getting feedback anymore.
You even start venturing onto the “Critique Me” thread on the SquidU Forum. OK, so sometimes the feedback is not what you would prefer to hear, but you are growing on Squidoo. You are getting more confident, you can handle it!
But then tsomething not so good happens!
The longer you are on Squidoo and the more people tell you how well you are doing and how you always “get it right”, there is a danger that someone will say:
Whoa! Just a minute, but….
The danger is that you will resent any negative feedback. You will think that the problem is with the person giving the feedback and not with you.
So I guess what I am just trying to say is that we all need to watch out for this. Just because we may be a Squidoo Angel, a Giant Squid or a Giant Squid 100 does not guarantee that we will always be right and sometimes others won’t agree with us. And perhaps in these situations, it is best to forget about titles and the number of lenses we have made. We need to stop and remember we are all the same underneath – just Squidoo Lensmasters, who can all learn a lot from feedback from each other.
And what about Squidoo HQ?
Do you ever give them feedback about stuff that is happening on Squidoo? Have you got a story to tell? Something that was so fantastic that you blogged about it? Tweeted it on Twitter? Did you remember to tell HQ?
Did you ever email Seth Godin when something great happened to you on Squidoo? He likes to hear from people AND he replies.
And by the same token, if something is bugging the heck out of you, did you ever contact HQ about that too? How can they help if they don’t know about it? They may be a pretty talented bunch of people but they are not mind-readers.
Think about it
There’s over a million lenses on Squidoo. We are blogging all over the place. We are active on Nings, Squidlog and hundreds of other Squidoo related sites. How can HQ possibly keep up with what is going on out in the “field”? So, do tell them. Let them know what you love and loathe.
It was only this morning that I got thinking about feedback and that was because of this comment on my blog at Crabby’s Beach , from Lensmaster Laniann:
You are a strong person AJ and you will make it. Look back at how much you have accomplished and the long road you have already travelled. You have been a blessing to many people. You will come out on top just keep going.
I was very moved that a Lensmaster, who I don’t really “know”, had taken the time to leave such a kind and personal message. I had posted the blog following a very sad episode in my life and the comment actually brought tears to my eyes that she could reach out to me in that way. She did not have to, but she chose to.
Publishing on Squidoo can be a lonely business
It is not like you are working in an office and when you have something you want to share, good or bad, you can pop your head around someone’s door and have a quick chat. There’s no one on hand to tell you whether you have got it right or wrong. And of course your family think you are totally nuts and don’t have the first idea what you are talking about when it comes to Squidoo!
My daughter Sparky sums it up so well:
I could not Squidoo without the support of my family
But on Squidoo there’s thousands of people you may never meet, who really do understand what you are feeling. People like Laniann, who care enough to reach out to you and make a comment like she did.
Feedback is the basis of many of the decisions that we make on Squidoo
Feedback can make the difference between making decisions based on reality – what is really happening and what people really think, or we can ignore it or even pass up the opportunity to get some feedback, basing decisions on our own assumptions. And of course, as I always used to say in that training room, assumptions make an ass out of you and me – ass-u-me!
Yep, feedback. Don’t you just love it? And where would Squidoo be without it?
With thanks to 
Overheard on twitter...
Well Said, AJ! I remember especially early days at Squidoo when a comment was a cause for huge celebration all over the house. and even now, two years later, when I get notice of a comment, I rush out to the lens to see it for real and to see who it was that said such a nice thing! Comments and feedback keep us going, more days than we realize, I think! I am thankful for every single comment, every kind remark, every email to let me know about a typo (or something worse — like a video not working at all!)
I have to admit I have not been good about feedback to HQ — and I do need to be more mindful of that!
Thank you!
Joan Adams´s last blog ..Concise Dickens’ Christmas Carol
Excellent article, AJ. I have always advocated more of a conversation on Squidoo and any other article or blog site for that matter. We learn more, faster from each other than we do alone, and with all the different online specialties available, we have a lot to learn from each other.
I always appreciate it when someone notices a mistake on one of my own lenses or a module that is no longer working properly. It is easy to miss stuff no matter how many times you proofread something.
lakeerieartists´s last blog ..Feedback on Squidoo is sooooo important!
Wow, this is excellent and I especially liked your mentioning Pendleton. I also loved your daughter’s drawing. Did she sneak over to my house to get the idea for that?
ohme´s last blog ..My Latest Lenses
Much as I want to contribute something smart or witty to this post, my brain is just flat out denying its service. But I’m resisting the urge to thank you silently for another great post, *assuming* that you already know that, and move on. AJ, your posts always make so much sense and they’re fun to read as well. I appreciate every one of them!
