5 tips to save your business from Storm Troopers, Orcs, Dementors and, oh yeah, social media Trolls

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​The trolls are coming, the trolls are coming - and, if they haven't already, they are about to take your social media, turn it back on you and blast you to high heaven.

Think of them as the Storm Troopers who hunt out easy prey and raze Jakku in the Star Wars epic The Force Awakens. Or the hulking Orcs who obliterate everything in their path in Lord of the Rings. Or the Dementors who suck the life and soul from the good hearted in Harry Potter.

You get the picture. They're nasty.
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But it need not be apocalyptic. You can repel them, or in the least mitigate damage by observing five basic tips. ​

Troll: One who posts a deliberately provocative message to a newsgroup or message board with the intention of causing maximum disruption and argument.​
- Urban Dictionary

Ugly, confronting and brutal: the Orcs, are not dissimilar to social media trolls, huh?

I had a call from a business owner who had suffered a sadly all-too-familiar Attack of the Trolls. I can't reveal details because of business confidentiality, but essentially this entrepreneur had publicly aired a controversial view. Within hours, his comments were shared across social media, the issue became viral and he copped a barrage of criticism. 

Traditional media, including radio shock jocks and newspaper columnists pushing their own agendas, were beating down his door. Others, spurred by social media, were literally attacking his small business, vandalising his store. The business's Facebook feed was sabotaged. The man's voice mail was filled with expletive-ridden and, of course, anonymous abuse. And police told the young man they couldn't act on the death threats received. There were just too many.

In today's environment, not all publicity is good publicity.

​In the long term, the fame/notoriety brought by national exposure can pay dividends. That said, coping with such a deluge of interest, let alone open warfare, is not for the faint of heart. "It's been really scary," the man told me, between deep breaths.

One thing is certain: whether you're running a small enterprise or a big corporation it pays to to be prepared.
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Battling the Trolls is a double-edged sword. On one side is what can happen as I've described above. But, on the other side, social media can be used to build a defence and to neutralise unwarranted attacks. 

How? Well, here's five tips to keep the Trolls at bay.

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1. Be battle ready: You don't fight the Dark Lord without a plan. Harry Potter's eventual victory over Voldemort had its genesis many years prior, namely during the formation and training of Dumbledore's Army. To protect against Trolls, make sure you've got Social Media Crash Protection in place (attack can come from within). Do you have a social media strategy? Have your internal comms team or a specialist consultant provide you with a battle plan that considers every situation. The plan needs to be understood across your business before Armageddon arrives.  
2. Keep a cool head: When the Orcs start massing on the horizon, take a deep breath. Review your plan and do your best to keep your wits about you. Write down what your response would be. What's your position? What would you say publicly, to staff, in response to any attack? It need only be simple. Then gauge the severity of the offensive and estimate likely damage. And, you need an escalation plan.  
3. Respond, or don't - but be quick about it: Do you wanna know what's fast? Troll Velocity. It makes Star Wars' hyperspace look positively lethargic. When there's bad news to be shared about something or someone, it will whip around the planet faster than any description of time itself. Just ask a teenaged girl caught up in a Trolls' net. ​Often the best form of defence is not to engage with the enemy. A common mistake, particularly for medium-sized enterprises that don't have communication experts on tap, is seeking to outsmart the Troll on their territory.  Trolls love this - and a company's response can provide more oxygen for another pounding. It can also bring new voices into a debate that you want extinguished. That said, there are times when it is necessary to respond quickly and curtly. All this needs discernment. 
4. Pick your weapon and platform: This is critical to surviving Trolls - what channels you use to respond. Options can include making a statement on your website, posting to your Facebook page, tweeting, addressing matters in a radio interview or going old-school by issuing a media release. It might be all of these, but each has its advantages and risks. Considerations include the sector your business operates in, how your customers consume information and the nature of the event. Who responds is also vital. Any battle strategy should spell-out the people in your organisation who have the authority to speak publicly, be it internally or externally, be it via traditional or social media. As well, will the response be in the name of the CEO, a spokesperson or functional head, or simply come from a generic social media account?   
5. Count your losses, regroup, get back to business: Handled correctly, you should be able to at least mitigate Troll damage. This depends on what you've done wrong in the first place to attract the attention of Trolls. Today, the stakes are high because you and your problems stand to be exposed to a global audience. However, most "scandals" or social media mess-ups are manageable - and do blow over. When the dust settles, though, a recovery plan is important to restore health to your business.

Storm Troopers, Orcs, Dementors or Trolls, don't let them destroy you and everything you've worked so hard to build.

​May the Force be with you.
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* Blog post: your FREE social media crash protection