Social media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook or Instagram are now part of our society.
As so, many companies now have social media marketing strategy in order to communicate with their audience.
But, the wrong social media strategy can harm the online reputation of an individual, public figure or brand.
One of the common negative pattern in the social media world is people trolling.
Thus, in this article we are going to explain what is a troll and how to manage your profile in order to protect your online reputation.
What is a troll on social media?
Social media trolls are people who start arguments and post inflammatory messages in order to attack a company, individual or public figure.
Most of the trolling takes place on social networks such as Twitter or Reddit. But trolls can also work on the comments section of blogs and websites.
That’s why trolls can be risky for a company during a communication crisis.
Last but not least, trolls can hurt the online reputation of any company, be it a famous one or just a new startup.
If you want to keep learning about communicating on social media platforms, we recommend reading our other articles such as:
Online reputation: how to deal with trolls on social media
Step 1: evaluate the trolling situation
First, analyze your audience and whether they agree with the negative comments or not. Indeed, most of the time people in your audience will defend your image if the comment is not true.
Thus, making them your best brand advocates and ambassadors.
Step 2: follow your communication guidelines and keep your tone of voice
Now that you identified the situation, it is time to respond. To do so, we recommend to stay calm and to keep a professional and respectfultone of voice.
Answer the trolling content by pointing to concrete facts and state again that you are always available to help with legitimate issues.
In any case, do not respond to the provocation with a aggressive communication as it will fuel the troll.
Step 3: ignore the trolls once you’ve taken actions
Once you provided an official answer to the situation, we recommend to avoid any further answers to the trolls.
Indeed, it is often best to ignore them as they will keep going if they see that you are impacted by their criticisms.
Remember that trolls are looking for attention. That’s why it’s often best to avoid getting too much engaged with them.
Step 4: keep your online community safe
It is important to preserve your community from negative trolls.
To do so, you should have clear communication guidelines and ensure that your audience is in a safe environment.
Moreover, remember that your community is often your best ally in a communication crisis and most of the time they will ignore the trolls.
We hope that this article helped you in understanding how to deal with trolls on social media platforms.
