My political views are defiantly not the same as some people; my religious views are much different as well. Most of my life views are going to vary from other people on this planet. Although this is a personal site, this is my personal blog, because I do tend to have some sort of professional relationships with readers and sponsors alike, I choose for the most part not to push, or post a lot of views on where I stand, especially when it comes to politics or religion or anything that could in fact upset and/or offend anyone.Although this is my personal blog, I could choose to speak my mind on some debatable issues but I don’t want my blog to be about that. Using my own personal Twitter account I choose not to get into heated topics or debate or especially send out political messages via my Twitter account. My Twitter account is linked to my blog, my Twitter account is heavily associated with A Wrestling Addicted Mommy therefore anything spoken about on my twitter is going to have a direct effect to my ‘brand’ so to speak.
People on Twitter need to realize this. I ran across Joey Styles
(Former WWE ECW Announcer) Twitter account today (@wwejoeystyles) with him doing nothing but bashing President Obama and those quote “misled Americans who voted for him”. I realize not everyone likes President Obama or the things he’s doing in office, we went through the same thing with President Bush, who I myself disliked VERY much. Although I am an Obama supporter and am happy with most of the things he’s doing in office, I do realize there’s always going to be haters, and everyone has the opportunity to speak their minds about it, freedom of speech right?Well, does this stand true when you have a Twitter account solely used to promote the company you work for? Joey Styles has a Twitter account that is made with full WWE support, logos and links to the company he works for. I know Joey Styles is one person, but when you’re signed up with an account that is not your own personal account but rather an account aimed to inform fans on the on goings of WWE, an account used to promote the WWE Brand and Company should you be spewing off your personal political views/beliefs to the fans around the Twitterverse who follow you solely on the main reason because of who you are within a company? What if it wasn't WWE and what if it was your local life insurance company or representative on the company twitter account voicing their personal ideals and beliefs?
I’m slightly disturbed at the fact that WWE would allow Joey Styles to venture off into his personal political views via his WWE Twitter account as he represents their company to the thousands of fans on Twitter. Does WWE realize they’re now associated with Joey Styles political views therefore loosing countless WWE fans who are now unfollowing @wwejoeystyles? Do they not realize the consequences this could cause them as a company? It’s not like Joey Styles is a wrestling character or persona who’s looking to be a heel and get the fans to hate his persona, he’s a former announcer, he’s now only a Director of Digital Media Content for WWE.com, he’s not one of the entertainers we watch weekly and love to hate.
So what do you think? When your twitter account is linked to your company or representing a company when your twitter account has the company’s name in your twitter username should you be voicing your personal beliefs on t hat account? Should @wwejoeystyles have another more personal account not associated with WWE if he’d like to ‘tweet’ about such things?
10 comments:
Personally, I'd be careful what I say if my Twitter account were linked to my company. Only because offending people drives away business, though. If a person wants to say something, he should say it, but he (and the company he represents) should be prepared to pay a price for it if they offend a potential customer. Not a wise business move, but it's his right.
Not that I have any idea who this guy is... :-P
It's a decision to be made only by the owner of the company. That's what an economy based on capitalism is all about. The owners(and shareholders, if applicable)make decisions about how the company is run...including the expectations of employees and their actions while on company time or when using company accounts. If the owner makes a bad decision he loses business and the company loses money, possibly having to file for bankruptcy and/or closing. It is in a socialist society that someone else (ie, the government, regulates private business and makes that decision for the owner(s)...as has recently occurred with the Obama administration taking over banks and auto manufacturers with no authority to do so within Constitutional government powers.) So...if this bothers you the action you need to take is to write to the company management and make them aware of your concerns. If enough people do that one of 2 things will happen. Either they have a policy against it (and this guy is violating it)and the company will tell him to stop. Or...they have no policy against it, but they will create one because their customers don't appreciate it and they don't want to lose your business. Again, that's the way a capitalist economy works.
I believe in freedom of speech. I would not discount an entire corporation because of one individual's beliefs. And I think a corporation would be foolish to try to control the speech of employees as long as it was within legal bounds. Anyways, who knows exactly what McMahon believes. He could be far right or a libertarian. Maybe he's not a fan of Obama.
sweetascandy579 at yahood ot com
I do believe in freedom of speech but using that same freedom of speech may or may not open you up to criticism and backlash. If you open your mouth, you have to be prepared to accept the consequences of doing so. In today's world, even freedom of speech comes with a cost. It's up to each of us to decide if we're willing to pay the price.
Absolutely he should make a new account for posting his personal opinions on. How unprofessional.
Yepp, go ahead and speak out, at your risk. In the case you mention the WWE or whatever company can in turn issue a disclaimer. Don't they do that for dvd commentaries? People have brains, sure, not everybody USES them, but I would hardly link a personal opinion (and twitter does not much more than give you a chance to post that) to a whole corporation.
Being a very outspoken person, I think that it's right and appropriate to air your opinion. As a country song once said: "You've got to stand for something or you'll fall for anything". If you don't say how you feel or what you think how does anyone know what you stand for?
That being said, there's a difference in being hateful, nasty and rude while airing said opinion and being willing to understand that others have feelings and opinions too. There are many things i could really have a cow about and probably will at some point and there will be plenty of people who disagree with me.......i'm a big girl though and i respect others opinions and as long as they do the same for me, there's no issue.
As far as the WWE guy.......sorry but with little exception most wrestling fans, well, the ones that live near me anyway, probably will have a hard time understanding the big words the guy uses on twitter, much less the message.....i don't think his opinion is likely to do much damage to the company unless the media picks up on it as they do so often. THAT could be a huge issue but even then it'll probably only give them even more free publicity. The McMahon family will likely distance themselves and everyone will think they're just swell. Isn't that how it usually goes?
I could add that I am more prone to think poorly of a business that does NOT allow its members to speak freely.
I'm extremely cautious about not sharing my personal beliefs on twitter. Like when the elections were going on I actually avoided twitter as much as possible because so many people were way too vocal (and downright mean) about what they believed to be right. I'm just not sure that when your blog or business is linked to your twitter account that twitter is the best place to be ranting about your personal beliefs. It's best to just stick to general conversations that are unoffensive on twitter in my opinion.
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