How to Deal with Criticism on Social Media

1. Criticism on Social Media: Introduction: So with social media being really prevalent now, there's nothing that I wish I knew as a content creator When I first started. And that is how I would handle criticism, hater trolls, as well as how do you differentiate someone who's just trying to talk smack about you, about your content versus someone who's actually trying to improve and how can you take the constructive criticism and apply to your own content so you can make better content. So in this class and talk about how exactly you handle haters, trolls, and criticism on any social media platform. Because if you're doing something rate in social media, you're gonna get a lot of eyeballs on you. And a lot of eyeballs means you're leaving out the opportunity for your content to be criticized and critique. And there's different ways and approach and how I do this. And if you don't know who I am, my name is Peter. I've built too much handles over 10 thousand subscribers, over a million views on each channel. As well as I've helped other people create their content and edit their content. So I've been behind as well in front of a camera. And I can tell you a thing about haters, trolls, and criticism on the internet. So I'm going to dive deep into this class and tell you what to do, what not to do, and how can you use the competence of your own abilities so that nothing really gets to you. Let's go. 2. Why it's inevitable on social?: So like I said, if you're doing something right along the lines of creating any sort of content on the Internet, whether that impose that video, that's audio, tactile, YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, or any one of these platforms. You're gonna get some sort of feedback. And the whole point of these platforms is based around in UGC, also known as user generated content. And with the territory of UGC content is that it comes with community-building. And one of the best things that you can do on the internet is to build your personal brand. But as long as you grow and more people come across your content, It's very, very likely that if you're doing something right, you're also gonna get people that will not like you. You also get comments that will attack you as well as you understand people you might upset some people. I've had comments where people do even like the way I talk or the way that I breathe. And they just hate me before they even actually watched the video or content, whatever it is, I'm trying to provide that. So the first school of thought is to be able to, I wish I knew, is we're going to talk about vanity metrics. 3. The only thing that matters.: So you're wondering why am I talking about vanity metrics? If this is a class on dealing with criticism on social media. The big factor to take away is if you have your competence in terms of a content creator and a video creator, wrapped around a vanity metrics around how much people are subscribed, or like your videos or like your post, or how much comments you're pulling your mercy and your own self-worth in the hands of strangers and people that don't know you. And this is so important what not to do. Because when I first started creating content on YouTube and as well as take Talk is that same thing applies when I first started creating YouTube videos. I remember that first comment, right? You get the thrill, that excitement. Oh my God, someone actually responded and liked my video. But then you get that one person that's like this video's sucks. I don't like you and you feel attacked. And the initial instinct of what you do is it can ruin your day. You would reply to it. You'd be like, there's something wrong with my content. Am I not good enough? And a lot of people don't even start in social media because of this very fact is that they're afraid of getting rejected and they're afraid of getting, judge. But if you want to be a content creator on any social media platform, especially if you don't have any leverage before and you don't have experience in marketing, is that people will, are brutally honest on the internet. They will find any opportunity that they can to make comments about judging you. And for me, for example, I made a channel where I talk about cameras and as well as cameras and a tech equipment. But once in a while I get a really rude comment that has nothing to do with camera gear. So you have to understand that you can't take things personally. You can't wrap your head around vanity metrics. You can use KPIs as well like, Okay, I'm getting, let's say a 100 thousand views a month on my channel right here at the Vcc V0, where I talk about camera gears. And that is my metric of how I measure how my channel is doing. Not so much along the lines of how much views are my video, each one of my videos getting it's how much cumulative views or my my entire channel getting. It's not about how much people are subscribed to my channel, But it's like how much people are subscribed and coming back. So every video you upload or every post you post on Instagram and tick tock, Do not, do not, I repeat, do not put your competence as well as your own self-worth in some sort of content number, what you can do is, let's say you have a video does not perform well, is that you take that and figure out how can you get better? How can we content that appeals to the right audience ever video doesn't get abused. It's not so much that your videos aren't good enough or that you're bad content creator, or you should just give up its moral along the lines of, are you making content for the right audience? Is there too much competition? Are you not talented enough, right? These are something that you need to decide and should never, ever let some random person on the internet dictate that for you. You need to ask yourself and be honest with yourself. If you're making content