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Hi there.
Speaker:It's Sue.
Speaker:And thanks for joining me for tips and talk day.
Speaker:These are bite-sized topics that I pull from community questions and
Speaker:things that I'm observing in the world of handmade small business.
Speaker:If you'd like to submit a topic,
Speaker:DME, over on Instagram at gift biz unwrapped today,
Speaker:we're going to talk about managing through a PR crisis.
Speaker:This is something you can have in your back pocket,
Speaker:so that if you are in a situation where you need
Speaker:it, it's going to be here,
Speaker:ready, and available for you managing through a PR crisis.
Speaker:Something happens,
Speaker:you weren't expecting.
Speaker:And now what,
Speaker:how do you manage through it?
Speaker:Do you even address it at all?
Speaker:These are all the things that we're going to cover.
Speaker:This might apply for you as a maker in a couple
Speaker:of different ways.
Speaker:First off,
Speaker:if you have some type of an ingredient in your product
Speaker:that has started to make people sick or anything,
Speaker:that's in the news,
Speaker:that's associated directly with your product or some element that's included
Speaker:in your product.
Speaker:That could be an issue and a reason why this would
Speaker:become a PR crisis for you.
Speaker:Another thing could be if you've been associated with somebody and
Speaker:their behavior is just not acceptable,
Speaker:this may be something you need to address.
Speaker:Let's talk through.
Speaker:What would you do if this type of situation comes up
Speaker:for you?
Speaker:I have three different things that I want you to think
Speaker:about to gauge what your level of response is going to
Speaker:be. The first thing is what's your level of connection with
Speaker:the situation at hand.
Speaker:It could be very distant in that case.
Speaker:I wouldn't even bring it up.
Speaker:There's no reason that you need to do anything at all.
Speaker:You could have a moderate connection.
Speaker:In other words,
Speaker:some of your customers know that you're linked with this situation
Speaker:or this person,
Speaker:or you could have a high connection,
Speaker:a very obvious direct link with that person or company.
Speaker:So that's the first thing you look at.
Speaker:What is my level of connection with the situation distant,
Speaker:moderate, or high?
Speaker:The second thing that you do is think about your position
Speaker:on the issue.
Speaker:Do you support the position?
Speaker:Do you feel like,
Speaker:yeah, I wasn't really happy about this,
Speaker:so I'm not liking it,
Speaker:but I get that you made a mistake and we'll be
Speaker:okay. Or is the situation such that you feel like you
Speaker:need a major disconnect.
Speaker:You do not want to be attached or you feel like
Speaker:you need to disconnect from the situation or person entirely.
Speaker:So this is the second thing that you want to analyze.
Speaker:What's your position on the issue.
Speaker:And then based on that,
Speaker:then you decide what your actions are going to be.
Speaker:The reason this is important is because want to make sure
Speaker:that any response that you have is in line with the
Speaker:level of intensity or severity of the infraction.
Speaker:If you're not really connected with the person to a high
Speaker:degree and their infraction is minimal,
Speaker:I wouldn't do anything at all.
Speaker:Because if you do something you're actually calling attention to the
Speaker:situation versus you not being connected with it in the first
Speaker:place, in terms of number one into your level of connection
Speaker:and your position on the issue.
Speaker:Sometimes it's best just not to do anything.
Speaker:But if you have a strong connection with this person saying
Speaker:nothing could suggest that you're condoning the behavior.
Speaker:You want to be careful with that as well.
Speaker:So you've got to think of while he's doing nothing,
Speaker:sending the wrong signal to my customers.
Speaker:Once you've judged this.
Speaker:And you've decided if you first off need to do anything
Speaker:about it.
Speaker:And if you do,
Speaker:to what level here are some different types of actions that
Speaker:you might take first is totally pulling the product either out
Speaker:of your inventory.
Speaker:Certainly if you're a baker and there's an ingredient that has
Speaker:started making people sick comes with some health ramifications,
Speaker:anything like that,
Speaker:that's pretty obvious you're going to stop using that product.
