Professional American football athlete Larry Johnson is suffering the consequences of a homophobic comment he made through his Twitter account. Larry Johnson is a celebrity athlete who played for the Kansas City Chiefs. He received an aggressive comment from someone on Twitter and in retaliation made the offensive tweet. Because of this comment he was suspended from playing and was also asked to leave the team. People don’t realize the impact one comment can make on a social network. Social networks are being used by businesses to reach out and communicate with their consumers. Based on the interaction, businesses can assess how successfully a product or service is doing. This marketing strategy is known as social media optimization.

Celebrities are also taking the reins of social networking to another level. They are creating profiles to communicate with their fans. Athletes, singers, movie stars, politicians are all using social networks such as Twitter and Facebook to interact with their followers. This interaction makes fans feel appreciated and will indirectly help endorse any projects, products or services that the celebrities are affiliated with. But celebrities and businesses do not realize how powerful a social network can be and how it can work against you if you’re not careful to monitor and control the activity on your profile.

In the case of Larry Johnson, he spoiled the reputation of his team and also the whole league itself. The National Football League has already being hit hard with speculations that they discriminate against the gay community. This Twitter comment is one of the many examples that fuels the idea that they do not tolerate homosexuals. Many companies are becoming concerned about rash comments made on social networks that will hurt the image of their business. To prevent such matters from taking place social media policies are being put into practice. Many feel that even comments made by professional athletes about the game during before or after will compromise the integrity of the game. For this reason many sport leagues have started imposing time restrictions as a part of their social media policy which prevents players from making comments on their social network profiles during, 90 minutes before or after the game.

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It is not only essential to control and be careful of the comments posted on social networks but businesses should understand how to tactfully deal with negative comments made by fans. You are doing just as much harm by ignoring or deleting negative comments made by fans. Instead find an approach that shows off your business potential. If he’s voicing his dissatisfaction with a product find out how you can solve the situation, throw in a coupon and apologize. Many times people just want to be heard and the fact that you replied back will be a solution to the situation.

It is important that you seek professional help to set up a successful social media optimization campaign. As you can see with Larry Johnson, one comment can result in a lot of difficulties if you’re not careful. Do not try experimenting with social media optimization if you have no prior Internet marketing experience. Offshore SEO companies have a variety of SEO packages and social media optimization services at an affordable price.