How To Handle Trolls On LinkedIn

LinkedIn is the most powerful B2B marketing tool of the 21st century for business owners and professionals – hands down. But some people are too afraid to use it.

The internet is filled with trolls and haters, and LinkedIn is no different. Unfortunately, this has caused many people to avoid the platform altogether.

Others are still using the platform and posting content, but they don’t go all in with their posts. They’re afraid to share all of their ideas and opinions because they’re worried about receiving hate and getting ridiculed in the comments. Because of this, their content suffers.

LinkedIn can help you build a professional network, find new opportunities and clients, and grow your business. Don’t let a little negativity prevent you from taking advantage of this amazing opportunity. Here are five tips to help you handle trolls on LinkedIn and feel more confident about posting content on the platform.

Understand That Trolls Come With the Territory

If you’re going to establish an online brand, you need to be prepared to receive a little bit of hate. It doesn’t matter how good your content is, there will inevitably be some people who disagree with it.

Even the internet’s most popular influencers have to deal with the occasional troll. It’s just part of publishing content on the net.

The best way to deal with trolls is to just accept that they exist and that they can’t be avoided. Before you post any content you’ll need to make your peace with this fact.

Reduce Hate By Writing Quality Content That You Believe In

Imagine if you were publishing content that you weren’t passionate about, or didn’t believe in. Because of this, you didn’t give it your full effort and the quality wasn’t as good as it could be.

Now, imagine a scenario where you’re writing about topics that you’re really excited about, and spreading ideas that align with your values. You were putting tons of time and effort into the content because you enjoyed creating it. So, subsequently the quality was really high.

In which scenario do you think you’d receive more hate? Most likely the first one. People can tell when you’re not being genuine, or you’re just phoning it in.

So, the best way to manage and minimise the amount of hate you receive is to produce high-quality content that resonates with your values and beliefs. In order to do this, answer these questions before producing any content on LinkedIn:

1) What do you stand for?
2) What core values are important to you and your company, and how can you weave those into your posts?
3) What and who do you want to impact?
4) What area do you want to build your thought leadership around?
5) How do you want to be remembered within your industry?

By answering these questions, it will help you create a compelling personal brand that aligns with your core beliefs, and also resonates with your target demographic. If you consider your answers to all of these questions before producing your content, the quality of your posts will dramatically improve.

And remember, it’s not enough to simply establish your personal brand and determine what you need to do to produce quality posts. You need to be consistent, so make sure you’re doing this every time you post.

It doesn’t matter how many pieces of quality content you publish. If you deviate from your values, beliefs and standards just once it can derail everything you’ve built. If you produce quality content on a consistent basis that resonates with your values and beliefs you’ll find you’ll receive far less hate.

Are They Haters, Or Are They Critics?

People have a tendency to dismiss any negative comment as “hate,” but that’s not necessarily true. Some people may just not agree with your opinion or viewpoint.

Others may be providing constructive criticism that might actually help you improve your content. The best way to determine whether someone is a troll or simply providing valid criticism is to ask yourself these questions:

1) Is what they’re saying true?
2) Do you agree with what they’re saying?

Be honest with yourself and think hard about these questions. It can be difficult to accept criticism, but doing so and learning from it is one of the best ways to grow as a person.

If the comment is genuinely useful and gets you thinking about things in a different way, definitely reply to comment in a diplomatic manner. There’s nothing wrong with a little debate, but just always make sure to keep things civilised and respectful.

Don’t Take it Personally

While some negative comments may be valid criticisms, others will likely just be blatant hate. These comments may be opinions that hold no weight, accusations about you that are completely false, or comments that are clearly meant to just get a rise out of you.

Most of the time, it’s fairly obvious that they didn’t even read the entire post or watch the whole video. They simply saw the title or read the first paragraph and jumped to a false conclusion.

Whatever the case may be, if the commenter is clearly a troll don’t waste any time worrying about it. Unfortunately, some people are just full of negative energy and can’t be reasoned with.

The thing about the internet is it dehumanises. The people who are making those comments aren’t interacting directly with you, they’re interacting with a screen. This often causes people to say or do things they would never do if they were having a face to face conversation with someone.

They can say whatever they want without having to deal with any of the negative repercussions. In the vast majority of cases, the person writing those hurtful comments would never say those things directly to your face.

So, don’t take it personally. Just ignore or delete the comment and don’t give it a second thought.

Focus on the Positive Feedback

As humans, it doesn’t matter how much positive feedback we receive. If there’s one negative comment we immediately focus in on it.

Don’t fall into that trap. As long as you’re regularly producing quality content that brings value to your target demographic, 99% of the feedback you receive will be positive.

If you spend all of your time agonising over the 1% who doesn’t agree with you then you’re just going to end up spinning your wheels. Your content will inevitably suffer, and it may even discourage you from posting on the platform.

The most productive thing you can do is focus on that 99% that you’re positively impacting and keep creating content that resonates with them. Of course, not everyone is able to regularly produce high-quality content on a regular basis.

If you don’t think you’re going to have the time to stay consistent then you need to either find the time or find someone who can implement content on your behalf. That way, you can begin investing in your most important asset – you.