Some celebs learn SNS the hard way

Baik Min-jung

By Jung Min-ho

Celebrities use social media as effective marketing tools for maintaining their high media profiles. But it only takes a few careless mistakes on Facebook and Twitter for such sites to become the places where careers can crash and burn.

Football star Ki Sung-yeung and actor Choi Phillip recently learned the hard way that it’s probably not a good idea to rant at your coach on Facebook or broadcast supportive tweets about your pop singer friends caught slacking off from their mandatory military duty.

Two actresses also didn’t get the message early enough and ended up taking a hit to their incomes and perhaps an even bigger hit to their career prospects.

Baik Min-jung, part of the cast from the popular musical ``A Tale of Two Cities,’’ found herself under the guillotine of public opinion after she complained about signing autographs for fans on her Facebook page. And then co-star Lim Hye-young was foolish enough to press the ``like’’ button.

``I hate autograph events. I don’t want to smile and ask `how was the performance?’ or `what is your name?’ to fans after a show. It gives me muscle cramps,’’ Baik wrote, making the classic mistake of biting the hands that feed her.

After facing a torrent of criticism, Baik tweeted an apology and said that she was just trying to express how tired she was. Lim also apologized on her Facebook page, saying that she ``liked’’ the message without actually reading it.

``I `liked’ it without reading it because it had a picture of me (and her). I planned to read the post after the show.’’

But it was too late. BOM Korea, the production company staging the show, decided to suspend Baik for six performances and Lim for three for disrespecting fans.

It could be argued that the punishments were harsh considering the severity of their actions. But while Baik and Lim are obviously talented, they are not front-line names who sell tickets. Perhaps, it’s not wise to give fans a reason to dislike you when you are easily replaceable.

A series of recent social media debacles highlight how powerful it can be, not only in a positive way, but also in a negative way. Social media was critical about the worldwide success of Psy, the ``Gangnam Style’’ rapper. And it could be said that Psy was smart to use social media as a promotional tool, but not as a personal diary.

Some celebrities such as Kang Ye-bin and Clara have also drawn positive reactions to their social media pages, which are abundant in sexy photos and economic in words.

After Ki’s comments aimed at former national team manager Choi Kang-hee were targeted by Internet users earlier this month, the team were given a special lecture about the ``dangers’’ of social media. National team striker Kim Shin-wook said afterwards that he wouldn’t go near social media at all.

And one can expect that many other celebrities will eventually follow Kim’s example.