How do you navigate social business conversations in an environment dominated by major news events? We’ve all been there as business owners — our social channels blowing up with conversations that are overwhelming the focus of our consumer audience. As business owners, we have to walk a difficult middle ground between being sensitive to what is going on in the world and successfully running our businesses. Although no one knows all the answers to this dilemma, Kim and Cara have three suggestions to help you find your way through the distracting environment of social business conversations.

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Welcome to The Business Animal podcast. Saddle up for a

gallop to the top of the animal industry, where you'll learn how

to tame your wild business beast with tips, techniques, and tools

that will take overwhelm to obedience school, and have you

wagging your tail with joy. And now your hosts Kim Beer and Cara

Taylor Swift.

Hey there business animals. It's Kim with

Be More Business

and Cara with Fast Horse photography. Good

morning, Kim. How are you? Good morning,

Cara. We only have really technically 15

minutes left of mourning in this recording session. So we'll be

moving into afternoon. Yeah, you're right. It's lunchtime.

stomach's getting a little hungry too.

Yeah, I just inhaled a bunch of salt and

vinegar almonds this morning. That's pretty much all I've had

to eat. So I'm running on sodium and nuts.

Well, that sounds like a good way to render record

a podcast. Oh, my. You guys are in store for something

interesting. Yeah,

let's do it. So

actually, the topic we have today, I think is

super timely for folks out there. It's when the world

distracts your audience. And as we're recording this, for those

of you who are listening to this somewhere down the line, it is

2022. It is in the middle of the summer. And there is a laundry

list about a mile long of things that have happened in the world,

in the political environments, in activism environments.

There's just a lot of turmoil in the United States in particular

right now. But even across the world, there is a lot of

turmoil. And what we want to talk about today is how do you

show up on social media publicly? How do you show up

with your business as a business owner when the world is

distracting your audience? So right now, conversations, online

conversations at networking events, conversations

everywhere, are being dominated by these major news events. And

as business owners, I think that we stress a lot about how do we

have a conversation about business, because after all,

everything's blowing up with what's going on in the world.

But we're over here trying to run a business. And we also

don't know quite how to join these conversations, or even if

we want to join these conversations in a way that

shows up as healthy for our businesses. And so that's what

we're going to talk about today on the show, because I think

it's important discussion for us to have, regardless of where you

land on any of these world events, is how are we going to

navigate are how do we navigate it when this happens.

And I would just add, you and I have had so

many conversations about this. I mean, we have gone back and

forth, we've debated, you know, on some of the topics on how

businesses should handle this sort of thing. And there's when

it comes down to it, I think what we decided is what we want

to share today is just kind of how we feel about small

businesses, especially in this climate in the world that we're

in today. So I'm excited to talk about it. And I also feel like

anxious about talking about this subject just between you know us

in our you and me and our audience out there. I feel

anxious talking about it too, because you know, like you I've

come from such an old school. I don't want to say old school,

but just from an old school theory of business and where how

businesses should show up in the world and in terms of life

events and world events and social events and everything

that's happening around us. So this has been an interesting

conversation that we've had. And we decided if we're having this

conversation, then definitely animal based business owners out

there are thinking about this too, and struggling with it. So

we're like okay, let's do it. Let's do a show and get it at

least get people talking about it. Yeah, let's

have the discussion. I know what Cara is

trying to say there is my mother ingrained in me from the time I

was a little kid and by the way, I was raised by the greatest

generation not a boomer but uh, I was adopted by my

grandparents. So even though I'm a Gen X, or I was raised by that

previous generation, and their approach to stuff like this was

you do not discuss certain things in public conversations.

