When it comes to brushing off people who troll you online, Jersey Shore star Nicole “Snooki” Polizzi should win a gold medal. “I think [trolls] are fun,” she said on a panel about social media, speaking at the Cut’s How I Get It Done Day on Monday, March 4. “I’m so comfortable in my skin,” she continued, “and I know the person who I am, and I know I’m a great mom, a great person, and a great friend. When strangers find the need to attack you and put you down, I find it comical.”
The reality show star spoke on the panel with two other women who are great at social media: influencer Nadia Aboulhosn, who designs curve-friendly clothes, and the Cut’s social-media editor Nana Agyemang, who spotlights women of color on her account Every Stylish Girl. The one thing all three women have in common, besides having thousands/millions of followers, is experience dealing with haters.
Aboulhosn said unlike Snooki, she never responds directly to her trolls. “From a brand perspective, I don’t feel like there’s room for me right now to comment back,” she said. “I’m more sure of myself now, so it doesn’t affect me. I’m not going to spend time and energy making someone like me. So I usually block and delete comments.”
But managing a social-media presence isn’t just about dealing with trolls. Being a personality on Instagram comes naturally to both Aboulhosn and Snooki (though to be fair, Snooki was a reality-show icon before she had millions of followers). And they said it can come naturally to anyone who’s building their own brand.
“It’s just about being who you genuinely are,” Aboulhosn said. “When you do that through social, it feels like less pressure.”
They agreed that if you want to monetize social media, you need to be consistent. Neither of them take longer than a two-day break from posting. “There’s money to be made so I don’t really take breaks. Period. Really. Two days is probably max,” Aboulhosn said.
Yes that’s kind of intimidating, but you can still have mental breaks where you’re just physically off your phone.
