There’s a scene in The Office where Dwight Schrute does battle with a sentient computer.
Dwight and the sentient computer (actually a couple of his coworkers in disguise) are competing to see who can sell more paper by the end of the day.
At one point, Dwight loses his cool. He tells the computer to “011 1111 011 011” (which apparently spells the letters “F” and “O” in ASCII).
The sentient computer doesn’t flinch, however.
Instead, it replies to Dwight:
“While you were typing that, I’ve searched every database in existence and learned every fact about everything. And mastered the violin. And sold more paper!”
I got a chance to apply a similar kind of response today for an ad I’m running on Facebook.
This ad is promoting a free ebook titled The Little Black Book of Essential Oil Scams. One of the sections in this ebook covers the two big MLM essential oil companies, doTerra and Young Living, which have a lot of ardent supporters.
One such supporter commented on my ad:
“You are showing your own ignorance! You promote oils and don’t know the difference between what’s pure and what’s not, and yet try to bash other companies. You couldn’t pay me to waste my time on your book!”
Until recently, I’ve ignored trolls like this.
But then I thought to myself, why be so lazy?
I should take the advice of expert troll-tamer Ben Settle, and try to profit from this.
So I decided to ignore what the troll said, misconstrue it as something positive, and then self-promote. I wrote in response:
“No need to pay for this book, it’s free. And I agree that essential oil quality is important. That’s why I write about several best-selling companies that have been shown to sell adulterated oils.”
Well, the troll didn’t like being misunderstood.
She wrote more angry comments. But I had no intention of engaging with her further. I think one serving of “misconstrue then self-promote” is all each troll is entitled to.
So what’s the point?
I believe it’s possible to deal with trolls with courtesy, as long as you misconstrue or ignore what they have to say.
And then, you can turn it to your advantage and self-promote.
It’s much like the scene from The Office above.
Don’t engage with trolls directly. And take the attitude that you’re winning no matter what.
If you do this, you will find opportunities for subtle self-promotion everywhere.
Speaking of self-promotion: If you read all the way to the end of this post, you might like my upcoming book on email marketing. You can sign up to get a free copy when it’s out by going to the following page: