Should You Share Your Political Views as a Business Owner? 4 Key Questions to Consider

It’s an election year and as the driven professional you are, you’ve got a lot of thoughts about the presidential campaigns, platforms, debates and media coverage as a whole. But… should you share those thoughts in a public forum? (i.e. social media pages, blogs, media interviews, etc)

As a business owner, it’s your prerogative to do and talk about whatever you want on your business content channels. After all, it’s your business.

However, before you start sharing your personal opinions on professional channels, I’m going to walk you through the key questions I ask clients before they make big statements.

1. Does the statement you want to make (or post you want to share) tie back to the company values?

We start with this one because if your desire to speak out can’t clear this bar, then the rest won’t matter.

It makes all the sense in the world that you have thoughts about the coming presidential election. We ALL do. (And if you don’t, then goodness it is time for you to tap in because the decisions made will absolutely affect your life.)

The key is on what stage we share those thoughts.

If what you want to say about a political candidate or policy ties back to one of your company values, then continue onto the next question.

If what you want to say does not tie back to a company value, then have those conversations offline or write it in your diary. Being passionate about a topic or current event does NOT equate to it being relevant to your business and brand in the long term🙅🏻‍♀️

2. Are you ready for revenue to be affected?

Anytime we choose to speak up in a crowd or on a public social media platform, we are opening ourselves up to judgment, which can work for or against us.

It’s highly possible you have people following you that have no clue what you lean politically if you reserve these types of discussions and posts to election years. So when you do say something, they completely disagree and therefore don’t want to buy what you are selling anymore.

That being said, speaking out could also open you to a NEW audience of like-minded individuals and a potential new customer base. Either way, you need to acknowledge revenue could be affected in either case and be prepared to handle the fall out from that.

3. Will speaking out affect other people’s livelihoods?

If you have employees, what you say as the CEO can have a direct impact on the lives of those at your company. You are likely the face of the business so when you speak up, whether in a media interview or on your personal social media pages, people tend to pay attention. Your position alone garners that authority.

It also means that you are directly tied to your business in a very public way, so sharing personal opinions can either have people flock to buy more of what your business is selling OR run away faster than the Kenyans during an Olympic race.

Either way, the lives of those at your company could be directly affected if sales boom and they lose that precious work/life integration, or fall flat and hours are cut or layoffs needed.

4. Are you fired up about the topic or the candidates?

This quote captures it well:

Every four years we (usually) get a new set of candidates to consider and guess what? NONE of them are the perfect answer to solve all our problems, no matter which way you lean politically.

That’s why it’s so important to ask yourself if it’s the candidate or the cause that has you all fired up and ready to share all those passionate thoughts on a public, business platform.

The candidate will be gone in four to eight years. Do you really want to attach your brand to them?

The cause will (likely) be there for many more years to come, as unfortunate as that sounds, so aligning your brand could be the beginning of creating a new company value.

(And if it does, I want you to circle back to Question 1 again before solidifying anything.)

The Bottom Line

What you say DOES have an affect on business and everyone attached to it.

This can result with gangbuster sales from a whole new crop of clients added to your community OR a total sales nosedive and the need to build a new community from scratch – assuming your brand can withstand the PR crisis that could ensue.

Yes that’s a little hyperbolic, but when passions run high, there is no telling how volatile a statement can become and I want you to be prepared.

Either way, the lives of those at your company could be directly affected if sales boom and they lose that precious work/life integration, or fall flat and hours are cut or layoffs needed.