Every business should learn how to deal with toxicity on social media. It’s true, social media can be an amazing thing for businesses. It gives you a great opportunity to engage with existing customers and market your business to new people. However, there is a darker side to social media and we’ve probably all experienced some kind of toxicity online before.
This can be a big problem for businesses because you are associated with everything that people post on your social media pages. If people are constantly commenting offensive things, it’s up to you to tackle it.
Businesses that don’t do anything to deal with toxicity will pay the price because their online reputation will suffer. The question is what can you do about it?
1. Move to a Safer Platform
There are no two ways about it, platforms like Facebook and Twitter have many toxic people on them and no matter how hard they try, the site owners struggle to moderate it. If your business has a big problem with bad behavior on social media, you should consider moving to a safer platform. You can move your community off Facebook and to a platform like Disciple, where you can create your own dedicated space for your followers. It’s a safe area where you can control who sees and engages with content. It’s also a more exclusive space and you can offer more features and content to your audience. Many businesses are taking this option these days because it’s much easier to avoid toxic behavior.
However, if you do want to maintain a presence on social media, you need to know how to deal with the negative comments in the right way.
2. Don’t Respond to Trolls
I think this is a case of “easier said than done”. It’s very difficult not to respond when a troll comes at you with a massive rant, but if you do, it just fuels the fire. You should avoid engaging with them because any engagement gives them exactly what they want – your attention. Instead, you need to let the site handle it.
3. Report and Block Offensive Content Right Away
Every social media platform gives you the option to report any offensive content that appears on your pages. If people are being abusive or posting something inappropriate, you need to have it removed immediately. You can’t just sit there watching them deface your Facebook page with bad behavior. The only way to stop this is by reporting users right away. If that doesn’t work, block them so they can’t come back again.
4. Address the Problem With Your Customers
Even when you report and block people, it’s likely that some customers have seen the offensive content already. If you don’t address it, you give the impression that you are not taking it seriously. You need to post a response. You don’t need to go into a huge amount of detail, just let people know that you take the situation very seriously and you have already taken action. As long as you do this, you can maintain your online reputation.
If you sit back and do nothing when people post negative content on your business pages, you will end up overrun with toxicity, which drives your followers away.