The greatest good you can do for another is not just to share your riches but to reveal to him his own.

~ Benjamin Disraeli

In my last post on 360 Feedback, I wanted you to ask at least three people you know to look at your pages or posts (on your website, MySpace, Facebook, etc.) and provide you some criticism - negative or positive.  Specifically, I wanted you to: (1) have them tell you what message they think you are sending; (2) ask them for feedback on how well they think you are doing in portraying yourself; and (3) ask them to seriously critique your postings and pages.

So now I want to tell you what to do with the critiques you have gathered.

To remind you where I was going with this - I want to make your Web pages and postings more effective by sharpening your image.  This means crafting your message so that it has maximum impact — but the impact you want to it have.

So start with the feedback you got on the first topic.  How close was the message perceived by the reviewers to that you thought you were sending?  As you are going through the comments, make a point-by-point list of strengths and weaknesses.  And hopefully as you are doing this, you will have some ideas pop up for improving your posts and pages — write these down as well so you can act on them as soon as you get some time.  And don’t be afraid to get ideas from the reviewers too - they may give you some fresh perspectives.

Follow the same process for the other two questions — add to the list of pluses and minuses and to the list of ideas.

Now comes the hard part.  You should take each point made by your reviewers — even the “funny” comments — there almost always is truth in humor, and consider what you might do differently in presenting yourself.  Maybe you need different words, maybe you need graphics, or a different selection of music to best represent you.  Don’t do anything yet — just work through the list and try to get a total picture of your strengths and weaknesses.  And, even though I said to consider every point, you may still be right — but this sort of self examination should help you strengthen your resolve and your positioning as an artist.   

So, to summarize.  Your immediate next step in this exercise is to make lists of the pluses, minuses, and ideas for improvement.  And then to try to build for yourself a full picture of what others think of your site and its effectiveness.  I’ll give you a bit of time to consider all of this and next time I revisit this topic, I’ll talk about actions to be taken as a result of this exercise

A final note: WHATEVER YOU DO, do not get down on yourself about this.  One of the hardest things about this types of exercise is staying positive in the face of criticism.  I know for myself that this is one of the hardest parts of the process — I don’t take criticism very well and i tend to get down in the dumps if I get too much negative feedback.  But part of being a professional is learning how to improve, and accepting and acting on criticism is an important part of growing as an artist. 

So how did it go — were you able to get three or more critiques, and what kind of feedback did you get - mostly positive or negative?  Tell me what you think of this exercise (good or bad) and whether you would recommend it to others.  As always, I appreciate your comments - they help me get better at what I do. - V