Being popular online comes with a price. Ask the Celebrities and social media Influencers around and they will tell you that been Trolled is a daily thing for them. Some of them have developed a thick skin to this hateful phenomenon but others still find it difficult to cope with. At the end of the day, we are all human and their are limits to certain online hateful comments you can take. Timidakolo was recently trolled on instagram for certain comments he made concerning an unnamed Abuja pastor in his post and suddenly his comment section went on fire!
Some Celebrities have been known to have had to delete their accounts because of sustained attacks from Trolls,Haters and Naysayers. Shawn Tizzle had to leave twitter for a while because of this and recently Jose Mourinho had to delete his Instagram account because of death threats from fans in the aftermath of Manchester United’s Champions league loss.
WHO ARE THESE TROLLS AND HATERS?
Trolls and haters are just online users who resent the fact that you are doing well and achieving milestones that they can only dream of. They hate you for who you have become, what you have achieved and continue to achieve and they will troll you both for your opinion and for expressing it at all.
They feel a sense of entitlement to the success you have achieved and sometimes boldly declare in their comments that they made you who you are today. Some trolls even go as far as attacking family and friends of a Celeb or an Influencer if their trolling doesn’t seem to be working with the subject.
These are reasons why some popular online figures keep their family members and matters private. They never post pictures of their homes or family on social media.They never tweet about their private affairs.
We are now beginning to see a new trend online now, especially on Instagram where business owners troll each other. Especially competitors. Business owners setting up anonymous instagram accounts to troll and de-market their competitors on instagram. The fight is real!
One common feature of troll accounts on social media is, they never always have their profile picture on.No personal detail to trace their roots or location.They just come online to say hurtful things.
The recently concluded BBNaija has thrust to the limelight several new Celebs like Nina ,Cee-C , Tobi,Alex,Miracle….etc.
These guys are beginning to have their fair share of trolling some of which began from their time in the Big-Brother house.We like the fact that a lot of them have engaged the services of professional media handlers who experts in handling issues of trolling and hateful comments.This will go a long way in helping them grow their brand.
HOW DO I HANDLE THESE TROLLS AND HATERS ?!
Several social media platforms have features you can engage in silencing trolls or entirely removing them from your Timeline : Blocking ; Muting ;Disabling comments; Raising Red Flags (Youtube) etc.
Out of all these measures available on different social media platforms, the most effective one we have seen in recent times is the one employed by Donjazzy and a few other foreign Celebs and Influencers.
We have seen where Donjazzy turns any trolling into a joke or funny memes.He engages the trolls by twisting their narrative to jokes and comedy.These are sometimes hateful and hurtful comments but you get a sense of “I don’t care’ from Donjazzy’s response. Let’s just have fun.
This method can’t obviously work for most people as not everyone can tolerate insults and abuses. We have seen online Influencers like Akin Alabi (Nairabet) who has categorically stated several times in his tweet that “If you come for media won’t spare you”….”It’s fire for fire!” …LOL!
This type of influencers don’t give a rat’s ass! You troll them, they come for you guns blazing!
So,if your goal is to become a Celeb or a social media influencer, which comes with loads of perks by the way, be ready for the Trolls,Haters and Naysayers. Decide what will work best for you based on the type of brand you are trying to build and stick to it. Stick to it and don’t apologize for it because these trolls TAKE NO PRISONERS!!