For Whom The Bell Trolls: Dealing With Online Commenting Trolls

by | Jan 28, 2014 | EduSocial Blog, Uncategorized | 1 comment

How often do you see negative comments online? It’s everywhere you look. With its animosity factor, the internet serves as a green grass for trolls to play. You don’t know their real name. You don’t know where they live. But, they’re here to make things worse. With their negative comments, they make people angry. They start flame wars in various online discussions, on various topics, that seem to last forever.

If you are conducting your business online, you’ll know those people. They are trolling your social media accounts. They are trolling your blogs and other online assets. If you don’t know how to deal with them, you’ll eventually lose face. Yes, it may affect your reputation online. So, beware. Here are some tips you can use to deal with online commenting trolls:

Block The Trolls From Reaching You

If you don’t want to get trolled, you should guard yourself against trolls. That’s a wise advice. And how can you guard yourself against them? You do that by blocking them. For instance, if they are trolling you on social media, block them from following you. If they are trolling you on your blog, block their IP address. This is the first and foremost step that you should take, and it is usually very effective in decreasing their numbers.

Don’t Troll Back At Them

Trolls are absolutely immune to your angry reactions. They’ve been doing the whole things for long. Most trolls will even enjoy your reaction because they want you to get angry. They want you to respond to them in their language. So, if some trolls are trolling on you, don’t troll back. It will only make them more eager to keep trolling you. Stay calm and respond to them without being too emotional with what they are saying.

Sometimes, You Need To Ignore Them

Sometimes, you don’t need to deal with trolls at all. Yes, you should ignore them by any means. But, this will only work for occasional trolls or someone who are posting only once or twice in your online platform. But, if the trolls are so persistent and they really show themselves that they want to ruin your good reputation, then you should respond to them with professional answer and ask them assertively to stop speaking nonsense.

Make Them Good

It might not sound too good for you, but by actually making the trolls look good, you will be able to stop their negative criticisms and even turn them into positive feedback. You will do this for the sake of your business or brand image. When people are trolling on you and telling you the worst things about you or your business, you can acknowledge their efforts for pointing out your mistakes and actually be thankful to them for doing that. In this way, the trolls may turn around and stop harassing you online.

Summary

Some websites take a big step in dealing with trolls by closing their comment section altogether. Some people just ignore them, and some others just await their return to start another hot online argument with them. But, armed with the above tips, you can do better in dealing with online commenting trolls that keep haunting your business. On the side note, it is always important for you to take an active step in managing your reputation online. An Audit from an SEO services company can help you to do just that, as well as keeping your search engine performance on top of your competition.


About the Author

This article is written by Tyler B. who is a senior search specialist working for a leading online reputation management firm in Melbourne Australia.

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