for, let's say ten years and you haven't got much traction, then you might need to pivot in a way of how you're making content and who you're talking to. But never put your own self-esteem, as well as your own self-worth on how many likes, subscribers. Because that is a very bad place to start because I started there, because everyone starts there. But I'm telling you guys, is that learn from my mistakes and make it because you want to make content around this topic. You want to make content that engages and motivates people. And as long as you're happy about it, do that. Do not worry about the numbers. If we're talking about making a business out of it. And yes, there are certain things that are much more stringent in terms of how many monthly views are getting, are you reaching your subscriber milestones? But if you're purely on social media for leisure and fun and you yourself want to be a Hobbes content creator. Do not wrap your head around vanity metrics. That is the biggest takeaway if you don't take anything away, is about vanity metrics. And how, yes, if you are a creator, you want your artwork or your videos to be seen and you want to be heard. But with that comes the territory of judgment and criticism, which I'll talk about next. 4. Constructive Critcism: So when it comes to actually receive criticism on any social media platform, I'm going to use YouTube, for example. I break it down into these two categories of constructive criticism, as well as just straight up haters, trolls, and negative naysayers. First is what I like to say is having constructive criticism. Because people will tell you on YouTube, let's say if your audio sucks, they'll tell you your audio sucks. It's not up to par. What that means, maybe invest in better audio equipment as well as people have made comments about my own. The way that I speak. Maybe I need to up my pacing. Maybe I'm not as animated that I like to be. Maybe I studied a lot. One of the things that you can take away from this feedback and not take it so personal, which is why I prefaced this being the first lesson is self-confidence, self-worth, and wrapping around content and not taping personally and understand that people are there to help you. So there's always constructive criticism online, like I've made comments or have comments directed towards me. And my initial approach is to have a knee-jerk reaction and take like, whoa, that person who this person, I don't know who you are. And it's natural to be able to want to respond or like talk smack backup that person. But the reality is, if you take away the profundity of what they're saying at rudeness of it. Because the reality is a lot of people are hiding behind the keyboard. Hiding behind Avatar is that people may comments. But for the most part, is that you can't take it personally and you could actually learn something. That is the constructive criticism. That is the part where it's like, hey, that person is actually right. And I can actually consider this going forward. And how can I, can actually learn about creating a better content. So the right people can come across because some people, you can actually upset people because maybe you're titling was wrong. Maybe the thumbnail was little misleading. So maybe you can prevent that and learn for next time. But then now we're going to also talk about the nasty comments. 5. Not-so-nice Comments: The second type of criticism that you will receive is the downright. It does not have any applicability to you as a content creator. It's personal attacks against you. It's comments that would break any sort of community guidelines. It's talking and using profanity. And these are the type of comments that you probably get once in a while, as well as there's couple of things that you can do. So I'm gonna talk about that next, but these are the type of comments that you need to be prepared for. Because when I first made content, I came in very naive. I'm like, OK, everyone's going to be nice to me, everything like me. But that's not reality. The reality is, is that the more eyeballs you have and the better your content doing, they're going to be people out there for whatever reason, whatever they're going in their life, whether they're jealous of you, whether they like to just have hated, leave negativity into your space or your content. You have to be prepared for this. There isn't the attacks on who you are, what you are doing. These are the types of comments that they're not nice and you cannot take them. So personally, you have to be like, that is not so much a reflection of me, but a reflection of that. And understanding that who these type of people are, they're not in a good place and they're commenting. So they can feel better, so they can look down on you. But if you let these people flustered you and you make content and derives you from your train of what you actually take away, what you want to go with your goals and your content. You need to have a strong shoulder and your heads. And that's what I wish I knew when I told myself when I first created content, is that be prepared, right? People prepared for people to make comments about you, be repaired for people who don't agree with your opinions. Because doesn't matter what content you make, you have an opinion and other people are gonna comment about their opinions and it's all about someone wanting to be right. So understanding that there are going to be negative comments, then we comment that have nothing to do with the content. And people are just going to just try to cyber attack you and harass you. But I'm gonna tell you what I will do. Looking back in hindsight. 