Maybe I could give some feedback–lovingly of course–to HQ!
Thanks for the article AJ. We all need to support one another and a critical
comment may be just what is needed to grow as a human being!!
Thank you!!
mukunda22´s last blog ..Feedback on Squidoo is sooooo important!
As someone new to the Internet etc, I didn’t know one could give feedback to Squidoo.
I find it all very complex — in fact I should like to ask “Them” to have an Index and a Glossary of Terms as the 1st/2nd page of Squidoo.com!!!!!
Unfortunately I don’t know how to do that either ‘cos there is no Index etc to tell me where to do it.
Surely I’m not the only ignorant person trying to sort out what’s what?
I suppose the Forums would be useful if one understood them and knew WHAT questions to ask! But when it’s all a big mystery ……………………………….!
Help, anyone please?
I have greatly appreciated feedback given on my Lenses and hope that continues.
By the way —Happy New Year to Everyone and your Families.
Hi JuneMary.
There’s a couple of ways you can give feedback to HQ – at the very bottom of every lens there is set of links, including “Feedback and bugs”. There is also a Feedback link on the top of every page in the Forum – it is in the Forum Guidelines.
If you need help with a general question, that is not related to a bug on a lens, then post your questions in the “Help me” thread on the SquidU Forum, where you will get a lot of the help you need. But also try doing a search for lenses to help you – there’s many great lenses that deal with every aspect of lensbuilding that you can think of. Try search phrases like How to Squidoo or How to learn HTML etc.
This lens may also help you: Squidoo Step by Step that has a link to a free Squidoo Guidebook, that will take you through the process of learning how to get traffic and promote your lenses.
AJ´s last blog ..Sylvestermouse
AJ – full of wisdom once again. You are a prime example of how people brand themselves by their comments on social networks such as Squidoo. Your personal honesty, genuineness and desire to help set you apart and create your own following.
The power of a comment was brought home to me recently when I left a simple comment on a RedGage blog post and the receiver thanked me for renewing her confidence in her own professional approach. I don’t think we can ever over-estimate the power of genuine, positive feedback nor the usefulness of constructive feedback that takes account of the often brittle self-esteem of many people online. As you point out from your teaching background, you can nurture and help people grow through supportive, constructive feedback.
This discussion reminds me of something I wrote about “supportive challenge” many moons ago:
“In our everyday life we often experience the separation of support and challenge. Support without challenge can reinforce the status quo and perspectives that are unhelpful or damaging. Challenge without support can be self-serving (building oneself up while taking the other person down) and damaging to the self-esteem of the other person (by reinforcing feelings of inadequacy).
Supportive challenge has as its object, building the self-esteem of the other person while helping them to recognize the limitations of their existing mindset about a problem, person or issue. It is about helping the other person to be the best they are capable of being.”
As other commentators have pointed out, “We are in this together and together we grow!”.
Ron Passfield´s last blog ..Internet Marketing Training: 30 Day Challenge Plus (30DC+) Review
Ron, thank you so much for your comments. I do wonder if it is because we are of a certain age that we are able to see feedback, (when given in a polite and helpful way), not as a threat to our position – or the position we are trying to take – but as something to be encouraged and that can add so much value and credibility to what we are trying to do.
Coping with feedback is something I try to teach my children. I have a choice: do I read through their homework that they have spent a lot of time doing, ignore the bad sentence construction and just say that is brilliant OR do I say: “That is great, but let’s look at what we can do to make it even more brilliant and it is going to take very little time at all”. It does seem to me that we are dealing with a generation who don’t want to hear anything unless it is 100% positive. If we point out something that can be construed as negative, we are often made to feel that we are “Cassandras”, constantly preaching doom and gloom.
I can understand my 11 & 13 year old finding less than 100% positive feedback difficult to cope with but when it is adults, it does make me a tad concerned!
Ron, I love what you say about: “Supportive challenge has as its object, building the self-esteem of the other person while helping them to recognize the limitations of their existing mindset about a problem, person or issue. It is about helping the other person to be the best they are capable of being.”
It is so true!
AJ´s last blog ..Sylvestermouse
AJ, that picture absolutely made me holler out loud! I’m still smiling. No doubt most of us bore our loved ones with our enthusiasms. Sad, but funny. Thanks for sharing it… (I have one band member whom we all sidle away from when he gets to talking about the zither, and another whose thoughts are seldom far from his sailboat, in which we have not the slightest interest.)