MANILA — As more and more brands venture into the digital space, the reality of the digital world has started to set in. It is no different from the real world, where it can be a good place for brands to engage in an honest conversation with their customers. But it can also be a harsh place where people will invade brands’ space, going as far as to malign the credibility of brands, which have invested time and money in building up their turf. This reality is that in digital — due to the prevalence of social media platforms and message boards — has given rise to a new digital habit: Trolling.
Trolls in digital terminology refer to people who go online and start arguments or fights, create negative impressions or animosity, provoke brands or other people on the platform to disrupt the normal flow of discussion. In the Philippines, I am sure most branded social pages have been subjected to trolling one time or another.
Being the social media capital of the world, our brands enjoy acquiring massive fan bases at a faster clip than our foreign counterparts. However, that advantage also has one major drawback — fans or followers who are trolls are ready to disrupt the flow of discussion or bring negative conversations to the brand page. You have a troll on your social media pages if you have people consistently posting irrelevant messages, or trying to put down the page by spouting negative things about the brand. This is normal for brands starting up, but as the fan base grows, brands should be able to establish themselves in a way that trolls have no place in their system.
There are various ways to minimize trolling on your pages. Firstly, subscribe to the saying, “do not feed the trolls”. When trolls invade a page, they are looking for feedback and attention. Pay them no attention and hopefully they will go away. Another is to use the technical features of the website or social media page to ban the trolls. Once you are sure that the profile is trolling your social media account, you can ban them from entering the space. They could of course create a new profile to get around the “ban” or “kick out” function. Finally, for the long term, set up ambassador programs where you reward active fans and followers and make them in charge of your platform. Once the community is strong enough, trolls will find it hard to penetrate the system, and will be booted out. While trolls are tech-minded and anonymous at times, there is still a person behind it and they will leave if they know they are not welcome.
Brands should accept the reality of trolls on digital. Like any place, the good and the bad go side by side. It is all about how to manage the internet’s negative side in order to fully appreciate and optimise the positive since digital is essential to every brand today.
This article was first published in adobo Magazine Issue 56.
