Don’t feed the TROLLS!

Never feed the trolls. Let them go hungry!

If the world learned anything from Trump winning the election; is at least now knowing of the term ‘Troll’.

In an internet / online context it’s basically a person that attacks someone without reason, logic or seemingly purpose for the point of causing an ‘upset’ or ‘triggering’ the target person. The hope is that the person being targeted then either reacts or other people react causing a movement of that attack.

What inspired me to write this article was my own experiences of being trolled / abused on Facebook and a few of my clients getting similar treatment. This can be from people who don’t know us at all trying to get a response, or someone doing it deliberately with a targeted agenda. Either way it can be very distressful and it’s importance that we know how to deal with trolls.

‘Trolling’ was actually used quite heavily in the recent US election. Hillary *tried* many times to troll Trump; but it often failed quite miserably (with Trump arguably being one of the greatest trolls on the planet).

Hillary actually started trolling Trump at the start which I think was a big mistake (I would never pick a fight with a cop, lion or Crocodile in a hurry).

A really good example was Trump trolling Hillary by calling her ‘Crooked Hillary’. This really did stick during the campaign with Trump’s own supporters then using that as a line to go after Hillary. Hillary tried a failed counter-troll calling Trump supporters ‘The Basket of Deplorables’.

This did really backfire on her in many ways and it brings us all to a key lesson:

– “Never Feed the Trolls!”

As Hillary ‘fed’ Trump, he then proceeded to troll Hillary on this point and it just got worse and worse for her. Tragically, I have seen people in business try and argue with people online who troll them.

Please don’t do that! If you get attacked online or personally; the best move is to block them, delete them, ignore them and don’t respond.

Trolls feed on you being ‘triggered / upset’ and the way to win against them is by ignoring them. As they are getting nowhere, they will quickly run out of steam (and if anything their failed trolling makes the attacker look silly).

My advice and lessons over the years?

Don’t feed the trolls. Never. Ever 🙂

P.S Love your work, thanks for the read and to my two awesome anonymous friends who I have utmost love and respect for – go hard, smile and don’t worry about mean people!