When Fame Bites Back – Online Trolls and Haters.

Everyone wants 15 minutes of media fame – whether they are a movie star, sports figure, athlete, famous artist, writer, or in the media spotlight. Being famous can also be debilitating and emotionally painful. Monica Lewinsky was ‘patient zero’ of online and media harassment and bullying and suffered the emotional pain and harassment for over a decade. Complete strangers were judging her and the media fed the distasteful and negative public attention for years to improve their ratings.

You don’t have to be famous to attract the vitriol from online trolls and haters. When verbally and emotionally attacked, especially online where the world can see it, it can be debilitating. I have personally encountered this type of troll attack and know other business owners who have been mercilessly attacked online. First you panic, then you are angry, and then self-doubts start to build.

Haters and Trolls are Everywhere Online.

Members on LinkedIn can get requests to be ‘friends’ that essentially are poorly disguised pimping services. Facebook users get falsely accused or attacked for political opinions. Facebook gossip mongering in specialty groups can ruin one’s reputation in as little as a few hours. Buyers on Amazon can post vitriolic and libelous statements about authors and the author’s only recourse is a ‘rebuttal comment’ to the original post (reviews remain on Amazon forever). Twitter messages can blow up from a poorly worded or misread controversial tweet. Unethical users can post negative reviews on service sites (Angie’s List, Yelp) to destroy another business’ competition.

Responses and Reactions.

How can one avoid the emotional vitriol as well as potential damage to one’s self-esteem? Below are a few pointers to fight the haters and reduce the emotional fall-out.

• Report abusive behavior or libelous statements to social media administrators or group organizers with screen shots or description of unacceptable behavior; if it continues, leave the group, or directly communicate with the social media help desk.
• Be prepared to ‘prove a negative’ by posting photos of yourself while creating work or blog writing samples to defend copyright theft claims; use or keep screen shots of the computer file’s summary page to rebut false claims.
• Be circumspect in public; everyone has a camera in their phone and are willing to sell to the highest news media bidder; remember most public places have video surveillance cameras and the owners can do what they wish with the public tapes.
• Some ‘crazies’ make it a hobby to post nasty reviews on service sites; prepare to respond with tactfully worded rebuttals explaining how the business attempted to resolve the issue (or even have to deny they serviced the customer if that is the case); do not respond hatefully because that will come across negatively and damage personal or business reputations even more so than no response at all.
• When negative reviews occur, ask happy business customers to counter the negative reviews with positive recommendations; eventually good reviews will push the bad reviews off the front page and outweigh the bad ratings.
• Remember – don’t let the haters destroy your self-esteem. That will be the hardest thing to convince oneself. The trolls are not present in your real life – they exist only in an online, virtual life; they have no importance in any one’s life journey, thus their nastiness is not relevant to your personal life or well-being.
• THE ABSOLUTE Best Way to deal with Trolls and Haters – Ignore them and move on.

Don’t Let Haters Destroy You.

Closed circuit and security cameras are watching everyone. The world is flat again because the Internet has leveled the playing field for communications. If you are an honest and respectable person, a computer and the Internet can be a marketing friend. Dishonest people can use electronics to purposefully spread misleading information, innuendos, and lies.

Prepare yourself emotionally to be in the public eye if you are successful and do expect the trolls and haters to be laying in wait for their predatory practices. Prepare contingency plans for bad publicity, act quickly to refute false claims, and obtain positive recommendations consistently so the bad reviews won’t matter.

More important – don’t let the haters destroy your self-esteem.

Dawn Boyer, Ph.D., owner of D. Boyer Consulting – provides resume writing, social media management and training, business development, human resources consulting, and print-on-demand consulting. Reach her at: Dawn.Boyer@DBoyerConsulting.com or https://dboyerconsulting.com.