Whether you are an artist, individual or business you’ve probably had trouble with someone coming to shoot down a post you wrote or cause some sort of mayhem. Let’s label that person a heckler. The person is obviously out to embarrass you or seemingly “expose” your weaknesses in a public forum. Usually the person is equipped for a harsh exchange. How do you deal with such a person without ruining your own image on social media.
Ignoring them is one way but sometimes this person continually does this or someone picks up on what he/she said and this begins to grow as a thread. Picture the type of responses someone posting their problem to a local sex advice page in Zimbabwe. Now picture that type of bombardment on your page, attacks from all angles. A lot of people make the mistake of falling into the trap. I have learnt from falling in the trap that that’s not the way things are resolved. Things are resolved by acting in a civil manner and not reacting to the insults but rather being pro-active. I learnt that part from Steven Covey’s – & Habits Of Highly Effective People. He says people do bad things to other people because it’s their weakness, however by reacting to that and following suit we become weaker by empowering their weakness.
I’ve had people throw all sorts of insults at me and I reacted the opposite way. For example there is a page I am admin of, somebody came and wrote,
“Chi page ichi chakafa, haha itai zvirinani. Zvinhu zvemu Zimbabwe zvakadhakwa,”….(this page is dead, do better stuff. Zimbabwean things are substandard)
The emotional angry side of my head was saying let me crush this guy, he is an idiot. Why is he saying such of his own country… but I remembered if I started an argument under that post that would attract a trail of comments and the people on the page would eventually engage. I went underneath that post and thanked him for his review.
“Thank you sir for your review, we are working on being a better page. Your opinions on running a good page are very welcome you may inbox our admin.”
Now tell me family, which fool would continue to say rubbish after that, even he wouldn’t find the energy because see he expected an answer like , “you’re hating…. Etc” . He couldn’t even reply that and everyone else after my comment blasted him instead. Now I personally think a lot of artists and business page admins get emotional and begin to have an exchange with an individual that opposes their view on their page. They go into the comments , fight the person and block them. Blocking is a weakness, do not block people for viewing things different from you especially if you are doing publicity things. Just allow them to have their view, ignore and forget them.
I know some people keep pressing, but they only keep pressing when you show potential to empower their weakness. I hope you have a pleasant time on social media, feel free to like my page, but do not heckle me. I recommend the book 7 Habits Of Highly Effective People