6. What you can do about it?: Ok Peter, that's nice. And also, what do I do when I get a comment that's just really, really mean towards me. While any one of these social media platforms, with its tech talk in scram, YouTube, they have features where you can actually remove these comments. And even better is that you can block these comments. And you can have someone who's constantly harassing you and commenting on all of your post or doing something that's really nasty. And they're not really having any sort of realistic constructive feedback. So you can improve on your content. They make comments. So what you do is that you can block them. That is my biggest takeaway if you don't like them, one of the benefits of being a content creator is that it is your own channel. It is your own little platform that you have. You can ban people on Tiktaalik. You can ban people on Instagram. You couldn't blog people, so they don't have access to your content anymore. And I've had, when I first did this, it saved me a lot of mental space so I can focus on creating content. Because if you just leave the comment there, what happens is your own community is going to see it and other people are going to see it. And it's essentially like if you have a business or you have a storefront and someone comes along and just graffiti, is it you don't want that? So what I suggest or recommend you do is you ban and block them or delete their comments. I'm all about having community and having open dialogue and back and forth. But if if someone is outrageous trying to bring you down for no apparent reason and you can't really agree or disagree with it. They say it's just completely left wing and they are just they just don't want to deal with maybe the woke up at the wrong side of the bed. I highly suggest that you delete and block their comments because one of the biggest powers that you have as a content creator is that you control their voice. Because of your video. You're giving them an area or place so they can comment. But you can also take away that privilege. You can turn off your comments. You can limit your comments on tech talk. You can limit your comment on Instagram, as well as they really are investing in you and these are the haters, then you can block them and guess what chances are they're not going to come back to when it comes to blocking in doing this, you can also set up people on YouTube, for example, you have moderators on your team, so you can individually block them or filter, as well as, for example, you can actually filter out and click checkmark on social media platforms where I can filter out. Let's say if someone uses a profanity in any wonder comments, it will be held for review so that other people don't see these comments there a lot of these platform now where they rely on user-generated content, they understand that people are going to be there to leave hate and negative feedback. So what I do, for example, on YouTube is I hold review from my comments if they put any sort of external link because there are a lot of third party malicious links out there. As well as I hold any comments for review. If it is, has any sort of profanity. So I actually look into it and then I decide whether or not I let it go on my channel or do I delete this comment and this person is no good for my own channel as well as my own mental health. So that is the basis way of like you have to really filter out and see that a understand that yearning get comments and haters, that it's just inevitable in the social media realm. And two, you can decide to either leave it up or you yourself can delete it because you have that power. 7. Final Thoughts: And I just want to make this really short class as much more long mindset of the things I wish I had and new when I first started content creating, that would propel me one step ahead. In comparison that I spent all that time wasting on like, why is this person hating on me? Why am I defending myself all the time? Social media is another extension of you. Then you have to understand, just like anything in life is that not everyone will like you and that's okay. Not everyone will like your content. I guarantee if you have an audience and you're having criticism and constant haters and feedback, you're doing something rain getting their attention. And you can always learn something from them. Maybe take with revenge and see maybe that person is Ray and try to empathize. But as well as you don't have to deal with that as a content creator, you have the power to understand that. Do not have an wrap your own self-worth and confidence around somebody else's comments or dislikes or dumbs down a bunch of videos that thumbs down, but it doesn't matter. Somebody may most viewed videos were not a lot of people know who I am yet. They dumb down the video, just did thumbs down. But that doesn't stop me from creating content and makes me even more motivated. Understanding that, yes, people are going to hate on you, but you gotta keep doing you and understand that haters and criticism on social media is something that you need. Wrap your head around and you can't run away from it. And you need to understand and have a clear, clear message of why you're making content. Who's the content you're making it for? And what motivates you. And if you have a very strong alignment in terms of your vision, in terms of content, then any sort of constructive criticism or even negative criticism will not hinder you in terms of the social media world. So I hope this class was able to give you a little bit more insight about criticism and social media because there's a lot about this world now where it's becoming the new norm. And there isn't a lot of talk about mental health and the confidence you need to be a content creator because we all have insecurities and it's not fun being the butt end of the joke. So, like I said, self-worth, you define your work. Don't let anybody point fingers at you when it comes to content creation. And, uh, my name is Peter from a broke visually collective where we also with nothing but you can always create something juice, Yes.