Speaker:And if customers knew that you were using that product,
Speaker:then you probably going to want to make a statement that
Speaker:yes, in the past,
Speaker:we've used that ingredient.
Speaker:Now that we know that it's not healthy and has been
Speaker:pulled out,
Speaker:it has been replaced.
Speaker:If you have something that you've included in a tangible product
Speaker:that maybe is now dangerous,
Speaker:or has a metal that's been found not to be good
Speaker:or something like that,
Speaker:or even a business that represents that product has come under
Speaker:some scrutiny,
Speaker:that's to a level that you don't condone,
Speaker:then you're going to address it.
Speaker:You're going to talk about it with your clients,
Speaker:you're going to address it.
Speaker:And then you're going to say what your action is going
Speaker:to be.
Speaker:And this is the last part is either yes,
Speaker:you're going to address the situation or no,
Speaker:you aren't,
Speaker:but if you are going to address it,
Speaker:here's how I was related with it.
Speaker:Here's how we feel about it.
Speaker:And here's what we're going to do about it.
Speaker:This is how you manage through a PR crisis.
Speaker:I bring this up because this recently came to the forefront
Speaker:with my business.
Speaker:I've had a couple of situations like this,
Speaker:where there have been PR questions,
Speaker:but this particular time it ended up being a little bit
Speaker:more severe because as I ran it through the levels of
Speaker:analysis, I decided that,
Speaker:yeah, this is something that I'm going to need to address.
Speaker:So what happened is I had a guest on one of
Speaker:my podcasts who is intimately involved in the maker world.
Speaker:And I didn't agree with the behavior.
Speaker:It was so off acceptance to me that there wasn't even
Speaker:a question about whether this behavior was appropriate or not,
Speaker:but I needed to sit back and think like,
Speaker:how do I actually handle this to me?
Speaker:It was serious enough that I couldn't just not do anything.
Speaker:I needed to make a statement and I needed to take
Speaker:action. So here I was associated with this particular person,
Speaker:great interview.
Speaker:Honestly, it was so good.
Speaker:I'm sure a lot of you who follow the podcast would
Speaker:have heard it,
Speaker:but I needed to pull it down because even being associated
Speaker:in that way,
Speaker:looked like I was condoning what had become big news.
Speaker:So I ended up pulling the podcast down in its entirety,
Speaker:but I had links everywhere.
Speaker:So if I pulled that podcast link and made that a
Speaker:dead link,
Speaker:that wouldn't be good for SEO.
Speaker:Wouldn't be good if people went searching for it,
Speaker:et cetera.
Speaker:Because, you know,
Speaker:over time you forget where all of your links are to,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:if you're promoting certain products that you make,
Speaker:you don't remember if maybe they're on an Instagram post or
Speaker:in some type of collateral material.
Speaker:So what I did instead is I scripted out a response
Speaker:to the situation,
Speaker:explaining why the episode has been pulled down,
Speaker:not totally bashing anybody,
Speaker:but being very stern on how I feel about a situation
Speaker:and then explaining why it was no longer there.
Speaker:And if you want to hear it's just a two and
Speaker:a half minute response that is in episode number 1 58.
Speaker:And what I did was I left the link there so
Speaker:that I won't have any dead links,
Speaker:but if someone goes back and they're looking for it,
Speaker:they're going to hear my response.
Speaker:Instead of hearing the interview.
Speaker:The other thing is I was an affiliate with this company.
Speaker:And again,
Speaker:I felt like my linkage with that affiliation no longer aligned
Speaker:with my core values.
Speaker:So I pulled the affiliate link down as well.
Speaker:Will I lose money because of that play probably,
Speaker:but it was something that I felt I needed to do.
Speaker:My other suggestion for you,
Speaker:if you're ever met with a PR crisis is to try
Speaker:and take your emotion out of it because you are still
Speaker:representing and are the face and the leader of your brand.
