How to deal with trolls on LinkedIn
Last year I was blocked by a troll!
I'd seen him around on LinkedIn making stupid comments and generally being unkind.
He wrote a stupid comment on a picture of mine. It would have been upsetting for the person I was in the picture with. It was rude. And there was no need for his comment.
So I called him out for being mean. I asked him what his mum would say if she saw his comment. I presume it hit a nerve (or maybe he showed his mum and she gave him a ticking off!) Shortly afterwards I realised the comment had gone from my photo and he had vanished from my network.
What a shame! 🤷🏻
Creating content and putting it out into the universe makes you vulnerable to trolls. It comes with the territory and sadly there are a lot of them on LinkedIn. I’ve been publicly called a retard on here and I’ve even been sent death threats after I had a post go viral a couple of years ago.
Very unpleasant to say the least!
I’ve known people to avoid using LinkedIn altogether because they don’t want to experience trolls or be ridiculed for having an opinion. Or people tweak their opinions to avoid being polarising.
I’m not suggesting that you need to be polarising to be successful on LinkedIn - in fact, I have toned down some of the copy my clients write to avoid the possibility of trolling - as I am well practised on what works and what doesn’t on here. I have experimented myself as well as watching the trolls in action from afar (that crying CEO the other week for example that created quite a stir)
So here are some of my top tips to help you with dealing with trolls
Delete their comments, remove them (if connected to them) and block or report them if required.
Ignore them. They are most likely attention seeking so any response will fuel their fire.
Accept that not everyone will agree with your opinion and don’t take it personally.
Once you’ve written your post leave it for a couple of hours before you hit post so you can review it before it goes out.
Focus on the positive comments and write more content that is resonating with the people that like your stuff. Save the good comments in a folder and review them when you're having a wobble. Human nature is to always focus on the negative stuff.
Rinse and repeat what works. Use the positive stuff to spur you on and shape future posts.
Don’t ruminate on Bob from Oklahoma’s snide comment. He really isn’t worth the headspace.
Respond. Where I was publicly trolled I responded to some of the comments with a considered approach and I received lots of encouragement from others for standing my ground.
It is not fun to be on the receiving end of such hate or unkindness, especially on what is deemed to be a ‘professional’ platform. But as a calculated risk there is more to gain by being an active content creator here for your business and the wealth of opportunities, than being subjected to trolls.
You will find your people by being visible, just make sure that you are supporting their content too.
If you are reading this, thinking ‘I need to leverage LinkedIn but I’m not sure how to’ and you don’t know where to start with your content then please do get in touch.
