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Hi there.

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It's Sue.

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And thanks for joining me for tips and talk day.

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These are bite-sized topics that I pull from community questions and

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things that I'm observing in the world of handmade small business.

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If you'd like to submit a topic,

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DME, over on Instagram at gift biz unwrapped today,

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we're going to talk about managing through a PR crisis.

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This is something you can have in your back pocket,

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so that if you are in a situation where you need

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it, it's going to be here,

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ready, and available for you managing through a PR crisis.

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Something happens,

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you weren't expecting.

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And now what,

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how do you manage through it?

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Do you even address it at all?

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These are all the things that we're going to cover.

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This might apply for you as a maker in a couple

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of different ways.

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First off,

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if you have some type of an ingredient in your product

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that has started to make people sick or anything,

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that's in the news,

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that's associated directly with your product or some element that's included

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in your product.

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That could be an issue and a reason why this would

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become a PR crisis for you.

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Another thing could be if you've been associated with somebody and

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their behavior is just not acceptable,

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this may be something you need to address.

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Let's talk through.

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What would you do if this type of situation comes up

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for you?

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I have three different things that I want you to think

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about to gauge what your level of response is going to

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be. The first thing is what's your level of connection with

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the situation at hand.

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It could be very distant in that case.

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I wouldn't even bring it up.

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There's no reason that you need to do anything at all.

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You could have a moderate connection.

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In other words,

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some of your customers know that you're linked with this situation

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or this person,

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or you could have a high connection,

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a very obvious direct link with that person or company.

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So that's the first thing you look at.

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What is my level of connection with the situation distant,

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moderate, or high?

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The second thing that you do is think about your position

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on the issue.

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Do you support the position?

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Do you feel like,

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yeah, I wasn't really happy about this,

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so I'm not liking it,

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but I get that you made a mistake and we'll be

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okay. Or is the situation such that you feel like you

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need a major disconnect.

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You do not want to be attached or you feel like

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you need to disconnect from the situation or person entirely.

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So this is the second thing that you want to analyze.

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What's your position on the issue.

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And then based on that,

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then you decide what your actions are going to be.

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The reason this is important is because want to make sure

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that any response that you have is in line with the

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level of intensity or severity of the infraction.

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If you're not really connected with the person to a high

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degree and their infraction is minimal,

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I wouldn't do anything at all.

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Because if you do something you're actually calling attention to the

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situation versus you not being connected with it in the first

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place, in terms of number one into your level of connection

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and your position on the issue.

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Sometimes it's best just not to do anything.

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But if you have a strong connection with this person saying

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nothing could suggest that you're condoning the behavior.

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You want to be careful with that as well.

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So you've got to think of while he's doing nothing,

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sending the wrong signal to my customers.

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Once you've judged this.

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And you've decided if you first off need to do anything

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about it.

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And if you do,

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to what level here are some different types of actions that

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you might take first is totally pulling the product either out

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of your inventory.

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Certainly if you're a baker and there's an ingredient that has

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started making people sick comes with some health ramifications,

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anything like that,

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that's pretty obvious you're going to stop using that product.

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And if customers knew that you were using that product,

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then you probably going to want to make a statement that

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yes, in the past,

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we've used that ingredient.

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Now that we know that it's not healthy and has been

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pulled out,

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it has been replaced.

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If you have something that you've included in a tangible product

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that maybe is now dangerous,

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or has a metal that's been found not to be good

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or something like that,

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or even a business that represents that product has come under

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some scrutiny,

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that's to a level that you don't condone,

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then you're going to address it.

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You're going to talk about it with your clients,

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you're going to address it.

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And then you're going to say what your action is going

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to be.

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And this is the last part is either yes,

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you're going to address the situation or no,

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you aren't,

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but if you are going to address it,

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here's how I was related with it.

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Here's how we feel about it.

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And here's what we're going to do about it.

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This is how you manage through a PR crisis.

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I bring this up because this recently came to the forefront

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with my business.

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I've had a couple of situations like this,

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where there have been PR questions,

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but this particular time it ended up being a little bit

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more severe because as I ran it through the levels of

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analysis, I decided that,

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yeah, this is something that I'm going to need to address.

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So what happened is I had a guest on one of

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my podcasts who is intimately involved in the maker world.

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And I didn't agree with the behavior.

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It was so off acceptance to me that there wasn't even

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a question about whether this behavior was appropriate or not,

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but I needed to sit back and think like,

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how do I actually handle this to me?

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It was serious enough that I couldn't just not do anything.

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I needed to make a statement and I needed to take

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action. So here I was associated with this particular person,

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great interview.

