Draft: Press Release 3: Cause Promotion

For Immediate Release
September 24, 2009

Cache Valley Area Investors Association
Cache Valley Chamber of Commerce
160 N. Main St.
Logan, UT 84321

Recognizing Opportunity: CVAIA
Local Organization Promotes Passive Income, Financial Independence

LOGAN, Utah— The Cache Valley Area Investors Association (CVAIA) works to promote financial independence through utilizing passive income. Local members of the community make up the organization, meeting every other Thursday to discuss subjects such as smart investing and money management. They meet based on the idea that a person should have the job that he loves, and passive income makes this possible.


About CVAIA

Cache Valley Area Investors Association (CVAIA) teaches people how to increase passive income. CVAIA embraces the Law of Attraction, Law of Abundance, and Law of Exchange. They practice the methods found in the ideologies of books including Rich Dad, Poor Dad, The Wealthy Barber, The Millionaire Next Door, Atlas Shrugged, The Automatic Millionaire, and The Secret. CVAIA began in August 2007 and now has many members from many geographical locations, and from all walks of life. The members come together with the same belief: Education mitigates the risks of investing.

Contacts
Lauren Hong
Public Relations Specialist
208-716-0953
lauren.hong@aggiemail.usu.edu

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Final: Press Release 2: Image Management

September 21, 2009
Burger Planet
CEO James E Muellenbach III
3679 Veal Way
Indianapolis, IN 46298
317-248-5359

Burger Planet Goes Lean, Brings Opal Whitcomb's Jayne Petersen to the Table

GARY, IN--Supporting their attitude of balanced, active lifestyles, Burger
Planet has hired Jayne Petersen as the spokesperson for their recently
announced line of healthier choices on the menu.

James Mullenbach, CEO of the company, said that “Jayne Petersen and Burger Planet share a commitment toward health.”

Draft Press Release 2: Image Management

September 21, 2009
Burger Planet
CEO James E Muellenbach III
3679 Veal Way
Indianapolis, IN 46298
317-248-5359

Burger Planet Goes Lean, Brings Opal Whitcomb's Jayne Petersen to the Table

GARY, IN--Supporting their attitude of balanced, active lifestyles, Burger
Planet has hired Jayne Petersen as the spokesperson for their recently
announced line of healthier choices on the menu.

James Mullenbach, CEO of the company, said that “Jayne Petersen and Burger Planet share a commitment toward health.”

Press Release 1: Announcement

For immediate release:
September 8, 2009

Preston Parker, President
Social Media Club of Cache Valley (SMCCV)
851 N. Main St., Logan, UT, 84321
661-772-7537

Social Media Club Opens Chapter in Cache Valley
A global club counts Logan as its own

Logan, Utah—The San Francisco-based Social Media Club has expanded to include Cache Valley in its list of chapters.

Starting with seven on the original board, the Cache Valley chapter has grown to 28 official members, according to who has registered on the smccv.net website. The three original members decided to create a Cache Valley chapter after realizing the drive down to Salt Lake City every month was unnecessary, because they had enough interest in Cache Valley to have their own meetings.

SMCCV has meetings every month, often featuring people with an interest in social media as their speakers. Preston Parker, the President of SMCCV, said that some of the goals of the club are to help people become more informed on social media, what it is, and how to use it, and also to provide a network of like-minded people to collaborate and share ideas on this rapidly-growing subject.

The next meeting of the SMCCV will be held on September 10, 2009, at Club New York (359 N. Main St., Logan, UT) at 6:30 pm. They will be featuring a "mommy-blogger," Loralee Choate, who was recently featured on the homepage of whitehouse.gov. She will be talking about her experiences with blogging, tips on how to make blogs better, and will be available for questions after her presentation.

Anyone that wants to is encouraged to join the SMCCV. It is an excellent resource for both those people that already are experienced in social media, and also for those with no experience, because it provides a resource to learn about it. Membership to the SMCCV is free.

