Haters, trolls and malcontents

This week we scrapped plans for the podcast we had planned to address a controversy that emerged at Edison Research, Tom Webster's company. It was time for us to reflect on the great two-edged sword we all face on the Internet: the historically important opportunity to publish and be heard, and the vulnerability we face to be skewered without compassion ... or facts. Overall, the Internet is a good place. A VERY good place, in fact. But it is also a reflection of the human race and about 2 percent of the population discovers some psychological reward in being angry. Twenty years ago, a business could probably ignore those people without much damage but today there is a very real chance that strategy will make the problem worse. Big business or small, we must be aware of these risks and the appropriate responses. In this discussion, we cover ...

• Guidelines for responding or not responding to Internet haters
• The fear of toxicity ... real and imagined
• Learning to handle trolls
• When to go to the mat and when to walk away
• Showing your true colors in the face of hate
• Is 100 percent customer satisfaction possible?

Ready to do this thing? Here we go: Resources mentions in this episode The Infinite Dial blog post by Larry Rosin A six-step plan to respond to negative comments on the web Research on 98 percent customer satisfaction survey Illustration: Check out the beautiful peace sign art by Laura Barbosa

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