How to: Deal with Trolls

If you want to keep your online reputation intact and still create an engaged online community then you have to effectively handle trolls. Here are some top tips for dealing with trolls on social media:

01. Have a Policy

When dealing with trolls the first step is to establish a policy for user comments (on your blog and groups) as well as a policy for how your brand (yourself and staff etc) handle and respond to trolls on the blog, groups and social media.

For example, you might have a policy regarding which you respond to and which you ignore. You might then have a further policy regarding how to respond and a set of stock responses that you can you.

02. Ignore Them

Trolls are posting because they want attention. They want to get you angry, frustrated or uncomfortable. They want a reaction. Therefore, simply ignoring a troll could your best tactic because when they don’t get a response, they are likely to get bored and stop. If you are using twitter – mute them.

Take a look at the profile of the person trolling you. This should give you a good idea about whether they are a fake account, a bot or someone who just causes trouble on a regular basis.

03. Listen to them

Alternatively, they might be someone who just needs to vent and/or is looking for information – therefore sometimes a “personalised” stock response can be all they need to make them go away.

Sometimes people just want to be heard. Hear them, try to help, and they’ll almost always thank you publicly.

04. Use Facts

If you become the target of rumours or misinformation being spread by trolls, you may want to fight back with facts.

05. Correct Mistakes

Equally, if a troll points out a mistake you have made, then you should look into it, make the proper corrections, and admit that you make a mistake. Let the person who wrote the complaint/comment know you have corrected the error.