When you hear the term “troll”, what do you think of? I suppose most people would think about three Billy goats trying to cross a bridge!
However, the troll now takes a slightly new form. In today’s lexicon an online troll, or simply troll, is a malicious person who posts controversial, inflammatory, irrelevant or off-topic messages or spam online, such as a comment on a Facebook post, an anonymous email or another online discussion forum. The primary intent is to provoke other users into an emotional response or to generally disrupt normal online discussion – hence the term “trolling”.
Does your social media account get negative comments? Or do you unintentionally post negative comments yourself? How you respond to trolls can impact on you and your club’s reputation.
Here are a few tactics that may help you defuse the negative situation in the best possible way.
1. Don’t give them the satisfaction: Retaliating, commenting and reacting will give the troll the satisfaction of knowing you saw their nasty comments. Ultimately, once they realise they’re not going to get a reaction, they’ll move on.
2. Report or delete: Some trolling that takes place can be highly abusive and offensive. Occasionally, trolls even make threats to people. In these instances you should be reporting them. Facebook makes it easy to report a nasty comment and they won’t know it was you that reported them. Remember, though, there is a thin line between being free-spirited and opinionated and being a troll, so you may just want to delete a comment.
3. Set boundaries: If you have a troll problem or want to make sure you don’t run into one, set some personal or club guidelines on social media. The goal isn’t to completely remove all negative comments and photos etc., but the guidelines should be reasonable (for example: no abusive language, no harmful remarks, no bullying) and not too harsh so as to stop people from engaging with you.
4. Be nice: Treat all your friends, fans, followers and trolls kindly. In most cases, trolls are looking for a reaction, so don’t turn to angry mode on social media. The worst way to deal with a troll, hater or even just a disgruntled person is to be combative or sarcastic. Whether you respond to the trolls or report their doings, you should always be professional and pleasant on your social media.
Remember, “Don’t feed the trolls”; keep your cool when the going gets tough and you’ll make the online experience a safe and fun place for everyone.
Article by Evan Burrell