“Haters gonna hate,” as the expression often goes. There are just people on the planet that, well, don’t like what you are doing. It may be based upon something legitimate or in some cases it is based on nothing at all. But as our businesses and our lives find their way to the web, this is one thing you can count on.
You may be able to escape it for a while, but at some point in time, someone is going to challenge you online. This may be on your blog, on your website or even on one of your social media pages.
Thanks to the anonymity and power of hiding behind a screen thousands of miles away, people feel more powerful than ever. Leaving the question, what should my company do when a dissenter, troll or bully rears its ugly head online?
Determine the Legitimacy of the Content
Having published thousands of articles and hundreds of thousands of social media posts I have seen my share of negative feedback online. As I was once told, the only way to completely avoid this type of discourse is to stay offline altogether. Given that isn’t an option, we go with Plan B. We strive to determine when to respond and when to ignore.
When you realize that you have someone that doesn’t dig your ideas online and they have decided to state it publicly, the first thing I suggest you do is determine the legitimacy of what has been said and who has said it.
If the comment is founded, well informed and just happens to disagree with you then you aren’t really dealing with a troll (necessarily), but instead you may call it a well-intentioned differing opinion.
With these types of comments, I suggest you embrace it, be courteous and respond. In many cases this type of dialogue can open the door to a relationship. As they say, “Every sale begins with a no.”
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In some cases however, the dissent will get worse. At some point you need to state that you agree to disagree, but unless the comment is offensive I recommend that you do not delete. (I will explain this further.)
On the other hand, if the comment is backhanded, ill-intentioned or vulgar in any way, I suggest deletion and in many cases blocking the user either on your blog or on your social media handles. There is a great difference between healthy discourse and outright trolling.
Someone may at some time decide they just don’t like you or your company and they are going to make it their life’s work to renounce yours. This isn’t worth your time as there is little productivity that can come from it. If you block them and they continue to harass you across other channels, I suggest keeping track of what they are saying, but ignoring unless it becomes libelous (I am in no way giving legal advice here, just a course of action).
Why Not Just Delete Them All?
You may have noticed that I said not to delete the legitimate discourse. Bottom line here is that we aren’t going to please everyone and people have many ways to publicly confront a company that they do not like.
When you respond to useful but perhaps negative feedback you are providing customer service. You are showing that person that you are paying attention and even if you cannot come to an agreement, you are at least there to respond and show empathy.
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If you ignore or do not respond to legitimate commentary then you may be provoking the person to further share their dissatisfaction. This may mean on social media, or on other business review sites, but I would always prefer to have the opportunity to win the dissenter over than to send them to another site to further their complaints.
I remember I had a comment deleted once by a Facebook page of a cell phone company I wasn’t happy with. Let’s just say that did not bode well for them as I felt they chose to ignore rather than provide service. Ultimately my service went elsewhere.
Don’t Feed the Trolls
No matter how negative and frustrated you may become with the dissenters and even more so with the trolls, don’t feed them by getting feisty back. Most of the time this is what they want. Some have nothing better to do than to have arguments online with you. Chances are that you have other more important things to do.
in a nutshell, give your time and attention to those that deserve it. Disagreeing with you doesn’t make someone a jerk or a troll. Knowing the difference is the key.
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