And those things include religion, politics, in my world

sports as well because sports can start a big argument, but

people always laugh about that, but it's true. I do know I live

right in a border town between Kansas In Missouri, and let me

tell you, it's a really vehement rivalry between these two states

when it comes to their sports teams. So all of that said, but

religion and politics are two of the things that you should never

have a discussion about in your business. It's not part of your

business. But as Kara pointed out, the times they have

changed. And now there's a certain feeling or draw or

expectation around having those conversations, and I think that

line has gotten blurred a lot. And for small business owners,

it becomes a situation where you need to consider what are you

going to do in these situations? What What can you do? How can

you still be a business person? And how if you want to do join

the conversation, or how do you choose to stay out of the

conversations that are going on. So we have three tips for you

today, and we're gonna, of course, like we always do on the

show, break each each of those three down, the first of our big

three is to keep an eye on current events and run your

social conversations through a tight filter. And this is

especially true if you have them on autopilot. So if you're using

those automated postings, it's important to always check those

against what is current out there. The second of the big

three is to shore up your other marketing channels away from

social media, in particular, so that you're well covered when

things are rocking. Current events are out there rocking the

boat on social media, and everybody is engaged in the

arguments. And I would love to say they are conversations, but

a lot of times they do downgrade into arguments and sometimes

really ugly ones. So if you have your other marketing channels

shored up, it makes it easier. And then the final one of our

big three is to remember, this too shall pass and all of our

worlds run in a circular fashion. So it's going to cycle

through and we will eventually be back to status, whatever the

new status quo happens to be. So let's start with number one in

that tight filter that we need to run our social posts through

in our social conversations. And one thing that I see right off

the bat that happens with this is when you have your social

media sort of pre scheduled and something happens if you are not

on top of the social events that are going on and what those

conversations are, and it never seems to fail, that whatever

posts that you have going out that day may rub up against that

social stance. Have you ever seen that happen? Kara where

where it just feels insensitive or wrong? And you know that the

business owner really didn't mean it that way. But it just

kind of occurred?

Yeah, I mean, with social media, and the fact

that a lot of especially bigger businesses, but smaller

businesses as well spend a lot of time batching and, you know,

getting their posts together for a month, two months, six months

in advance. They're kind of planning these things out. It's

easy to happen. And I agree with you, I don't think it's always

an intentional thing. I think it's that they scheduled

something. But that's a struggle that we have to deal with. Like

we have to be thinking about that all the time, I think and

it's, we have to always be checking and making sure what's

coming out is still relevant to when we first sat down and put

it all together.

Absolutely. And we see this modeled for us in

our world in different ways. I know Hollywood, there's been

times that there have been things like we'll go back a few

decades to 911. I know that there were some movies that they

chose not to release, because they felt that they were too

sensitive for that particular time period. So they just sat on

them and release them later. I think in our social media and in

our marketing, we need to be careful. And we need to run what

we're putting out into the world through the filter of what is a

current world events that are going on. That means that for a

certain extent, as a business owner, you do need to stay in

touch with what's happening out there in the larger world. I

know that's another thing that happens to small business

owners, we tend to be very nose to the grindstone, and a lot of

times we're so dedicated to where we are and what we're

doing. Sometimes we're not even aware of what's going on. So

take a few minutes every so often and check in with world

events and then go compare that against what you've batched or

what you've created and take a look to see if there's something

sensitive in there that maybe you need to redirect the next

consideration here is what happens with your personal

opinion, your personal stance on things and how your business is

going to show up or not show up or remain neutral in that

situation. And I think this is the really interesting and also

the most difficult conversation of all of the things that we're

talking about today. And first of all, I do want to say it is

very possible for you to have both a personal opinion a strong

personal opinion and then also have a neutral business stance

on current topics and political things that are going on, you

know, it's okay if that's where you choose to row your boat is

straight down the neutrality of the river, then I think that you

are just fine. If you don't want to rock the boat or get off on

to a certain topic, I think that's an important thing to

remember that it's completely okay with that. And there are

statistics that do support that social media users do get worn

out over political posts. In other words, at a certain point,

there's a tipping point that no longer does that topic. Whatever

the topic, Dozier happens to be that it doesn't stay relevant

for them, or they're wanting to look for something different.

