A few weeks ago we watched Kanye West give his personal opinion on the MTV VMA awards regarding Taylor Swift beating out Beyonce for the Best Female Video. We all know that other “famous” individuals put their two cents in regarding Kanye’s behavior but the “regular” individual voted by refusing to buy tickets to Kanye’s upcoming tour. The result of this was the cancellation of the tour. 

In business I was taught that my personal opinion was important but should never impact my career or the clients and vendors that I do business with. And though I value freedom of speech and an individual’s right to voice his or her opinion, it seems that someone should explain to “famous” individuals that there is a time and a place for everything, including their personal opinions. 

I am sure when the next “famous” person opens his/her mouth (and inserts his/her foot), Kanye’s lesson will be forgotten; but hopefully Kanye will think twice before blurting out his personal opinion the next time it flies into his head. 

As my mother always says, “if you don’t have anything nice to say, then don’t say anything at all.”

I realize that my words represent not only myself, but my family and the organization I work for. And I am noticing that with each new wave of social media users, organizations are starting to put policies together to help ensure that its team members abide by certain codes of conduct when using social media. 

The most recent international organization to institute a social media policy for its employees is the National Football League (NFL). Twitter lockdown goes into effect for all NFL players 90 minutes before game time and doesn’t end until all of the post-game media interviews have been conducted. During that time, all players, coaches and team personnel are prohibited from tweeting. 

And the National Basketball Association (NBA) will likely follow suit. 

Many may argue that these policies hinder an individual’s right to freedom of speech. I disagree. I believe the NFL and possibly the NBA are taking steps to help protect their image, to defend their brand and to mentor players about maintaining a team perspective. In all honesty, I believe that this will help keep a team’s “dirty laundry” close to home instead of aired out to the rest of the world. Many professional athletes are trying to jump into the world of social media, but they need to remember that they can have a huge impact on the organizations that they represent. Social media outlets such as Twitter can certainly help to create positive buzz for organizations, but employees need to commit to keep their negative feelings to themselves.