Know what you're doing before you start getting political with your company

Know what you're doing before you start getting political with your company

Many times online or in the media we've seen a company get behind a certain presidential candidate or voice their side about a certain topic like abortion or gay rights, and it tends to lose sales on one side and increase them on another.  If you don't know what you're doing, or who your customers are, you could actually be hurting your company far more than you think if you open your mouth about politics before doing any research.

Sure, you could support Hilary or Trump, but your business and personal life are different, so you should keep your opinions off of your business Facebook pages or off of your blog.  It doesn't matter if someone asks you in the comments of a blog post "Who did you vote for?", your response should usually be "We don't discuss politics on our blog, sorry" if you don't want to get into it.

Now, if you do want to get political, understand these 3 things.

Know what your customers expect of you.
If you don't know your customers, you're likely going to lose them with a single post that is politically charged, and that's because you have a blended customer base that trusts you.  Your customers likely expect you to stay on topic, which means you should be posting about your niche and industry, and you should likely avoid politics.

If you decide to post something political, it should always be something that is neutral so you don't piss off someone on a different side and they leave your website forever.  Remember, you're running a business and not a presidential race, so be neutral at all costs even if you side with one party and not the other.

Only write messages that align with your brand.
If you're a sportswear company and you're talking about politics, you've strayed and you're likely going to lose loyal customers.  People don't want to go to the Nike Blog or Adidas Blog and see something about Trump, because they're there for sports gear. 

If your message aligns with your brand, even if you're posting something political, you will be able to show people you're an honest company and they can trust you no matter their point of view.  They may not like that you're a neutral party, but they will still come back and purchase because you're honest and stick with your industry.

Have clear messages and don't be a hypocrite
If you do decide to bring your business into politics, you need to be sure you've been one-sided the entire time because people will rage out against you if you flipped sides.  People like loyalty, which is why they stick with you, but if they see you supporting one type of candidate 4 years ago and now you're supporting a different one, they'll jump on you immediately and you'll lose a lot of customers.

This happens often when a new CEO steps in and decides to go rogue and post something to social media, but they didn't do their research thoroughly enough, and now Twitter is blowing up on you because you're consistently flipping sides and you seem like you're just trying to please everyone.

In conclusion
In my honest opinion, you shouldn't bring your company into politics, unless you're a politically driven blog.  I say this because a sports company, apparel company, SEO company, web design company, etc. don't belong in politics because that isn't what they're all about.  Stick to your niche, publish quality content about that niche, and keep everyone happy by not picking sides in politics

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Thanks!

Tommy Carey