But there are times that we want to consider or that we feel like

we should be considering entering that conversation. So

you know, I mean, I think that there's a fine line to walk

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It's just a constant struggle, there are so

many things that happened during the year and historically and

that I have an opinion on. If we were in times when we didn't

have social media, and we had to be really thoughtful and

strategic about the content we create for advertising, it's it

would be a totally different story, because you're putting

together like large scale advertising campaigns. Whereas

on a day to day basis, we have at our fingertips an opportunity

to spew into the world, our thoughts and feelings. And it's

very tempting, and I do see businesses go solid in one

direction and solid in another direction. And I know how that

feels the desire to want to do that. It's something I struggle

with on a daily basis, I always come back to the core of my

business and try to bring myself back to the fact that I'm a very

small business and a very small community. And as a business

owner, I have to remember that who my audience is, and also

that my business can be neutral and can serve everyone.

Absolutely. And I think that the decision on

whether to enter into a conversation that might be

viewed as controversial or have two very opinionated sides to it

is how in context is that to your business. So when Kara and

I were kind of prepping for this episode, we were talking about

what you as a consumer use a business's political stance to

either hire or not hire a horse photographer, let's say or a dog

groomer or equine massage therapist or something like

that. And I think the reality and Kara pointed this out very

appropriately is I don't know if you would simile over here who

has a viewpoint and who is going to express that viewpoint in

your friends and social circles that are private, but as a

business, when you start to take a stance on something, is it in

context to your business? And I will tell you a lot of the

things that are going on in the world right now, I have some

deep opinions on personally, but they don't really have a lot of

context to what I do to my day to day.

I mean, I think we have to think about

just down the line, like the messaging and all of that. And I

you know, I was thinking about this. And I when Kim and I were

talking about putting this together and Kim and I thought

to myself, and the idea that you know, in today's time, there's a

lot of pressure on businesses to talk and to speak out. And there

is an upside to both to some extent. So to me, if you and you

can tell I'm struggling with this. But to me if you if you

choose to remain neutral on topics that are important to

you, then you are leaving yourself open to potentially

more business which is what a lot of small business owners

want. There's also a flip side of that, that when you choose to

say nothing when you choose to make no comments when you choose

to do nothing that can sometimes say a lot about your business as

well. And so that's where I think my struggle always comes

in with this topic. So for me when I think about am I going as

my business to weigh in on a topic, I try to filter it or

think about it through a couple of different things. So I so

here are a couple things that I'm going to throw out to hear

what to consider before deciding to speak out about a social

issue as a business owner, the first thing and Kim has

mentioned this a couple of times, is the topic relevant? Is

it in alignment with your mission, your vision and your

values? As a business owner? Can you make a difference by

speaking out? And are you willing to put your money and

time where your mouth is? Because there is some thought

around it's one thing to talk about it. But it's another

thing, though, to actually have your business take action. For

example, has your business already been supporting, you

know, this particular cause? Have you already been I don't

know supporting other businesses that support the cause? Have you

already been reaching out in your community and doing work

behind the scenes donating your time donating your money?

Another thing to think about is your clients, you know, will

your clients agree with your viewpoint? Do you have a plan to

deal with loss of potential clients, if they don't, not only

potential clients, but loss of vendors and partners that you

work with in your community that the loss of that that could

happen? On the flip side, you could totally gain new clients,

you could gain new partners, but there you have to be willing to

balance that. I also think that as business owners, that I and I

see this happening, we should not be intentionally using

social issues that affect people's lives to grow our

business, there is a term that I have recently heard called woke

washing. And it's a term used to define practices and businesses

that provide the appearance of social consciousness without any

substance. And that really hit me because that is it was like,

Thank you, you're giving me a term for something that I have

seen out there. So I think that as business owners, we have to

think and filter and really spend some time thinking about

these things in terms of our businesses, you know, and then

in the big picture, how do you think or feel that speaking out

will impact your business. So as a business owner, it's sad to

say, but we have to come back down to the aspect of working in

the context of our business. And then one last point I want to

make on this because I think about this a lot, especially in

today's you know, social media realm, as small business owners,

there is a difference between how we operate and can function

successfully in this world compared to a larger business.

