Articles
Don't Feed The TROLL
by Karen L. Personal DevelopmentMarketing any brand, or program online is a real revelation of human nature. It doesn't matter if you own, affiliate with, support a recognizable, or unknown brand you will encounter criticism. It's human nature to express discontent as we would any other emotion.
However when it turns into downright negativity your best recourse is to avoid feeding the "trolls."
Being negative, making negative comments, bashing, or criticizing people is not a very good business or personal image to cultivate because as the old saying goes "people will forget what you said, they will forget what you did, but they will never forget how you made them feel."
What we all want as serious marketers is for our brand to be trusted, and hopefully reach millions of people. Successful brands listen to what their consumers, or target market are saying and respond accordingly to help their consumers experience their brand in a positive way. They know that happy customers equals repeat customers, and want to keep it that way.+
How often do you see successful CEO's bashing the competitor publicly? do you even know how they feel about another product on the market? they may hate it, think it's useless, not going to last long, or any number of negative thoughts but they know that it's not in their brand's best interest to voice their opinion in a negative way.
We all encounter these negative people in our offline life, and they also populate the internet. They are now known as "trolls" because of their aggressive behavior online. They are the bullies on socialnetworking websites, bloggers, and forum posters. They are everywhere and often get a thrill out of bashing. These are the people that can cause the most problems for your brand.
Instead of feeding into the negative these individuals will throw at you, focus on the positive aspects of your business. Do what you can to help, or answer any questions in a professional, and customer focused manner. Remember it's not about you, it's about them.
When someone is still being negative, and is unwilling to focus on solutions, after you've done everything you can to help, wait a few hours or even days before responding to any negative comments. It doesn't help to promote positive brand image when you resort to name calling, or bashing.
Keep negative comments to yourself even when you've got every right to a rebuttal of that nature. The key is to never take it personally or the "troll" will win when you feed into it.
Of course it is sometimes necessary to discuss negative issues, in other words "criticize" but ensure that you avoid labels, and that your criticism is constructive by offering, or requesting specific suggestions for improvement.
Successful business people manage to find out what consumers want, expect, and need but clients will switch their buying habits if they perceive your brand as a negative in any way.
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About Karen L. 
Personal Development
687 connections, 4 recommendations, 2,673 honor points.Joined APSense since, May 16th, 2007, From Toronto, Canada.
Created on Dec 31st 1969 18:00. Viewed 0 times.
Comments
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Philippe Moisan
 Tutorial videos, sci-fi writerTweeted, FaceBooked, bookmarked :) Nov 17th 2010 16:04 |
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Paula van Dun
RetiredI agree in general with the exception for business that are scams. I will keep speak my mind of those things. But that can be done in a civilized manner. Nov 17th 2010 16:13 |
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Karen L.
Personal Development@Philippe - Thank you. I like images because they help me to tell the story as I write... works ;0) APaula - I agree with that 100% because that also helps your brand to come out as knowledgeable, and positive. Win/Win ;0) Nov 17th 2010 16:19 |
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Chris Deadman
 MarketingNicely written Genesis and as philippe pointed out the use of graphics made it entertaining to read too! But without straying from your point, I quite agree with your concerns. It does seem like some people have the overwhelming urge to try and belittle the efforts of others with harsh and unwanted criticisms publicly rather than spotting a mistake and using private channels to be constructive and helpful. It seems that those who believe themselves to be superior and use this kind of negative method to big up their ego only place themselves plain view to be Cyber bullies. Paula makes a fair point too we don't need Scamming there are too many playing that game already. Thanks for the delightful post! Keep it Up!! Nov 17th 2010 16:45 |
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Dawie Bezuidenhout
Systems Engineer I.T.@Karen, what a excellent post. I must admit that sometimes i am that TROLL you mention, but that is when i see red flags waving in my face. Like Paula said, speak out we will, i am a serious person and straight person, i don't have time to be political about issues relating to websites that aren't legit. I don't attack the peprson promoting it, i will point out where the issues lie within that program. I do my marketing the same way, i point out the good and the bad. Nov 17th 2010 16:46 |
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Dawie Bezuidenhout
Systems Engineer I.T.Sorry for the Typos, this was done in a hurry. Time is chasing me tonight. Nov 17th 2010 16:48 |
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Karen L.
Personal Development@Chris - Thank you for the feedback, it's appreciated. I always envision walking into a store offline and pulling some of the tactics we may have all encountered online... we all all human behind these computer monitors first and foremost. Being online doesn't change the need to be courteous, and respectful. I personally will support anyone who has information that will help someone to avoid making a mistake or getting sucked into unscrupulous business practices. This can be accomplished without being negative. You will also gain their respect, gratitude, and it can most likely develop into a business relationship. @Dawie - You're far from being a TROLL, your insight is based on research without personal attack. That's a positive contribution and shows that you're a team player because your work can help people steer clear of the scams out there. It's needed. Nov 17th 2010 17:01 |
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Cheryl Baumgartner
 Medical Billing/Coding/InsuranceI also speak my mind when it comes to scams but that's 12 years in law enforcement. I want people to understand that when they promote a scam they are committing a criminal act. I personally would like to see every high up in a scam carted off to jail, locked up and the key thrown into an active volcano somewhere. Not only are they committing a crime but in many cases conning honest people to follow them into committing the same crime. I can't stay silent about it because I would then be just as guilty. One thing that I do is present facts-not opinions. If I say something or do speak out you can bet I'll tell you where or how to verify that fact. Other than that I try to treat everyone with the respect that I want to be treated with. Nov 17th 2010 22:59 |
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Philippe Moisan
Tutorial videos, sci-fi writerGenesis, you want to see the Mr. Hyde side of Dawie, add a subject in his "Avoid Being Scammed" group. Your subject must be pure advertisement of a scam program. Then wait to see Dawie's reaction. I saw that happen 2 weeks ago. The poor guy who had created the discussion had not realized : 1) The program he was promoting was a scam 2) A group called "Avoid Being Scammed" is not for making money promoting programs, legit or not The guy had made a strange choice. Nov 17th 2010 23:15 |
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Karen L.
Personal DevelopmentCheryl, I'm actually heading to an active volcano next year for vacation, & to do some volunteer work. It's on the tiny Caribbean island of St. Vincent so if you can round up some of the scammers, I'll drop 'em in for all of us! ;0) @Philippe - It becomes a real problem when people don't take the time to learn what is expected of them when they join groups, forums, and socialnetworking websites. I'll have to find Dawie's group and signup. Nov 18th 2010 09:51 |
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Philippe Moisan
Tutorial videos, sci-fi writerThe group is called "Avoid Being Scammed" BTW, I shared your this blog here on FaceBook, and I got a Like. Thumbs up to you ! Nov 18th 2010 09:53 |
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Karen L.
Personal Developmentwow!! that's great news Philippe, Thank You!! I'm really grateful for that, and it's good to know other people will find the article helpful. You're awesome! ;0) Nov 18th 2010 10:02 |
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Karen L.
Personal DevelopmentI'm already a member that group, I thought Dawie had created a new one that I had missed!! I need coffee... ;0) Nov 18th 2010 10:08 |
Genesis, you're an inspiration for creating blogs. I should use images more. Awesome work, once again !
Nov 17th 2010 16:03