DF1 Comments Crisis Communication 6125. Walter Pierce Week 1

Comment on these two post as if you were me with 100 WORDS and DO NOT COMPARE THE POSTS:
Walter Pierce Week 1
The active shooter incident at Texas A&M this past weekend serves as an example of what I would consider good overall reputation management, albeit after a rough start.

After the shooting at a crowded Halloween party left two people dead and the shooter on the loose, Hunt County Sheriff Meeks demonstrated a good deal of frustration over failure to locate the shooter in the immediate aftermath. He told news reporters that “It appalls me that, as many folks that were there, [they] have not been able to give us a better description of this shooter” (Shammas, 2019). The article goes on to describe how the chaos following the sound of shots, people fleeing in droves, and the fact that people were dressed in costumes made it difficult to identify the shooter. Meeks’ initial comments arguably made the police appear neither in control of the situation or empathetic to the victims and partygoers.

However, after the suspected shooter was found and arrested, Sheriff Meeks very promptly organized an active shooter training session for the public to be held on November 2nd. The purpose of the conference is to educate citizens on warning signs for active shooters and protective actions they can take. This is a very positive step in allowing the public to feel at ease knowing Hunt County PD has made their safety of highest priority.

A situation where public messaging over an active shooter scenario didn’t go very well at all happened in Madison, Alabama last week. Approximately an hour after a man was fatally shot in an area behind a Kroger grocery store, Madison PD released a cell phone alert indicating there was an ongoing active shooter incident in the store and people were to stay away. This obviously caused much commotion and concern for shoppers, who thought a shooter was on the loose inside the store. Madison PD then had to re-release a new cell phone alert half an hour later which simply dropped the term “active”.

A spokesman for Madison PD acknowledged that there were hiccups with using Nixle, the service that produces the alerts, and that dispatchers needed to be better trained on how to craft proper template alerts in the future. In this instance, it appears as though the PD simply should not have communicated the alert in the first place until they were certain what they wanted it to say; if messaged incorrectly alerts like this can lead to a great deal of confusion and possibly endanger people further.

Melanie Lee Week 1
https://www(dot)inc(dot)com/bill-murphy-jr/mcdonalds-just-fired-its-ceo-way-mcdonalds-announced-news-is-fascinating.html
The first crisis I want to discuss is McDonald’s firing its CEO. I found an Inc.com article on what happened and how it was communicated. Former president and CEO, Steve Easterbrook violated company policy by having a consensual relationship with another employee. With bad news, it’s critical for an organizations PR group to have a strategy. The headline of the press release was strategically developed as it was mild and not dramatic. It also proactively included information about why Easterbrook was fired instead of leaving it up to the public’s curiosity. The press release also started with the transition and the announcement of the new CEO, Chris Kempczinski. Right there, McDonalds was able to provide a reader with potentially all the information they want/need. Next, McDonald’s put out a second press release (following the announcement of Easterbrook stepping down). This immediately pushes that announcement down the PR website and potentially in Google searches and Apple News. With a Sunday announcement going into the week, this was also strategic as there is ls limited time for the initial news to be pushed out of the week’s cycle. After reading, McDonalds avoided a potential PR nightmare filled with scandal, but instead quickly strategized a plan as the decision was clearly made quickly and over the weekend.