And we have to take that into consideration as well. Big

companies that serve hundreds of 1000s, or millions of people

have a different sort of leverage and a different sort of

power than a really small business. That is we're

operating in a little tiny town of people. So you know, I think

that all of these things that I've listed, if you can sit down

and weigh them and feel comfortable with each one of

them, then you do it, you do what you need to do.

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I'm gonna give you permission did if you don't

want to get in the conversation, if you look at your business,

and you say yes, taking a stance would align with my vision and

values personally. But as a business, you don't have to make

a public stance, you don't have to change the PRINT FRAME on

your profile picture. You do not have to scream it from the top

of the roof, what your opinion is, you can support the things

that you want to support quietly, without causing a big

scene over it or posting a lot about it. So if you want to

still support those things personally and go over there and

deal with needing to look and listen to those conversations,

but as a business owner, I know if I comment on it personally, I

am going to be commenting on it professionally because I don't

have a lot of separation between me in this business. So I will

let a tie to the face of our business. Yeah, I don't I don't

tend to comment, even though sometimes I would really like to

and even more than commenting. There's other subtle ways that

you show up in that by liking or even by being the person who

follows or reads those. But those out rhythms definitely

work to favor that engagement, what happens to businesses and

advertising and all of those things that we do when the world

is quote unquote, normal, they tend to get silenced by this

bigger conversation that's going on. So as those arguments and

engagement are consuming all of social media, your advertising

your blog posts that you're putting out on social media, the

little posts that you're doing to announce the episodes of your

podcast, and all of those things, they're getting drowned

out in that bigger conversation, because that's what the

algorithm is going to favor and placing in front of you. And

chances are, we all take or a lot of us take that bait. So in

times like this, when the conversation is so overwhelmed

with something that isn't even relevant to our businesses and

our marketing, we need to make sure that we don't have all of

our eggs in the social media basket. And now we're sitting

over here twiddling our thumbs because people aren't seeing or

engaging with the content that we're putting out there. So this

is why it's important to have an email list. This is why it's

important to make sure you're always building your networking

connections. This is why it's important to make sure you have

connections with joint venture partners. So that as more than

one voice as a as a business, you can get heard to a certain

audience, and that you have other ways of reaching your

customers and getting in touch with them during these social

media crises. So you're not left just with an empty bag, and no

one to talk to sitting over here in your neutral zone. So it's

just really important for you to be able to do that.

I would also just add that when there's

things happening in the world, it can be regardless of your

thought process, your stance, your beliefs, it can be

emotionally draining, it can be exhausting. It can be social

media overload, I mean, just overload. And it's, it's

definitely okay to take a break. I know personally, if I don't

feel like it's appropriate to have neutral conversations in a

time when the world just feels weird to me, then a lot of times

I just tend to go silent. And I tend to focus on other things in

my business. So I'll write my blog posts, I'll work on my

newsletter, I'll work on getting other areas of my marketing in

line, because it gives me a way to move my business forward, it

gives me and it lets me take a break from those areas that

aren't healthy for me to be in all the time. So I mean, yeah,

100%, it's okay to take a break when you need to take a break.

Absolutely do realize that if you do slow down

your posting, or if you do take a break and become silent for a

little while, there will be an effect to your post, because

honest to God, there is going to be an effect anyway. Because

everybody else is having the other conversation and nobody's

engaging with what you do anyway. So even regardless of

whether you go silent, or you keep posting there is going to

be an effect to your social media. And you can get that

back. You can you can like you can rebuild that you can you can

re engage and you can pump that algorithm back up again. And

I'll never forget when my friend Marci, for Marci Jo Photography,

I

said to her one day I said, I just haven't

felt like posting anything in the last three days. And she

said to me, I think I've said this before, she said to me,

Cara, she says, no one sitting at home going, Man, I haven't

seen anything from Fast Horse Photography today, they're not

looking for you. They're not sitting around waiting for you.

