To wrangle event trolls or not?
Last weekend, I attended a series of online presentations with outdoor event organizers from the Northeastern United States. The topics discussed ranged from ticket pricing to profitable event models during the pandemic.
At one point, I glommed on to a brief point about online trolls made by KW.
If you're unfamiliar with the term troll, specifically "Internet troll," here's a definition from urbandictionary.com:
"An Internet troll, or simply troll in Internet slang, is someone who posts controversial, inflammatory, irrelevant or off-topic messages in an online community, such as an online discussion forum or chat room, with the primary intent of provoking other users into an emotional response or to generally disrupt normal on-topic discussion."
Short version, trolls are people who stir up trouble online without good reason or facts. And trolls regularly infest social media because of their near-instantaneous ability to respond.
During his presentation, KW had mentioned a series of approximately 50 Internet Trolls disparaging his team and their event. Smartly, KW noted every troll and searched the event's customer records.
Of the 50 "loudest" trolls in question, one purchased a ticket to KW's event. One!
The above example is an essential reminder of "check-em!" when they balk. The biggest reason to look up trolls quickly is so don't want to waste your time, energy, or effort with people who don't support (and will never support) your event.
Don't give trolls the energy they don't
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