You're struggling to get your social media strategy right. What's the best way to use feedback?

1 Define your objectives

Before you ask for or act on feedback, you need to have a clear idea of what you want to achieve with your social media strategy. What are your specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART) goals? How do they align with your overall business or marketing objectives? How will you track and measure your progress and results? Having a clear vision and direction will help you filter and prioritize the feedback you receive.

2 Choose your sources

Not all feedback is created equal. You want to get feedback from sources that are relevant, credible, and constructive. For example, you can use analytics tools to get data-driven feedback on your social media performance, such as reach, engagement, conversions, and sentiment. You can also use surveys, polls, or reviews to get direct feedback from your target audience, such as their preferences, opinions, or pain points. You can also seek feedback from your peers, mentors, or experts in your field, who can offer insights, advice, or best practices.

3 Respond and implement

Feedback is only useful if you do something with it. You need to respond and implement the feedback you receive in a timely and respectful manner. For example, you can thank your audience for their feedback, acknowledge their concerns, or address their questions. You can also use the feedback to adjust your social media strategy, such as changing your content, tone, frequency, or channels. You can also test and experiment with different approaches based on the feedback you receive, and measure the impact.

4 Evaluate and improve

Feedback is not a one-time thing. You need to continuously evaluate and improve your social media strategy based on the feedback you receive. You need to monitor and analyze the results of your actions, and see if they match your objectives. You need to identify what works and what doesn't, and learn from your successes and failures. You need to keep asking for and listening to feedback, and use it to refine and optimize your social media strategy.

5 Be open and humble

Feedback can be hard to hear sometimes, especially if it's negative or critical. But you need to be open and humble to accept and learn from feedback. You need to avoid being defensive, dismissive, or arrogant. You need to recognize that feedback is not a personal attack, but an opportunity to grow and improve. You need to appreciate the value of feedback, and use it to enhance your skills and knowledge as a social media manager.

6 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?