But when you show up, they'll be there and they'll be ready to

hear what you have to say. So I think about that comment all the

time, and the freedom that it gave me to just step away when I

needed to.

And I love that comment as well. And it's, it's

so important to realize that that is the case and that you're

not messing things up it no one is going to notice and they but

they will notice when you come back and probably the best way

for you to start that engagement again is after the conversation

starts to die down and they do and then everybody gets back

into talking about all the myriad of different things other

than the topic of the day, then, you know, buy a few boosted

posts or run a few ads to kind of get your audience back in

engagement really post high value content so that people can

really engage with it and and just get your numbers back up.

It really is okay, if you just don't want to participate and

you feel like you're you're not gonna get hurt in any way it is

okay to step away and I think that permission is a really

important thing to give. The final piece of this puzzle is to

remember that none of these things are going to remain

permanent conversations. Okay. They may last A really long

time, but eventually it will change. And my mother's favorite

statement when I was in the middle of a crisis, which I do

get myself in crises a lot, and she would always try to get me

to calm down and breathe. And just remember, this too shall

pass. This too shall pass. So world history is fraught with

events and distractions and businesses have always gone on

to survive and to thrive. So the important thing to remember when

it seems like the world is falling apart, is to remember

that you can stay the course navigate your own ship, stay in

your lane, whatever metaphor you want to use for that, and stay

focused on serving your customers and consumers in the

best way that you can and stay intent on seeing in the future,

what is beyond happening right this minute.

Yeah, and, you know, you can support a

cause quietly, because for me, it's like, if it's a big social

issue, and it needs to be corrected, if if history needs

to be corrected, if the course needs to be corrected, then it

doesn't mean that we're sitting around waiting for all the news

to go away so that we can get on with every day, you know,

running of our business, it means that stuff still needs to

happen. And if we can find a way to support those causes, and do

the things that we believe in, we need to do that. However, the

conversations that affect your business and have you you know,

still making your income and putting food on the table and

supporting your horses and all the animals that you work with

that will come back. And that will continue. And we can dive

back into that side of things again, too, because we have to

do that we have to we have to make it through each day every

day. So for me, this has been a tough conversation, Kim, as you

can tell, and I'm sure its audience can tell I go back and

forth constantly on what's the best thing for my business? And

what's the best thing for me? And I know you do too. And I

know gosh, I know so many of our listeners do, too. I've had this

conversation with other business owners and I know other folks

are struggling as well. So gosh, is there anything else you want

to add?

It's filled with hate and vile behavior of

humans, and frankly, not dependent upon my political

stance or my religious stance, I don't want to participate in all

of the hate and the vile behavior. So you know, it's

perfectly okay to have these conversations with another

business owner in a completely neutral term, stay upstate up

front, hey, I really want to talk about this and how it's

affecting my business. And let's Let's make a pinky swear that

we're not going to have a discussion that has anything to

do with our own opinions on this. But how does this climate

that we're living in how does that affect how you show up with

your business? And how can we support each other in knowing

that no matter what road we go down, we've picked the right

road because I really, at the end of the day, at the bottom

line of everything, I think that this comes down to I don't want

to see any business owner lose their hope in their business

over what is going on in the rest of the world right now.

So we see you guys, we're having the

conversation that you guys are having. So we hope you enjoyed

this episode. We hope it at least encourages you to put some

thought into you know what you're putting out into the

world or not putting out into the world. We know you're

already thinking about this. So we hope that we gave you guys

some things to consider and that some of the stuff that we've

included around kind of filtering some of these

conversations that you'll consider and we're thinking

about you guys so if you enjoyed this episode, let us know find

us on social media, The Business Animal and Instagram and

Facebook. You can also find us online at the business

animal.com And if you enjoyed this episode, and you have a

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would love that. So thank you guys so much.

Thanks for listening to this episode of The Business

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to hear from you. Until next time, keep your business well