Local businesses are encouraged to attend or sponsor events of the SMCCV. The marketing or advertising from the blog posts, Twitter "tweets," and other social media updates that the members provide is an excellent resource for free publicity.

For more information:
Lauren Hong
Public Relations Director
208-716-0953
lauren.hong@aggiemail.usu.edu

The Social Media Club of Cache Valley, founded in July 2009, is one chapter of a global organization. It is a growing organization, due to the high use of many social media outlets on the web today. All members of Cache Valley with any interest at all in social media are encouraged to attend the meetings, join the club, or contribute in other ways.

United Breaks Guitars

In class on Tuesday, we talked about the Youtube video, “United Breaks Guitars.”Even as my professor was merely giving us background information on the story, I was downloading the video to watch on my laptop. In 2008, Dave Carroll, a Canadian musician, was sitting on a plane at Chicago’s O’Hare when some people started yelling that the baggage men were throwing guitars. Carroll’s $3500 Taylor guitar was severely damaged, and he called on United to fix it. United repeatedly refused to pay the $1200 he asked for in compensation. After a year of being redirected all over the place, Carroll decided to write a song about his story. In just ten days, this video had over 3 million hits, according to a blog post by Visible Measures, an internet video measurement company.

Chris Ayres claims this video cost United $180 million. Whether or not this is true, United did contact Carroll and tell him they would pay for his guitar, but he turned them down. He has now released a second song, and is said to be releasing a third as well.

I think that United’s PR didn’t do a very good job with this situation. This video reached out to a lot of people that could empathize with their frustrations with the company as well, and merely offering to pay for Carroll’s damages is NOT enough to make the millions of people watching the video feel better about the company.

One of the most important things to keep a company in the public's good graces is their customer service. Customer service is that determining factor that tips the scale to a positive impression or a negative impression on the organization when a customer has a problem. From this scenario, unfortunately, we see that United's customer service seems to have much area to improve upon. After reading many of the comments under the original Youtube video, I discovered that many people also were unhappy with the way they were treated when dealing with United. I think that one reason this video was so popular was just because there are a ton of people who have to deal with problems every time they go to the airport, often with no relief, and this video was a tasteful, humorous way for them to feel that their emotions were being told to someone. People could easily relate with the story. I'm sure that is because many had been in a similar situation of being pointed from person to person, redirected from department to department, until they end at a wall of "NO." That is, if they were persistent enough to even find a wall. I'm sure other people liked the clip because it was entertaining! Knowing nothing about the situation, I still laughed at the somewhat melodramatic parts of it--that was half the fun!

I think that this reaction was an awesome way for Dave to get his message across. It was effective. It expressed his side of the story. It was catchy. It spread like wildfire. And most importantly: it got the attention of the people he was trying to reach.

Excellent PR work, Dave Carroll. Maybe United should think about hiring you as their new PR guy.

----------------------

Here are some articles also discussing this story that I found informative!

NBC Chicago

Mashable

Huff Post

Letter to Cousin

Hey, Todd!

You recently just sent me an email asking what exactly a public relations professional does as a career. I know that grandma asks me if I want to change my major at every family reunion, but little does she know how valuable PR people really are. Public relations is all about information transfer, whether that be finding out how people perceive a company, the company sending out new information on its new product, research on a topic relating to both sides, or even event planning! As the BLS' Occupational Handbook states, public relations professionals build and maintain positive relationships with the public. The entry they have listed explains many facets of the work very clearly. You might want to check it out! Here is the link.

Most organizations, whether they be businesses, non-profit organizations, government entities, or other consumer-related entities, have PR professionals working with them, though their titles may differ from industry to industry.

We do a lot of press releases, and often work in busy offices with busy schedules.

If you have any more questions, feel free to give me a call! If your schedule allows time this week, I'd love to sit down to some lunch with you. Let me know.

Thanks,

Lauren