Politics and Company Blogs

Posted on September 18, 2008
Filed Under Chief Blogging Officer

Everybody wants their blog to build readership, and naturally, our company wants this blog to gain a large following. This is a presidential election year, and a rather important and historic one at that, and people are very interested in the race. If you want people to read your blog, you need to address timely topics and be willing to discuss controversial issues.

I recently had a conversation with our CEO about the possibility of writing about politics on this blog from time to time, and of course he had reservations about it, as I did. But I ask myself, if I wanted to buy something and I knew that the people behind the store had different politics than me, would I do business with them? The answer is clearly yes; I do it all the time. Most of the stores that I go to are held by people who contribute large sums of money to politicians in various ways. I have economic constraints that force me to buy things based on their price/value. I don’t have the luxury of paying more to support a business that I deem to be “conscious” in most instances. I can do it to some extent some of the time, but my budget is finite and I have to live with that reality.

So we have to take pause politically because of being concerned that customers won’t shop with us if they disagree with something that we write on the blog. We are a small, privately held company. However, the biggest publicly held corporations in the world routinely impact and in fact shape the political landscape here in America.

I have the tongue-in-cheek title of “Chief Blogging Officer” for Fit Fuel. I am a dude with opinions, like everybody else. Blogging is supposed to be a way for everyday people to speak their peace without being concerned about advertisers who have traditionally shaped the boundaries of commercial media. Since blogging is finding its way into the corporate landscape, we are at a crossroads. Do we dilute the whole purpose of blogging, which is free expression, when we write for a company blog? Or do we trust our customers and readers to accept the reality that aware people form opinions, and blogs are a means of expressing those opinions.

Personally, I don’t mind reading someone’s opinion when it differs from mine, as long as it is intelligently presented. “Spin” and uninformed drivel are a different matter.

I think that this is an interesting question and I would love to hear people’s opinions about it. Is it alright to write about politics on a company blog? Why or why not?