Speaker:And you want to make sure that you're positioning any response
Speaker:that you have in the light of the reputation that you
Speaker:want to see.
Speaker:If I started complaining about that particular person,
Speaker:not addressing it in a professional light,
Speaker:I guess is the best way for me to say that
Speaker:that would come back to me.
Speaker:So the emotions behind it are not what I want to
Speaker:be sharing.
Speaker:Maybe I'll share that privately with people here in the office.
Speaker:If I chat with you,
Speaker:one-on-one, if we're over in my private Facebook group,
Speaker:maybe we would talk about it.
Speaker:You want to make sure that the way you're presenting yourself
Speaker:is in a professional light,
Speaker:the way people would want to see you stay logical.
Speaker:And clearly you can have emotion.
Speaker:If you're disappointed,
Speaker:you can say that if you're totally against a situation,
Speaker:yeah. Say that,
Speaker:but getting into nitty-gritty or dirty talk or bashing people,
Speaker:none of that,
Speaker:the situation with a PR crisis is you want to act
Speaker:quickly. You want to take your actions and response quickly in
Speaker:a logical way.
Speaker:This may not be something you address.
Speaker:Even in this whole year.
Speaker:You may never address it in the whole entire lifetime of
Speaker:your business.
Speaker:But if you do,
Speaker:this is how you work through it on a logical level
Speaker:and take action the way you need to and represent the
Speaker:situation to your audience in the best light that you can
Speaker:so that you remain a leader and someone that people want
Speaker:to follow.
Speaker:Let me summarize once again,
Speaker:the steps that you were take first off the application would
Speaker:be if you have a product or an ingredient that you're
Speaker:using that is meeting with some controversy,
Speaker:the second might be an association you have with a person
Speaker:who heaven forbid has committed a crime or their behavior is
Speaker:less than representative of what you would want associated with your
Speaker:business. Anything that that's negative press that could spin around and
Speaker:point to your business.
Speaker:I consider a PR crisis.
Speaker:That's the definition.
Speaker:Here are the three steps that you would take.
Speaker:The first one is gauge the level of connection that you
Speaker:have with the ingredient or person.
Speaker:Is it distant?
Speaker:Is it moderate or is it high?
Speaker:Secondly, what's your position on the issue?
Speaker:Do you support what they did?
Speaker:Do they get a hand slap?
Speaker:You're not really happy about it,
Speaker:but you're willing to give them a second chance or is
Speaker:it a line in the sand that they have crossed?
Speaker:It is just too much for you.
Speaker:So what is your personal take on the situation from there?
Speaker:You guide what your reaction is going to be,
Speaker:and you want to keep your reaction in line with where
Speaker:you stand on one and two,
Speaker:if you are kind of disconnected or almost totally disconnected from
Speaker:this person,
Speaker:and you would give them a hand slap,
Speaker:maybe you are not going to do anything because you don't
Speaker:need to call to light,
Speaker:to all your customers.
Speaker:The fact that you're associated with something that's negative,
Speaker:if they wouldn't know it in the first place,
Speaker:but if it's high,
Speaker:you're very connected with that person.
Speaker:And you totally don't agree with what's happened.
Speaker:Not doing anything,
Speaker:sends the statement that you accept that behavior and that can
Speaker:affect your business and your sales options that you have of
Speaker:what to do,
Speaker:pulling the products or switching out an ingredient for something different
Speaker:who knows,
Speaker:maybe it'll even be better.
Speaker:And then a verbal statement.
Speaker:You leave emotion out of it.
Speaker:You act logically by going through this,
Speaker:you know what action to take and you can take that
Speaker:action right away and then carry on and move forward with
Speaker:business. That's what I've got for you with handling PR crisises.
Speaker:That's a wrap.
Speaker:I'm a get to the point kind of girl.
Speaker:And this is what you can expect from these quick midweek
Speaker:sessions. Now it's your turn go out and fulfill that dream
Speaker:of yours.
Speaker:Share your handmade products with us.
Speaker:We want them,
