Some trolls are unaware they are harming one’s
reputation. All they want is attention.
And there are trolls who were made to be your headaches.
They “like” your Facebook page then post derogatory statements against your
business. They join your network then convince other members to quit being a
member of the group.
Trolls usually use blogs, chat rooms and online
discussion forums to grab massive responses. They post silly topics and use
multiple ID’s- at the expense of anyone and anything.
So what should you do?
1. Go
to popular sites. Have a review of comments and posts. Check if entries mention
your business. If you find mentions, assess if the mentions are for good or for
bad. One of the most important sites that you have to check is YouTube. For
easier mention hunting, use search engines like Google and Yahoo.
2. If
you can contact the troll, do it. Ask the troll why he is harming your
business. A troll does it for either reason:
a. The
troll is your personal enemy and wants to destroy you or your business
b. The
troll had experienced bad things while dealing with your business
c. The
troll has loved ones who had the bad experience with the business.
d. The
troll feels like destroying your business reputation, just for fun!
3. Be
apologetic once the troll opens up to you about the reason for trolling. Offer
peace offering if you think the troll is sincere enough to stop, since the
business has now recognized the concern.
4. Never
call the troll a “troll”, or whatever you call trolls. Such title fuels the
anger of a troll to bring more destruction to the business.
5. Contact
the administrator of the site and tell him about the trolling activity.
6. If
you wish to ignore the troll, make sure you are in contact with the
administrator of the site.
Bear in mind that the damage brought to by trolling is
not that massive. Trolling is now recognized as nothing but black propaganda of
desperate enemies.
Trolls are part of the internet. We can’t get away from
them. All we need to do is to deal with them in a positive manner. One of the
best ways to help our business fight against trolling is by installing software
to hunt for derogatory messages on the internet that may cause harm to your
business reputation.
