Social media breeds bullies and trolls.
People who seem to enjoy being mean and stirring up drama. People who are often able to hide behind the anonymity of their keyboards and the internet. People who face no accountability for the things that they say.
People who are more rude and crass than I expect they would be if you encountered them in real life. People who are proudly and/or ignorantly racist and bigoted. People who are…you get the gist.
It’s a harsh reality that as marketers we have to prepare ourselves for trolls, and especially as Just Marketers – because someone always wants to hate on anything that’s progressive. SMH. But we’re going to keep moving forward regardless of these keyboard warriors.
MIght I share a few ideas?
5 Warning Signs to Identify a Troll
First things first; We have to know what we are working with. Know thy enemy.
Next, we need to ensure that a person is not trying to provide us with constructive criticism. We always want to evaluate everything with an equity-centered lens, which means we don’t want our own biases causing us to identify someone as a troll erroneously.
If you believe you’re receiving constructive criticism, then you need to genuinely consider what you may have done wrong (and check out this post on what to do when you mess up! It’s ok, it happens to the best of us!). By evaluating our own actions with an equity-centered lens, we can ensure that our own biases aren’t inadvertently causing us to identify someone as a troll. Just because we don’t agree with them, doesn’t necessarily mean they are a troll.
Unfortunately, sometimes they are. Here are some warning signs that may indicate you are dealing with a troll.
Blindness to Evidence
Trolls refuse to believe that anyone else could possibly be correct. They know it all, they’re the experts. They will ignore facts altogether, refuse to consider any evidence you provide, and certainly won't share any credible evidence of their own. They’ll say Just Marketing® is crap, and yet say nothing valuable about how we can make marketing more inclusive.
Name-Calling
When they lack more substantial input or simply want to escape your valid response, trolls will often resort to calling you names. These insults could range from the latest trending insult (sheep, Karen, etc.), to cussing (another common tool in the troll arsenal). Do not be surprised by it.
Topic Redirects
Yeah, you probably guessed this one. If you had a friend who liked to argue as a kid, you would know that this is a signature move. Trolls enjoy making off-topic remarks (or posting unrelated images/memes) to try and distract others from the actual topic being discussed. They usually resort to this when their arguments begin to be exposed as unreasonable.
Condescending Tone
“I don’t care what you are saying, but you must listen to me. Do not dare ask me questions, I’ll throw a fit if you do. You must take what I say as it is. I’m right and I don’t care what you think or say.”
Yup, that’s the troll modus operandi. For trolls, the more drama, the better. Call BS.
Over Exaggerating
There’s no middle ground for trolls. Everything is on the extreme end of the spectrum. There is no room for compromise or mutual understanding. It’s all black and white.
If you post content publicly on the internet, it’s only a matter of time before you are the victim of trolling and/or bullies. And, since marketing our businesses tends to be completely public by design – this is something we must prepare ourselves for. Even more so if you are pushing for a paradigm shift to Just Marketing®.
How to Proactively Prepare For Troll Attacks
Understand this; trolls get their kicks out of causing other people distress.
This is NOT about you, and you’re NEVER going to change a troll’s mind. They will derail you from your goals if you let ‘em. DON’T.
Here’s a few suggestions on how to prepare for troll attacks so they don’t get you down, or cause you to question your Just Marketing® efforts.
Build a Support Network
This is not an easy one. I definitely recommend having help in one form or another. If your business is big enough, you can bring on a team for comment moderation. If not, I recommend a person (or group of people) that you can turn to for emotional support and guidance on how to respond.
Pssst, if you're looking for a community of equity-centered entrepreneurs and small business owners to embark on your Just Marketing® journey with, CLICK HERE.
Create a Policy
A social media comment and posting policy that’s aligned with your values can help to clearly outline the type of content you allow on your page. When people get upset that you removed their content, you’ll have the policy to back you up. You don’t need a policy to delete content, but having one can take some of the pressure off you when you can “blame” the policy for the need to take action.
