We’ve all encountered negativity in the social space.  It often comes in the form of nasty reviews, personal attacks, brand bashing, even bullying behavior.  But it can also come in the form of a frustrated customer seeking assistance for an issue or answer to a question.

First let’s address the haters, bashers, trolls and bullies…

A while back when I had more time on my hands, I used to blog about issues, often politically-charged ones, that were near and dear to my heart. One post that was inspired by several back-to-back incidents of horrible parenting I had witnessed garnered one response that crossed the line from critical comment to targeted personal attack.  Although the comment was posted anonymously, given the content of the attack and the poor grammar, which was a thinly-veiled attempt to disguise the commenter’s identity, I know exactly who authored the comment.  I did post a response, but what I realized afterward was that I didn’t need to.  Why? Because my supporters came out in full force to defend me.  Turns out there were many people who read my post and agreed with me and were more than happy to put my attacker in her place.

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