“Do not feed the trolls” – this saying we all know and will try to heed. Whether on Facebook, Twitter, forums or other places: Negative comments about the company or product appear everywhere and in recent years it has become a sport for many (thanks to social media), to spread negative opinions relatively anonymous. These do not always correspond to the truth, often it’s only a joke from the authors to provoke a reaction from its audience. But how to deal with such trolls?

“These are all cheaters”, “They promise here you get a date I’m going for a week and there is still nothing happened” – these and similar statements all probably been said about products or the entire company. Mostly they are spreading negative comments in the social media channels and are thus visible for many (potential) customers. This is annoying and often it comes to a real Shitstorm, you can only handle with difficulty. So in such cases you should carefully consider how to respond.

Basically, you will find mostly three types of reactions and perhaps you have already tested yourselves:

1. Delete
If it is possible, negative comments or contributions will be deleted. What is no longer there, cannot give a bad image. But unfortunately this will attract by deleting usually more comments / posts to be because if the troll is acidic or simply looking for attention, he will not give up easily. If then announced that you have deleted a message, more trolls will come who get excited. Before you know it, you will spend hours trying to take care of the problem but in the end you will lose.

2. Ignore
Ignoring is becoming increasingly popular. If there are negative comments, you probably give no attention to them, hoping that others do the same. This can work if it is only a trifle or the commentator discredited because of his writing style or the content itself. But it can also run very differently and more comments on the subject can accumulate. And soon you have a lot of haters around you who might have said nothing at all, if you had taken care of the comment early enough.

3. Discuss
Not better than the first two reactions is the idea to discuss with the troll and try to steady him with friendly arguments that are perhaps more standard texts. If it’s really a troll (and you will notice it fast by the expression), this is the beginning of a never-ending story. The troll will not back down, he will not be quiet. Rather, he will continue in top form, and again you spend hours trying to go for the damage caused.

But how should you deal with trolls now? Basically you can take the wind out of their sails and ensure that their comments do not remain negative for the brand in the minds of (potential) customers at least. There usually takes no more than a little sense of humor, a pinch of irony and the ability sometimes to laugh about yourself. With this, you can even appreciate trolls, because they bring free attention and thus reach.

So instead of getting angry in the future about trolls or to discuss with them, you can simply respond and thus show that there are real people behind the product or business, with the sense of humor and a funny or ironic comment. That alone will counted up for you and when the troll consider to continue, it can be a really funny thing. Again and again we see that just hilarious reactions of companies are well received by users and even go viral. So use trolls activity for your marketing when they appear and be happy about additional traffic!