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Don't Feed the Trolls
One of the first things we learned in my Social Media Marketing class was "Don't feed the trolls." In other words, don't encourage the people online who are harassing you just to get a rise out of you. They just want to make you or your company look bad; they are baiting you and just trying to cause trouble. For many companies, trolling will simply take the form of ridiculous complaints. You should handle every complaint gracefully and as a chance to improve customer relations and maybe even improve your product or service. But a troll won't give up once you've handled the situation. That's usually the difference between a troll and a truly unsatisfied customer.
I recently read an article in Time magazine titled "Tyranny of the Mob," about Internet trolls. Here is a link to the online version. The article presented some pretty disturbing facts and stories about trolls. Trolls have power and influence because of the power of social media. Instead of writing an angry letter to a company, they can now post it online and get others on the Internet riled up. Many trolls have hundreds of thousands of followers on social media, and those followers often take the bullying that trolls do and can turn it into terrorism.
Threats made by trolls and their followers have often led people to cancel their social media accounts, and some have had to move from their homes and completely remove themselves from the Internet. According to the article, trolling is changing the norms of the Internet and making it OK to hurt and harass other people. Current laws and law enforcement training are also becoming insufficient in controlling trolls. Trolls don't care if they are blocked; they'll just move on to the next victim.
Among those who have been severely trolled are celebrities. In November 2014, Telegraph posted an article about celebrities who have been driven off social media by trolls. These stories are also disturbing. Trolls are not just complaining about their music, movies, etc.; they are making up rumors about these people, threatening them, and even urging them to kill themselves! Quitting social media is the only way they can handle the trolls.
Celebrities are obviously not the only victims of trolling. Companies are also at a huge risk because of their public image. And it's not just the businesses themselves, but employees and their families who are also at risk. According to the Time article, Jessica Moreno, the wife of a former Reddit employee, tried to get rid of an offensive discussion group, and that angered trolls and led to them posting the couple's home address online and suggest ways to attack them.
So, how do you deal with trolls? In April 2015, Forbes posted "10 Tips to Dealing with Trolls." I recommend reading this article, but as a brief summary, these are the tips:
1) Establish a policy
2) Ignore them
3) Make light of the situation
4) Unmask them
5) Don't provide a platform
6) Use moderators and online tools
7) Create a unified community
8) Listen
9) Fight back with facts
10) Correct mistakes
I also recommend looking through this article on Social Media Examiner for examples of how companies have used humor and facts to counter trolls.
