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We spend a lot of time talking about video marketing and video creation, but what happens when you post your production on the Internet?

Although the Internet is a godsend, when it comes to marketing your business and widening your reach, it has a darker side.

For some reason there are people out there who love to post rude, offensive and downright disgusting comments just for the sheer hell of it.

Whether it’s something innocuous and petty pointing out you omitted a comma or wrote ‘of’ instead of ‘if’, or something more sinister, these people seem to get their kicks out of trying to get one over on you.

For the vast majority of video marketers, part of the joy of having a YouTube channel is the interaction they have with their fans. There’s nothing better than receiving great comments about your work that you can respond to, building relationships with your audience.

But with this good side comes the darker side; the side where the Troll lurks.

You can almost visualise them at work. Sat in their dark den, cut off from society, they have nothing better to do than to try and cause offence to those who work hard for a living, creating great content that helps, entertains and informs.

At first their barbed comments can be incredibly hurtful and may be enough to make you reconsider doing what you do.

But hang on a minute – why let them win? Hit back, hard.

So what do you do when one strikes?

Dealing with Trolls

It’s very tempting to go in all guns blazing, defending your work and giving as good as you get.

Don’t.

That type of reaction is exactly what they want. They want to know they riled you and want to draw you into an Internet spat because it will reflect badly on you too.

No, it’s time to get smart. So the first rule is never say anything spiteful back.

The best comeback is a humorous one, one that subtly pokes fun back (but not in a rude way), or a ‘gee, you’re right about the typo, I guess there’s always a slippery little sucker that gets through.’

Using humour in your response isn’t always easy so be careful. But if you can use their barbed comment in your response it will make them feel about an inch tall and see them scuttle off to their Troll hole.

So if they write something about your video being “… a complete crock of ****” use it in your response, say “Hey, great, mind if we use that as the title of our next video?”

By not biting back you’ll disarm them. OK, it may not get rid of them for good and they’ll probably just head off to find someone else to pester, but it will move them on.

Of course the other way of dealing with them is to let your fans take care of them. Frequently, they’ll take a stand against such people for you leaving you to continue creating the content they love.

There is one thing for certain the world will always have its Trolls. What motivates them is a mystery, but there will always be a small group people who like nothing better than to spread hatred across the Internet. The best thing the rest of us can do is ignore them or follow the advice above and show we’re bigger than they are and that their shallow comments and ranting won’t stop us posting great content for all to enjoy.

The mistake many companies make when it comes to video marketing is that they become one hit wonders.

They put all their efforts into one production and then, regardless of whether it's a hit or it bombs, they move on and concentrate on other content marketing projects.

The problem is, if you’re going to start engaging through video you have to keep doing it to feed your customers’ insatiable appetite for new content.

When it comes to devising your long-term strategy you must look at areas such as:

•    Your goals – what do you want to achieve?
•    Your budget – will you be able to scale your spend over time?
•    Marketing and distribution – how will you get your video seen and shared?
•    Monitoring and evaluation – how will you measure success?

Stay connected

Assuming your video is a hit, you will want to find a way to remain connected with your viewers. After all they have become interested enough in your brand to watch and share your video, so now you need to keep that momentum going by connecting with them across social media channels.

A great example of how this has been done well is the Old Spice ‘The Man Your Man Could Smell Like’ campaign. It was such a huge success, to keep the impetus going it was followed up by a ‘Response’ campaign whereby people were invited to ask the Old Spice man questions via Twitter. As a result a further 180 response videos were created.

Be different

One of the major no-nos in video marketing is churning out the same old stuff. If you have a hit on your hands it’s very tempting to become lazy and continue to chuck out the same old stuff – after all it worked last time, right?

The problem is by doing that you’re very unlikely to achieve the same level of success because your audience will become bored very quickly.  

Introducing something fresh will boost engagement levels and draw in new followers.

Constant improvement

As you become more confident and experienced in video production make sure you increase your production values each time. Your audience will enjoy watching you refine and enhance your productions.

And of course the better the values, the more engaging the finished product will be.

Ask them what they want

Is there an easier way to find out what will engage your audience?

By getting them involved in the production process, you’ll be giving them a little bit of ownership of the final product. Run a competition or ask for ideas through social media to make sure you’re putting out exactly what your audience wants.

Video marketing isn’t just a one-off investment. Just like all your other content marketing, it is something that should be done continuously and grow with your business.

Don’t be a one hit wonder.