Are You Using Feedback Loops as a Social Media Strategy?

Positive and negative feedback loops appear everywhere, from economics to engineering to the cells in your body. Clearly, nature thinks that feedback loops are a good idea. As it turns out, implementing feedback loops as a social media strategy is the same way.

Let’s look at the more relevant of the two feedback loops, the negative feedback loop – more positive than it sounds. Here are the steps:

1. Plan. What are you trying to make? What are your ideas?
2. Implement. Put your plan into action!
3. Distribute. Make sure other people know about your product.
4. Monitor. What’s going right? What’s going wrong? What are people talking about and what can you do better?
5. Analyze. This is without a doubt the most important part of the cycle. Brainstorm how to fix the problems unearthed in step 4.
6. Change. Apply the results of your analysis and return to step 1.

How can we apply this as a social media strategy? Think about your social media page as a product you’re putting out in and of itself. What goals do you have for it? How do you plan to achieve it? And when you do, do you have a way to measure how people are responding? Most importantly of all, are you changing with the people and the times? After all, the hallmark of a successful brand is the ability to listen to responses and change themselves to right the wrongs and improve themselves.

Implementing feedback loops is all about being proactive instead of reactive. Instead of sitting back and waiting for negative consequences to occur or for a colleague to point out the flaws, constantly monitor the cycle for places to improve. Of course, this is just one of the many proactive measures you can take to enhance your social media strategy. Your audience will notice and appreciate the effort you take to listen to them, and that puts you one step closer to your goal.

Read more: Social Media Feedback As Customer Prophecy