A Story of Internet 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:

A Story of Internet Haters, Trolls and Malcontents