Don't feed the Troll - Respond to the objective third party

No matter if you are a blogger, marketer, or community manager, you have had a run in with a troll.  Rather than using their experience to help others, trolls concern themselves with asking "gotcha" questions or starting arguments with other community members for the purpose of attention.  It is important to have an engagement plan of how to deal with them.

Here are some simple guidelines to get you started:
If the post, tweet, or comment is a legitimate complaint:

• Your response should come within the hour
• Apologize and show empathy
• Answer the question or provide a resolution
• Include a link to your site or YouTube channel
• Thank the customer and confirm satisfaction

If the subject seems to be a troll's rant:

• Your response should come within the hour
• Ask the poster to define his expectatiions
• Offer a private engagement channel like phone or email (NEVER argue with troll in public)
• Fighting with a Toll will only encourage him to continue - sometimes ignoring or deleting the comment is best

Before responding, step back and remember there are objective third parties who see the difference between a legitimate customer complaint and a troll's rant.  If the post is a legitimate complaint: excellent, you have an opportunity on your hands because all brands encounter problems from time to time - the great ones acknowledge and overcome the problems.  It is not always what is said about your brand, but how you respond to it.  People follow you on Twitter or join your community to learn from and engage with like minded folks; they do not want to be bullied or read fights.  It is often best practice to not respond to trolls, but sometimes these folks can be transformed in to brand advocates. 

As always - I welcome you comments.

Best,

Toby

Twitter My Way

If you believe twitter is for telling others you are “sitting on the patio,” get ready to learn something. These are 4 ways I use my 140 characters.

Learn
We all love to consume information and the internet provides a most awesome buffet. By following authors, columnists, bloggers, public figures, etc – the content comes to you and is always updating in real time. In short, twitter can be your personal library or newsstand. All this data is difficult to manage: utilize hashtags and lists to search and sort information quickly. Dashboards like Hootsuite and TweetDeck allow you to digest the data by sorting it into multiple columns. Your dashboard gives you a snapshot of data: who is talking about you, who is talking about your company, what are the latest news stories, etc – all continuously and immediately updated.  

Share
It is as easy to share data as it is to consume it via twitter; don’t keep all the good stuff to yourself. If you read a tweet you find interesting, retweet so your followers can enjoy it too. Maybe you visit a website or wish to share your latest blog, take the URL and tweet it. Tools like bitly shorten that URL so it can fit within the 140 character limit and help you track the activity on your link. Seesmic’s dashboard will shorten the link for you.  

Engage
This is the best part of Social – engagement. The days of pushing information without conversation are gone. Twitter gives your customers an in-road to you, don’t be afraid of it: listen to what they say and respond. A TweetChat allows you to engage and listen to many people at once while documenting the conversations. Idea-share, focus groups, and feedback sessions: it’s all about conversation. This blog by one of my Social mentors, Janet Fouts, shows you how to set up your own TweetChat.  

Promote
Sharing information or engaging others promotes yourself and your organization. People can see who shares what and the twitterverse responds favorably to those they like; if your followers find your content interesting, they may also research what company employs such an interesting person.

I hope you were able to take away something new – I look forward to your comments & feedback. Cheers Toby

The Struggle of Community Managment

Being part of a community management team has been one of the most rewarding (and at times frustrating) things I have done. As all community managers know, there are some you just can't reach: they have good ideas, but always seem to be drinking from a half empty glass.
Sometimes I look through my John Hughes lens and figure that with more personal contact, they can be reached. Ultimately, I know this is not the case.
For the community managers out there, how do you reach the unreachable? When is it time to let them go?
Thank you,
Toby

What to do about Social Media

What is Social Media? Is it a fad, and what does a Community Manager do?
I have been asked these questions for a few years and there are many self claiming experts offering their opinions out there.
Social Media is a change. A change in power. A change in communication style. A change in sales and marketing. Some say that social media is a fad, that it is not scalable. What do you think of this? Social Media is about an exchange of information, engaging and interacting with your customers, and they becoming your sales force.
Not only is the message different with social media, but the delivery vehicle as well. We all love the newspaper on Sunday, but it (and the evening news), is no longer the source. PR is a great communication tool, but it is not Social Media because it is one way communication - welcome the blog. There are some out there that believe email and RSS are old hat. Why search for my information when it will find me? Do you have doubts?
So how does your new empire get built and scaled? Who ensures communication lines are open? The Community Manager. The Community Manager works in conjunction with your Marketing and Sales teams; maintains the company message while keeping the company real.
Remember that Social Media is a tool (and new way of thinking), not a magic bullet.

Cheers,
Toby