How to Handle Social Media Haters
Getting haters on social media? Yeah, me too...
It doesn’t matter whether you raise livestock, crops, or provide services in the ag industry there will be a time in your business you will run into trolls online.
People often get behind the keyboard and can become incredibly cruel, and it can hurt.
They’ll say you’re raping your cows by using artificial insemination. They’ll say you’re a cannibal, evil, heartless. They’ll say you’re causing global warming and damaging the earth by growing the food that they’re eating.
We know this isn’t true but with less than 2% of the United State population being involved in Agriculture, we can find ourselves outnumbered and facing audiences that know little to nothing about how their food is actually raised.
Today I’m gonna share with you several ways to prepare yourself for trolls and how to handle them when they start attacking your posts on social media.
1. Arm Yourself With Facts
One of the best things you can do is prepare yourself ahead of time with facts about agriculture. People get so much false information from propaganda groups and often really don’t know the truth. So know not only what it is that you do, but know the industry standard and the WHY behind it. Why do we AI our cows? Why do we raise chickens inside? Why do we use pesticides?
People need to know the why, and not that we do these things just to save a buck and make ourselves rich. We all know that’s not true. But they don’t.
There are several great sites you can use to get industry facts and stats, ncba.org is a great one, university agriculture publications are great resources as well.
2. Check Notifications When You're Ready to Handle Hate
Don’t check your social media notifications first thing in the morning, right before bed or when you’re in a bad headspace. Wait to check comments until you’re mentally ready to handle what is there good or bad.
This will help you to keep yourself from being negatively affected by the words of others who are trying to hurt you.
3. Choose How You Will Respond
Are you confident and know your stuff? Respond to the comment with facts and share the truth.
It’s also ok to just delete the comment and block it. It’s up to you. I like to handle each comment individually. Some are just purely hateful and not worth responding too. Others have room and reason to be corrected and responded to.
Just know it’s up to you. If you’re not feeling like fighting the trolls today just delete the messages.
4. How to Handle On Facebook Ads
When it comes to Facebook ads I highly recommend just deleting the negative comment and moving on. Your ads are for those who love what you do and provide. Not the trolls.
If you’re targeting others in the agriculture community in your ads, for example, you provide a product or service to farmers or ranchers, you may want to leave the comment and respond to it.
Let others in the Ag community chime in, it could help your ad get more reach and get the attention of your target audience.
5. Get Thick Skin
I don’t like the saying “get thick skin” but it’s true. As members of the ag community, we are going to be under attack. The more visible you get, and the more your business grows the more trolls you will encounter.
I like to see it this way. The more trolls I get the more I know my social media marketing is working, which means I’m growing.
I also always remind myself that they don’t know. They have been told lies or come up with on their own and are speaking from a place of ignorance.
I’m probably not going to change their opinion, but I can help educate those who are still willing to listen.
I’d love to say sharing the story of agriculture is going to be a smooth and easy ride. But that’s just not the case. It’s going to be tough, but if we don’t step up share our story who will?