Molly McPherson advises creators facing online backlash to listen to criticism without drowning in shame. Separate emotion from feedback, understand the specific harm you caused, address it directly, and ignore pure trolls. Take responsibility without over-apologizing.
Here's a quick tip. If you are online, you're a content creator, and you're going through a viral moment, okay? People are starting to tell you, we're not liking you, we're not digging you at this moment. If you work with me, you know we are going to walk towards a path of accountability. But this is what it looks like. Even you don't need a crisis manager for this. When people start clapping back at you, yes, it's frustrating, it's annoying, it's mean, mean-spirited to deal with. I fully understand the emotion piece of it, but Try and separate yourself from the emotion and listen to what they're saying. People online who are clapping back at you are trying to tell you something that you did or said or posted affected them negatively. In other words, you caused some form of pain to them. Whatever your next move is, it is to address that pain. It doesn't mean that you have to fall on this mighty sword self-flagellate to all these people, because I know people do not like to give in to people who complain online, but listen to them. You can distill, filter out trollish, but the people in the middle, the people who follow you for advice, listen to what they have to say. Take your lumps, but work through it, and then you will get through.
