If you’re going to launch a business and promote it online, one inevitable that comes with even the smallest smidgen of success is that you will attract some haters. Why these people insist on trolling the internet and attempting to ruin people’s days, I really do not know, but it seems to be an unavoidable fact of life, unfortunate as it may be.
Now, for many new entrepreneurs, especially women, promoting ourselves can feel super awkward and make us self-conscious enough already. Add these haters into the mix and it can make it really difficult to push through and keep promoting like crazy. So, in an effort to keep your head in the game and keep you efficient instead of wasting time worrying about that nasty comment on your last blog post, here are some tips for dealing with haters. It’s fluffier than my normal stuff, I know, but this isn’t just about making you feel warm and fuzzy again, it’s about learning to efficiently deal with the obnoxious comments people leave so that you can get back to getting ish done.
Now, the first step to dealing with haters is to make sure you distinguish between actual haters and people who have legitimate complaints or are leaving constructive comments that just happen to be negative. People with legitimate complaints or constructive, albeit negative, comments are not haters and should not be treated as such. These are people that you need to reach out to to figure out how you can fix their problem and improve your service or marketing.
True haters do not have legitimate complaints or constructive criticisms, they just have nastiness to spout. Once you’ve identified someone as a true hater, I see two ways of dealing – one is the mature way, one is the immature way, and in all honesty, you’ll probably want to use both — just make sure to keep the immature way private.
The immature way to deal is to be a hater back – but only in your head. Remind yourself that someone who has nothing better to do than troll the internet and make nasty comments is probably not someone whose opinion you care about. Convince yourself that the person making that comment is a complete loser and that they’re only doing this because they can hide behind their computer. If they had to say that to your face, you could tell them where to shove it. Think about all of the awesomeness that you have in your life and that they more than likely don’t.
Feeling better yet? Good. Now let’s move on to the mature way to handle haters.
The mature way to cope is to wait a little while to cool off and then to respond if, and only if, you can rationally, succinctly, and confidently falsify whatever claim was made without sounding defensive. Given the nature of haters’ comments, that may be impossible to do. So, if you can’t respond in a clear, concise, and convincing manner that will end the conversation immediately, just don’t respond. Haters don’t deserve your time. Forget about it, go read a few of the nicest comments you’ve received to pump yourself back up, and then move on.
In all reality, you’ll probably use both techniques. Throw some haterade back at the punks in your mind, take a breather, reply if you must, and then read some kind words from others and move on. Never let these people ruin your day. It’s actually a really positive thing to evoke strong reactions like this because in order for some people to absolutely love you, you have to have enough of a personality that others will absolutely hate you. So screw them and get back to work.
Now I want to hear from you – as long as you’re not a hater 😉 What are the best tips or strategies that you’ve heard or used to deal with haters? Please let us know in the comments section below.
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