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Honestly, it was so good.

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I'm sure a lot of you who follow the podcast would

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have heard it,

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but I needed to pull it down because even being associated

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in that way,

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looked like I was condoning what had become big news.

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So I ended up pulling the podcast down in its entirety,

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but I had links everywhere.

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So if I pulled that podcast link and made that a

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dead link,

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that wouldn't be good for SEO.

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Wouldn't be good if people went searching for it,

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et cetera.

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Because, you know,

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over time you forget where all of your links are to,

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you know,

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if you're promoting certain products that you make,

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you don't remember if maybe they're on an Instagram post or

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in some type of collateral material.

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So what I did instead is I scripted out a response

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to the situation,

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explaining why the episode has been pulled down,

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not totally bashing anybody,

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but being very stern on how I feel about a situation

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and then explaining why it was no longer there.

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And if you want to hear it's just a two and

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a half minute response that is in episode number 1 58.

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And what I did was I left the link there so

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that I won't have any dead links,

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but if someone goes back and they're looking for it,

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they're going to hear my response.

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Instead of hearing the interview.

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The other thing is I was an affiliate with this company.

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And again,

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I felt like my linkage with that affiliation no longer aligned

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with my core values.

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So I pulled the affiliate link down as well.

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Will I lose money because of that play probably,

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but it was something that I felt I needed to do.

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My other suggestion for you,

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if you're ever met with a PR crisis is to try

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and take your emotion out of it because you are still

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representing and are the face and the leader of your brand.

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And you want to make sure that you're positioning any response

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that you have in the light of the reputation that you

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want to see.

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If I started complaining about that particular person,

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not addressing it in a professional light,

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I guess is the best way for me to say that

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that would come back to me.

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So the emotions behind it are not what I want to

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be sharing.

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Maybe I'll share that privately with people here in the office.

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If I chat with you,

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one-on-one, if we're over in my private Facebook group,

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maybe we would talk about it.

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You want to make sure that the way you're presenting yourself

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is in a professional light,

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the way people would want to see you stay logical.

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And clearly you can have emotion.

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If you're disappointed,

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you can say that if you're totally against a situation,

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yeah. Say that,

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but getting into nitty-gritty or dirty talk or bashing people,

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none of that,

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the situation with a PR crisis is you want to act

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quickly. You want to take your actions and response quickly in

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a logical way.

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This may not be something you address.

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Even in this whole year.

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You may never address it in the whole entire lifetime of

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your business.

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But if you do,

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this is how you work through it on a logical level

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and take action the way you need to and represent the

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situation to your audience in the best light that you can

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so that you remain a leader and someone that people want

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to follow.

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Let me summarize once again,

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the steps that you were take first off the application would

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be if you have a product or an ingredient that you're

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using that is meeting with some controversy,

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the second might be an association you have with a person

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who heaven forbid has committed a crime or their behavior is

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less than representative of what you would want associated with your

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business. Anything that that's negative press that could spin around and

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point to your business.

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I consider a PR crisis.

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That's the definition.

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Here are the three steps that you would take.

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The first one is gauge the level of connection that you

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have with the ingredient or person.

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Is it distant?

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Is it moderate or is it high?

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Secondly, what's your position on the issue?

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Do you support what they did?

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Do they get a hand slap?

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You're not really happy about it,

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but you're willing to give them a second chance or is

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it a line in the sand that they have crossed?

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It is just too much for you.

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So what is your personal take on the situation from there?

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You guide what your reaction is going to be,

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and you want to keep your reaction in line with where

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you stand on one and two,

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if you are kind of disconnected or almost totally disconnected from

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this person,

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and you would give them a hand slap,

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maybe you are not going to do anything because you don't

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need to call to light,

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to all your customers.

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The fact that you're associated with something that's negative,

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if they wouldn't know it in the first place,

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but if it's high,

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you're very connected with that person.

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And you totally don't agree with what's happened.

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Not doing anything,

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sends the statement that you accept that behavior and that can

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affect your business and your sales options that you have of

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what to do,

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pulling the products or switching out an ingredient for something different

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who knows,

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maybe it'll even be better.

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And then a verbal statement.

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You leave emotion out of it.

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You act logically by going through this,

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you know what action to take and you can take that

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action right away and then carry on and move forward with

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business. That's what I've got for you with handling PR crisises.

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That's a wrap.

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I'm a get to the point kind of girl.

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And this is what you can expect from these quick midweek

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sessions. Now it's your turn go out and fulfill that dream

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of yours.

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Share your handmade products with us.

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We want them,

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and they bring us both so much happiness.