Serena Williams  hit the headlines this weeked, when a video of her conceding defeat to rival Kim Clijsters during the US Open spread like wildfire on the internet. The tennis star quit after a line judge accused her of verbal abuse.

Mashable reported how the video clocked up views at lightning speed but a look at the wider social media sphere shows the extent of the impact.

Conversation on Facebook is mixed, but a search for ‘Serena Williams‘ shows up the majority of comments as being fairly derogatory

The conversation on Twitter, again is either neutral or highly critical. Indeed, a Twitter sentiment analysis tool shows the negative sentiment to be overwhelming :

And unfortunately, Google seems to have little love to show the tennis star. Reference to the outburst is already ranking at number 3 on a search for ’serena williams’

So why is the majority of the commentary overwhelmingly negative? A look at the discussion in the Serena Williams Facebook page shows that there is plenty of support out there for Serena Williams but it is confined to the space designed for fans.

Serena Williams’ reputation is undoubtedly taking a massive hit this weekend. The fact that the video is already ranking at number 3 in Google demonstrates the power of social media and the need to build up a loyal online following.

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