There have been two instances within a stretch of 24 hours where social media has somewhat “backfired,” both for an individual (me) and a business (not me).
And don’t get me wrong, I’m not upset or shaken nor am I devising an evil scheme to get back at them and bring down their sites (… … …), but it is curious, right?
The first one was simply a sarcastic comment to a tweet I made:
As you can see from @XtianBlogs that this person has a problem with “Christian Bloggers.” Their tweets are sarcastic and downright rude.
It’s not a’la @ProdigalJohn where the sarcasm and irony and satire actually has an edifying point but rather just inflammatory and lame.
This person has the right to create an account on Twitter and make fun of people, but that doesn’t mean they should!
The second example came up today where @NightmareHost, obviously upset with DreamHost and their web hosting, responds to people talking badly and furthers the flames:
Same thing except attacking a legitimate business.
I will say though that their bios are pretty funny:
How should we respond?
There are a number of helpful tips out there but this is pretty much my go to reaction:
Ignore it.
Pretty simple, right? It’s just not worth my time or energy. There are definitely some instances where I might respond but for about 99.99999999999999999999% I’m just going to blow it off.
What are your thoughts?
Matthew Snider says
By ignore do you mean post a blog post about it and not respond via Twitter? It’s a bit passive aggressive to write about it in my opinion. It’s close to saying something on Twitter.
John Saddington says
good point here. i had thought about it but i wanted to bring it to light. i could have just posted: “ignore it. /end” but i wanted to provide a live example.
this is one of those .000000000000000001%.
great call though. love the pushback.
MinistryGeek says
There is so much out there that to get hung up worrying about these guys would just be a big distraction. Ignore them, have a good laugh, and move on.
PhillipGibb says
ummmmm, who cares?
of course, as you have demonstrated, not many do.
However, the question becomes more serious when the person in question has a good following.
By then, you’ld think that there would be a bit more responsibility.
Mark says
I agree – It’s the same deal as playground name-calling, when you learn to ignore it, it goes away..
Vince Marotte says
Embrace it.
If I am confident in what I or my brand represent then it should withstand criticism in the public arena. If I have been open and honest with the community around my brand, then they will go to bat for me.
for me to go head to head with it would be futile, but my community will back me up
austinklee says
Just blow it off. Trolls are trolls. Whether in blog comments or on Twitter. They just want a reaction…so…unfortunately they will take this as reaction from you. Ignore from now on.
John Saddington says
TROLLLLLLLLLLLLL!
Andrew says
So, wait… do these two instances constitute the 0.00000000000000000001% of the time you do something other than ignore it? I mean, you did write a blog post about them (and that post was probably tweeted and shared on Facebook).
If so, by my math, you must be getting burned all over the Internet.
(Just messing with you.)
John Saddington says
no, good point. this is one of those times.
Ryan Rushing says
I think Jesus said something like “turn the other cheek.” I vote that.
AgileScout says
flames. let them flame.
@jonwellman says
Interesting. I wrote on a similar topic today – http://bit.ly/dfmbT0
I asked readers to comment with Digital Footprint horror stories. I’m working on ideas for a talk to our youth at @FBCFH about the fact that nothing done online ever goes away and that it all affects our respective testimonies.
I’ve been trolled before, and it isn’t fun. I agree that ignoring it is the best course of action.
John Saddington says
hah. interesting……
Eyvonne says
This blog post makes it completely obvious that you are ignoring it.
John Saddington says
eyvonne,
great point, as someone else noted. this was the .0000000000001% where i did respond. and that makes sense to provide some data and meat to my call-out, right? great point.
Chris Loach says
i’ve seen a few blog posts on what to do about crap like this. i think most of the time it’s just best to say nothing and the person will go away. giving them the beatdown they need probably isn’t going to change their silly minds…
Joey Costanzo says
Don’t give it any energy…..walk away…Hard to do……but right.
Joey
Warren says
IF sarcasm is meant to correct (a la @ProdigalJohn), then it can be valuable (and funny). If it’s simply meant to mock someone without offering a solution to the problem, it’s pointless even if it is funny (which @XtianBlogs is not). I love sarcasm, and have seen it used to great effect, but too often we confuse sarcasm and snark on the Internet.
I’m shocked that @XtianBlogs has over 100 followers.
@NightmareHost, on the other hand, is (to me anyway) obviously a parody. It’s a bit meanspirited, but it can also give people a place to vent their frustrations without going completely nuts on a Dreamhost customer service person who has no idea what’s going on beyond what their supervisor tells them to tell people on the phone. I still wouldn’t follow them, though.