Allow Time to Decompress
Now, this is a big one for me. This is one of my number one tips for dealing with anything difficult.
Allow yourself time to process and cool off before trying to respond in a professional, value-aligned way. Sometimes an hour is enough, sometimes I need a whole day.
If you don’t know the best ways for you personally to decompress, take some time to explore. Take a walk, watch a movie, spend some time with your kids. Do whatever works for you and come back later to deal with the troll.
On responding to trolls, heed the words of Mark Twain who said this about pigs: never wrestle with a pig – it gets mud all over you and the pig likes it. Comprede? It will only harm the reputation of your brand.
I don’t recommend ignoring trolls. Your audience is watching, and oftentimes failure to speak up against negative behavior is perceived as accepting that behavior. This is where the term “silence is compliance” comes from.
Your brand is responsible for speaking up and setting the tone for what is and is not acceptable on your social media accounts. It shows that you’re serious about your commitment to your values and the issues at hand.
Nuff said about that.
So, How Should You Reply to Trolls?
There are 4 approaches you can take when responding to trolls.
The Kindness Approach
You’ve heard the phrase “kill 'em with kindness.”
In some cases, kindness will eliminate a troll problem. While this approach won’t work with more harmful trolling, when it comes to comments that are just annoying, a simple “thanks for that insight, have a blessed day,” ends the conversation and leaves them with (snarky?) kindness.
The Humor Approach
Humor comes super easy to some people, and when leveraged appropriately, it can diffuse a negative situation. The fast-food restaurant, Wendy’s, is notorious for doing this really well on social media. Not me though, I am not very humorous. I know this about myself so I don’t try to take an approach I know I’m not good at! If you are quick and witty, this may work well for you and your brand.
However, you should be careful that you don’t cross the line where your humor becomes offensive to others. Unfortunately, this happens far too often, even with professional comedians (think Chris Rock at the Oscars…uh uh…Richard).
The Educational Approach
If the trolls are spreading misinformation, you can reply with facts. Trolls themselves usually care very little about the facts. This approach also allows you the opportunity to educate other people who come across the trolling. This is the approach that I personally prefer.
I find it challenges me to learn more about controversial topics so I can craft educational responses. In this way, I can use some trolling comments for my own personal growth and development. Even better, I have received feedback from my community that this approach is most helpful for them.
The Enforcer Approach
You are the boss of your social media accounts and it’s your responsibility to control the content and ensure that it’s inclusive. If you have a social media comment and posting policy, the enforcer approach would be to link to that policy with a simple response that the content in the comment/post is not allowed.
You may choose to leave it up and give them that one warning, others will no doubt appreciate that you stepped in and identified the problem. It’s up to your discretion whether the comment is harmful enough to remove, or whether you leave it up as an example for others that you are standing by your rules and ethics.
Here’s an example: This page does not tolerate hate speech. You can refer to our policies at THIS URL. If you continue to violate the policies you may be blocked, banned, or reported.
This is exactly what it sounds like. Delete the comments, block/ban the user from your page, and/or report the user to the social media platform if their content is in violation of the platform’s community standards. No comments, no warnings. I definitely recommend this approach for hate speech. You’ll have to determine where the line is drawn for your brand/business.
You get to choose which one of these approaches suits you best as a brand and use at will. Alternatively, you can assess each instance of trolling and decide which approach would be the best response.
One Last Thing: The Just Marketing® Podcast
None of this is easy. I’m sure you would rather choose to not deal with social media trolls at all if you had the option. But it is what it is. You cannot control trolls, you can only manage them.
The Just Marketing® podcast is for you equity-centered marketers and entrepreneurs. Newbie or OG, it’s about helping you navigate and explore the concepts of Just Marketing® so you can create a more equity-centered brand.
New episodes air every week with really exciting content tailor-made for you. You can listen wherever you listen to your podcasts. Or, share this blog post with a friend who you think could benefit from learning about Just Marketing®!
