Written by Pagan Harrison-Brown
Creating content for a living seems like the ideal job. Whether it is for yourself or for an organisation, you get to be creative, have fun doing the latest social media trends, connect with an audience and just do what you love with a lot of freedom. But what about the dark side of content creation? How do you deal with the mean and just unnecessary comments. No one teaches you about that side, no one hands you an instruction manual for how to deal with online trolls, you just unfortunately learn it on the spot.
If there was an instruction manual and a rule book for how to deal with the trolls and overcome those negative overthinking thoughts, I personally think the online world would be so much easier to navigate around, however that is not the case. So as someone who has been working as a content creator for roughly 6 years, I am here to make that side of content creation just that bit easier and reduce your anxiety just a little. Cause let me tell you, when you have something that just blows up, you will get people who will do whatever they can just to make you feel bad for no reason at all.
- You don’t know these people and they don’t know you
- While you may feel like responding to negative comments, it’s best to always just ignore them. Trolls are always looking for a reaction and replying is just feeding them attention
- Don’t let negative comments stop you from creating content or changing the type of content you create. It is your content and no one else’s, keep producing what brings you joy and is true to yourself and you will find people who will enjoy that content
- If a comment gets you heated, turn your phone off or stay away from social media until you cool off. You are more likely to respond to the comment in a negative manner when triggered, which doesn’t do you any good.
- Always follow the 24hr/48hr rule. Ignore it for 24hrs and if it still bothers after 48hrs address it.
- You don’t need to justify anything you post and never feel like you have to reply to every comment
- Only reply to comments that make you feel good as that will wash out the bad
- Never take comments personally. People will say whatever they want to make themselves feel better. It says more about who they are as a person
Looking after your mental health should always be top priority and creating content can be really draining and dangerous if you take everything you receive online personally and strict.
Content creation is meant to be fun because you are creating for yourself. Not everyone is going to like what you create, and you can’t please those people. But that is just a small cluster of people. If you find that it is getting too hard and you start feeling overwhelmed, take a step back and have a break.
It is always recommended to create an online persona to protect your offline identity. Remember those trolls are people who have nothing better to do and will do whatever they can to make you feel bad because they feel threatened.
Keep doing what you are doing and you will naturally attract a good and supportive community.
