How To Handle Twitter Trolls

In fairy tales, trolls live under the bridge.

In the real world, they live on the internet.

In fairy tales, they are physically ugly.

In the real world, they can be physically gorgeous.

In fairy tales, trolls are manipulative, deceitful, negative and horrible fellas.

On the internet and in real life, they are all of those things too.

In short, internet trolls are bullies.

They are out to stir things up, to make snide remarks and to cause problems.

They get a thrill out of putting people down, dishing out insults, calling people terrible names and doing their best to intentionally hurt others. If a troll has ever made you angry, then you have given it exactly what it was looking for.

The sad truth of the matter is that Twitter trolls are probably here to stay.

To quote the wise Howard Walowitz, “The anonymity makes everyone feel like they can say things that they would never say to your face.”

Here are a few things you can do if a troll is bothering you on Twitter.

Combat the Twitter trolls with humor.

On June 23, 2015 I read an article about how sales of Confederate flags were up 3000% on Amazon. This shocked and appalled me.

I understood the significance between the Confederate flag and the unfortunate Charleston shooting, but I still didn’t understand why so many people were obsessed with this flag. I took to Twitter and said:

This post received about 5 intelligent responses, and it also attracted the attention of a troll. The troll must have reviewed my Twitter page and bio (in which I proudly boast that I am a Twitter ninja), because this was his response to my tweet:

The hostile undertone caught me off guard, and I wondered how to go about it. I could have argued with him. I could have puffed up my chest and tried to prove my self-worth to him…but he was a troll. That was hardly worth my time.

So instead, I made a joke of it. I responded with:

The Twitter troll did not respond, but oddly enough, he changed the name of his Twitter persona to ‘Jim’ right after this exchange.

Thanks for helping me to think quick, Dr. McCoy!

Block the troll. This is the easiest way to handle a Twitter troll.

If a nasty internet personality is harassing you, calling you names, cyber stalking you, or doing anything that is making you feel upset or uneasy, then block them. There is no reason to continue to engage with them or to allow yourself to be harassed by such pathetic losers.

Here’s how it’s done.

1. Go to the trolls profile.

2. Click on the wheel that says ‘More user actions’ when you hover over it. It’s to the right of the Follow button.

3. Click ‘Block’

Ta-da! Your troll can no longer see your content, and can no longer respond to you. At least, not from that account.

Report them. If someone is being especially vile or nasty, you can report them to Twitter. The steps are the same as blocking them, only you choose ‘Report’ instead of ‘Block.’

Once you choose ‘Report’ Twitter will give you a list of options so that you can tell them what the problem is and why you are reporting that profile.

Remember, there will always be negative people in the world,  both offline, online and even when you’re on Twitter for your business.

These are miserable people who don’t deserve your time and energy. Instead of feeding the Twitter trolls, place your focus and energy on your Twitter followers who love and adore you.

Until next time, happy tweeting!

Source: http://www.socialquant.net/twitter-trolls/