Social media: Trolls, abusers and losers

Working in social media can be very rewarding, but it can also be draining. The constant negativity, moaning and complaining can take a toll on your mental health, occasionally getting you down or at worse having an adverse affect on your entire wellbeing.

And then there are the trolls...

Wikipedia definition: A troll is a person who starts flame wars or intentionally upsets people on the Internet. Typically they do this by posting inflammatory and digressive, extraneous, or off-topic messages in an online community (such as a newsgroup, forum, chat room, or blog), with the intent of provoking readers into displaying emotional responses and normalizing tangential discussion. This is typically for the troll's amusement, or to achieve a specific result such as disrupting a rival's online activities or manipulating a political process.

As a social media and communications team how do you deal with negative, abusive or trolling behaviour towards your business, team or even worse an individual?

It’s hard, but the best place to start is with a robust set of guidelines and a strategy which sits inline with the business plan. Wow, so that’s easier said than done. But don’t worry I hear you!

There are two sets of guidelines your business needs to consider:

1. External facing guidelines for your customers or the public when engaging with your business on social platforms

2. And, an internal set, which help shape your tone of voice, response times, dealing with trolls, best practices, dealing with a crisis and escalating issues.

Side Note on tone of voice...

Each business, organisation (or celebrity) will take a different approach to tone of voice, check out James Blunt, who literally fires straight back at trolls.

Moderation & Staff Training

Before your team can confidently moderate difficult conversations online, they need the right support and training. Moderation isn’t just about deleting comments — it’s about knowing when to engage, when to walk away, and when to escalate.Providing social media training gives your team a shared understanding of your expectations, tone of voice, legal boundaries, and internal escalation procedures. Click here to read more about moderation...

External facing guidelines

Here’s a set of guidelines I like to work with. And yes, these should absolutely be published on your website and social platforms.

• All comments will be monitored by the social media platform itself and the (business name) team. Any comments that are offensive or inappropriate will be removed. (This includes offensive language, slander, threats to safety, personal attacks on staff, inappropriate content and cultural insensitivity)

• Please keep your posts relevant to the conversation and to (business name)

• If you find any inappropriate comments please report them

• People who persistently cause conflict or offence to others will be removed and blocked from our social media pages

• A Like, Share or other link posted by (business name) should not be taken as a formal endorsement

• Abusive comments which are in direct conflict of Facebook Community Standards, Twitter Rules, LinkedIn and Instagram posted on non (business name) social media channels will be reported to the associated social media platform and if applicable Group and Page administrators

Internal Guidelines

This is an extremely important document, and can make or break a social media team. Providing your team with tools and resources they need to help deal with negativity, abuse and trolling. These tools help them safeguard themselves, the business, customers and the community.

Sadly there are levels of abuse you receive on social platforms, these can be one off comments, regular or at its worse what we consider cyber bullying.

Shocking Slander

The most shocking is slander, being accused of being something terrible: thief, murderer, rapist or pedaofile.

How do you deal with this?

• Screen shot the comment

• Hide the comment

• Report to Facebook

• Send the user an email telling them this is unacceptable behaviour

• Ban the user

• Depending on the level of slander report to the police

• Record all activity and log into a HR or health and safety system

F@&k you

Death threats, sexist and racist comments, name calling, and abusive language, which is filled with all kinds of colourful verbs and adjectives, directed at a business or an individual.

How do you deal with this?

• Facebook provides filtering which automatically hides offensive language, if you don’t already have this in place you need to check it out.

• Screen shot the comment

• Hide the comment

• Email the user privately giving them a nudge towards your social media guidelines

• Enlist a three strikes and your out policy

Conspiracy theories, rumours and Mis-information

This is extremely damaging, conspiracy theories, rumours and fake news, no matter how small, can have an adverse effect on your brand and image and trust that you have built up with your audience. And your brand and reputation can be destroyed in a blink of an eye. Mis-information and the rumour mill spread fast across social platforms.

How do you deal with this?

• Screen shot the original comment and take a copy of the link

• Discuss with the team and decide if this needs fact checking and shut down the conversation

• Consider creating a webpage with all the information

• Engage only when directing users to the facts

Band Wagon

And what could be considered the most harmful are comments which just scrape the surface of unacceptable. An undertone of constant negative behaviour, stirring the pot in a passive aggressive manner, whipping up other social media users into a frenzy.

How do you deal with this?

• Screen shot the original comment and take a copy of the link

• If the comments get out of hand, as the administrators you have the ability to turn off comments

• Engage only when directing users to the facts

Top Tip - when dealing with a troll, who could be considered as “Band Wagon” - take a lead out of Jacinta Adherns book and just be kind. Check out this post on kindness and the mini trolls.

When it’s an attack on the business, it doesn’t cut as deep, but when it gets personal and the users are attacking either your team or individuals, it hurts. Don’t forget there are also legal actions which can also be taken, check out :

Please remember, these trolls, abusers and losers, they don’t know you. The comments they are making are a true reflection of themselves. Not you. Don’t let this affect your confidence, wellbeing and enjoyment of your job.