After working as an online marketer for six years in this domain, we learned how to ignore trolls. We tend not to remember the excruciating experience of being trolled constantly when we started.
However, triggered by a recent incident, we thought about compiling a mini-guide for all the marketers encountering trolls. We want to share different types of troll we encountered on the savage interwebs and the ways you can tackle them. This guide also serves as a reminder for us.
How Does Trolling Start?
There is no need to put trolls in order. You will find a plethora of them in the form of unwanted opinions and perceptions.
Trolls don’t miss any opportunity to troll, even attacking.
- Health related campaigns
- Charities
- Talented and competent artists
There is no denying that trolling exists everywhere. And if you aim to change something in this world, getting used to trolling is a must.
In fact, the fact that trolls are targeting you indicates that you are causing ripples in the static ecosystem of online marketing.
The first step you can take to deal with trolls is to keep your nerves calm by taking a deep breath. Remember that trolling doesn’t define your talent or reflect on your self-confidence. So, never make any opinion or decision based on what trolls say about you. Other’s opinions do not define you.
How To Mitigate Trolls?
There is no way to get rid of trolls completely. We had the chance to work with a myriad of excellent brands and entrepreneurs, and we found them ruthless when it comes to trolling others.
- However, using certain strategies, you cannot only protect yourself but also decrease the number of trolls significantly:
- Before responding to someone directly, run awareness campaigns
- Hire community managers to deal with the trolls on your feed and posts
- Don’t take them seriously
Types of Trolls
Here is a list of the ocmmon types of trolls that you may encounter:
1. Automated trolls – Bots
Typically, a bot is a fake troll farm made specifically to target popular blog posts and advertisements.
How Can You Spot them?
The feedback is baseless and doesn’t relate to your work. And the comments come from a random page or profile that has no content on the feed.
How Can You Handle?
No response is the best response for them, since there is no human involvement. Delete or block those comments. If trolls don’t seem to end, run a check on your web traffic and reevaluate your campaigns’ targets and objectives.
2. The Keyboard Warriors Trolls
These are some of the nastier trolls you will encounter. Not only do these people accuse or abuse you, but also attack you in numerous ways. They follow your content with an intention to criticize you or to pull your leg. Regardless of whether they ever worked with you or not, they leave negative reviews about your post, page, or content. Not only this, they don’t hesitate in creating negative threads about your posts or products on different platforms.
How Can You Spot Them?
They are in the habit of using horrendous grammar in the comments. In fact, these trolls often use cat pictures or stock images as their display pictures. Their profile feeds comprise mostly of shared links. Most of them are people who worked with or bought anything from you before.
How Can You Handle?
These people have firm opinions and display hostility against an issue. The reason may be a deep fear of uncertainty and change. They want dominance and control over everything. These are the common characteristics of many people in the world. However, these trolls are in a struggle to gain control of certain aspects of your life. This part is where they get the power to humiliate others.
In extreme cases, where the comments are full of hatred and abuses, you can ban or delete them. If they target the quality of your product or your integrity as a marketer, retaliate and respond to them.
For instance: “the product is scrap and only meant to scam people”.
Response: “Hey, Josh, we’re sorry if you think our products are scrap. However, according to our records, you have never been our customer. We’d like you to clarify your opinion. Note that we are an established firm and have a huge range of happy customers who consider our service the best in the market.
3. The Furious/Angry Customer Troll
How Can You Spot Them?
These include two types of customers: ones who don’t get your attention and the ones who aren’t happy with your product.
How Can You Handle Them?
Trust us, the trolls are a great opportunity to prove how much you value your customers. This tactic will help you build your marketing profile when you demonstrate the efforts to satisfy your customers. So, never ignore these trolls and deal every comment individually as a direct message, especially for complaints regarding logistics.
EX: “I purchased your product 4 weeks ago, and my delivery is still pending, this seems a big scam! No one should trust them”
Response: “Hey, Josh, we are very sorry that your product didn’t reach you on time. We’ll try our best to solve this issue as soon as possible. Kindly DM your product details along with your correct email address, and we’ll make sure your product reaches you within a week.”
Your concern and caring response to your customer in the ad will improve your brand image and conversion rate.
4. The Psycho Troll
How Can You Spot Them?
Even though we faced only two psycho trolls in our entire online marketing experience, they took a heavy toll on us. The instances when we got to deal with them still overwhelm us. Although psycho trolls are rare, they can become a pain in your neck if you’re stuck with them, unfortunately. They see no limits to go against you and can do anything when it comes to destroying you. They won’t mind faking events that never happened.
How Can You Handle Them?
If somehow you encounter psycho trolls on your posts, handle them carefully. Avoid triggering them further while trying your best not to linger on with the conversation. First, approach them directly to clarify the reason behind their sudden attacks on you by leaving a voice memo. If it doesn’t work, tackle the issue legally by involving your lawyer to restrain or cease the attempt. Refrain from indulging in an online squabble with psycho trolls. It will do nothing but fuel them, and therefore, maintain your distance!
We hope this guide will help you deal with day-to-day trolls positively. Always remember your self- worth and never judge yourself based on what trolls say. If you face trolling online, take this as a sign that you’re doing something right! You are a Champ!
