What is social feedback?
Social feedback is the acknowledgment of other people’s content on social media through likes, dislikes, stars, shares, and comments. Through social feedback, users help shape the kind of content that creators share.
The term social feedback originated in psychology. In that field, the concept recognizes how reactions to a person’s behavior, such as laughter, crying, or name-calling, shape that person’s future behavior. The same principle holds true in the social media realm, where a person who receives more “likes” on a post or comment is likely to produce similar output down the line.
Social media management software is used to manage content across platforms, including scheduling posts, engaging with the community, and tracking performance data. Social media managers and communications departments tailor their messaging and boost brand awareness.
Types of social feedback
Each platform has a unique system of social feedback. Some options for giving feedback to others include:
- Likes or dislikes: This system lets users quickly indicate their general opinion of the content. Depending on the platform, likes can be shown with a heart or thumbs-up, while a thumbs-down generally reflects dislikes. Users have contested the thumbs-down indicator on some platforms, saying it increases negativity and encourages "trolling".
- Upvotes and downvotes: Similar to a thumbs-up or thumbs-down system, this uses up or down arrows to convey satisfaction or dissatisfaction. On some platforms, the number of downvotes on content or comments is visible to all; on others, it’s only visible to the user and helps the algorithm customize content for that user.
- Star ratings: Sometimes, users assess content with a star rating or on a number scale. This system allows users and creators to convey their satisfaction with content more precisely.
- Comments: Social network platforms allow users to comment on posts or other comments. While sometimes people comment on the general topic, they often reveal why they agree or disagree with the original poster’s position.
- Shares: Most outlets let users re-share content created by other users, distributing it to a broader audience and amplifying the message. A share is typically seen as a vote of approval, but sometimes the content is shared to poke fun or disagree with the original poster.
- Reactions: Some platforms, like Facebook and LinkedIn, provide more options for users to express feedback, including celebrating, showing supporting, letting a user know they laughed, or indicating they found their post insightful.
Across all platforms, users’ ability to interact with the content and leave social feedback influences future posts. An influencer who receives thousands of positive comments after posting on a video-sharing app is likely to continue creating similar videos. On the flip side, a brand that writes a culturally insensitive post may get negative backlash and reverse direction in the future.
Basic elements of social feedback
Social media is a complex environment, and navigating and understanding it is challenging for individuals and brands alike. Some key elements to consider in understanding social feedback are:
- Engagement: Companies can view analytics on their social media platforms to see how users interact with their content. Social engagement metrics consider the number of likes and comments a post gets relative to its number of viewers. These metrics can indicate how content resonates with the target audience.
- Sentiment: Comments provide rich qualitative data about the social post. Brands often employ social listening to see how people respond to their content across platforms. These insights can reveal users’ feelings about the company, content, or products.
- Reach: Due to the complex algorithms of most social platforms, not all followers see all content. Reach shows how many unique users viewed the content. Posts with unusually high reach most likely connected better with audiences.
Benefits of social feedback
Social feedback has advantages for influencers, creators, and brands, but it also benefits content consumers. Some specific advantages might be:
- Improved self-perception. Social feedback makes content creators more aware of how audiences view them. Companies can analyze comments for trends in customer opinions and gain a fuller picture of how they are perceived. This self-understanding illuminates gaps where branding isn’t connecting with users.
- Better audience awareness. Creators can use social feedback to gain a better understanding of their target audience over time. Patterns become apparent as they see who is frequently commenting, liking, or sharing their posts. Then, in the future, they can better tailor content to those specific demographics.
- Higher-quality content. Social feedback sends creators messages about how to develop more targeted, engaging content. Audiences then consume the new content and leave feedback, and the cycle repeats itself, creating incrementally better outcomes over time.
Turn the feedback you get on social media into actionable insights when you leverage social media analytics software.
Kelly Fiorini
Kelly Fiorini is a freelance writer for G2. After ten years as a teacher, Kelly now creates content for mostly B2B SaaS clients. In her free time, she’s usually reading, spilling coffee, walking her dogs, and trying to keep her plants alive. Kelly received her Bachelor of Arts in English from the University of Notre Dame and her Master of Arts in Teaching from the University of Louisville.
