FINAL-- Press Release 1, SMCCV

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Date: January 31, 2011


Social Media Club of Cache Valley (SMCCV)
1504 Lynnwood Ave.
Logan, UT 84341
661-772-7537



Getting Involved with the Social Media Club of Cache Valley
LOGAN,UT—Preston Parker, President of the Social Media Club of Cache Valley, spoke briefly on Tuesday about the newly organized Cache Valley group that came in August 2008. The Social Media Club meets the second Tuesday of every month, and anyone interested is welcome to the meetings. The main goal of the SMCCV is to expand people’s literacy of social media, and learn about the future advancements of it in everyday life.

“Whether promoting a brand for a company or learning how to post on Twitter, social media will always be around us,” Parker said.

The Social Media Club is a global organization that was founded in 2005. Logan’s chapter is one of three in Utah.

For more information on the Social Media Club of Cache Valley, please visit smccv.blogspot.com.



Aubry Richards
aubbylyn@msn.com

DRAFT Press Release 1: Announcement

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Date: January 25, 2011

Social Media Club of Cache Valley (SMCCV)

1504 Lynnwood Ave.

Logan, UT 84341

661-772-7537

Getting Involved with the Social Media Club of Cache Valley

LOGAN,UT—Preston Parker, President of the Social Media Club of Cache Valley, spoke briefly on Tuesday about the newly organized club that came in 2008.  The Social Media Club is a group for anyone interest in the topic that focuses on the importance of social media in every day life.

“Whether promoting a brand for a company or learning how to post on Twitter, social media will always be around us,” Parker said.

Case Study- Carroll vs. United

A YouTube video went viral when a hopeful new country singer, Dave Carroll, sang about how United Airlines broke his guitar.  About a year later with almost ten million views on YouTube, Carroll is now famous while United Airlines has a bad reputation they need to try and turn around.

            Carroll was waiting for his plane to take off for Chicago when he noticed his guitar case was being thrown around by the baggage worker.  Landing in Chicago, he found his guitar was broken.  After he received little help from the United employees, he let the issue rest for about a year before creating his popular song/video, “United Breaks Guitars.”  Carroll became very well-known and United lost a lot of respect from the American people.  Not only did Carroll make one video, he made two others to go along with it.

            You may point the blame at United Airlines, or think Dave Carroll was wrong for what he did.  Either way, public relation professionals needed to be involved to alert the public on the situation, and in United’s case, find the right words to turn their bad reputation slowly into a good one.

            In my opinion, I thought what Carroll did was a creative way to show United that they cannot get away from what happened, and a great way to catch their attention.  I do think that making three videos on the matter was a bit extreme, one definitely sufficed.  Carroll brought to United’s attention some issues they needed to fix and hopefully put into perspective for them the areas that needed the fixing.  Whether Carroll had intentions of this video causing this much uproar or just thought it would be a good song, it undeniably caught the eye of most Americans.

            After the second YouTube video was released, United put out a decent statement about their thoughts on the situation.  I assume that because of this statement, United was not affected as badly as it was with the first video.  They also put out some statistics showing that breaking luggage is not something that typically happens at United Airlines.  I think United was right in putting out this statement along with the statistics in order to defend themselves, but action should have been taken long before a video ever came out.

            United’s policy did not allow them to give Carroll a new guitar, but they should have offered their apologies and given him a free flight or some other perk.  They also should have trained their baggage employees a little better and taken action to suspend or terminate the employees who were rough with Carroll’s guitar.

            If I were in the shoes of United’s public relation professional, I would have asked a top official in the company to write an apology letter to Carroll.  I believe that Carroll would not have created such havoc if he had been treated nicely whether he got perks or not.  I would have also made a statement to the public addressing this issue and present ideas for what United wanted to do to prevent something like this from happening again.

            United lost a lot of money with this case and could have stopped it from happening with the correct public relation message and action.

Letter to Cousin

Parker Cousin

512 Paintbrush Lane

Sunnyville, SV 45678

Dear Parker,

Another semester has started here at Utah State University, and I am still continuing my education in Marketing and Public Relations.  Before this semester I just had a vague picture to what it takes to actually be a public relation professional.  There are so many different subjects that one needs to know about in order to be the best in the business, especially when it comes to good writing skills and communication.

Writing is one of the most important skills I will need to know in this public relations profession.  Learning how to communicate through writing is crucial to my success.  I need people to understand exactly what I am trying to get across to them through only my writing.

           

An important part of public relations writing that I am trying to learn is how to create good relationships between an institution or company and the public.  In order to do this I have to know what to communicate and when I need to communicate it.  I will do research on human behavior and know what kinds of people I am dealing with in order to complete my task of creating these relationships. 

It will be a challenge taking on this new adventure, but I am excited for it.  Who knows, maybe one day you will see my work at a top company.  For now, wish me luck!

Hope all is well,

Aubry