Draft Press Release 1: Announcement

Jan. 27, 2010

Contact: Social Media Club of Cache Valley, 661-772-7537, 851 N. Main St., Logan, UT 84321

SOCIAL MEDIA CLUB BECOMES AN ACTIVE PART OF CACHE VALLEY

LOGAN--Preston Parker, associate professor at Utah State University, announces the Social Media Club of Cache Valley.

Parker is the president of the organization and says, “The purpose of the Social Media Club of Cache Valley is to be able to get together and learn the tricks of the trade.”

The Social Media Club of Cache Valley began in Aug. 2009 as a chapter of the national organization.

Contact: Rachelle Champlin, 555-659-3328, rachellechamp.blogspot.com

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Case Study

Dave Carroll, a country music singer, witnessed his $3500 Taylor guitar being thrown around by United Airlines baggage handlers at the Chicago airport. Carroll later discovered that his guitar was “severely damaged.” When Carroll tried to contact United Airlines about his situation, United didn’t deny that it happened, but they would not take the blame for it. Carroll diligently tried to get compensated for his guitar, but in the end, United’s answer was still a firm no.

Almost a year after his guitar was damaged by United, Carroll decided to write a song and make a video to post on YouTube about his experience with United. Carroll has posted three videos about his ongoing battle with United. Carroll’s first video has now been viewed over 7 million times by the public. “United Breaks Guitars” is said to be the cause of millions of dollars lost for United Airlines who eventually compensated Carroll by donating music education to underprivileged children in Carroll’s name.

After watching the YouTube video, “United Breaks Guitars” by Dave Carroll, I can clearly see that Carroll was determined to damage United Airlines reputation and succeeded. Although posting a video about his experience with United was creative and effective, Carroll might have crossed the line and went slightly overboard. I do believe his claims and find his YouTube postings to be clever and witty, but it’s hard to know if Carroll did it mostly for a publicity stunt. If this is the case, he did an excellent job at becoming famous almost overnight. I do have to give him credit for having the guts to stand up to such a large company without knowing what the consequences would be though.

On the other hand, United Airlines clearly did the most wrong in this situation, which ended up costing them money and their reputation. First of all, United obviously demonstrated extremely poor customer service, which was surprising for a large airline, by not taking the blame for Carroll’s damaged guitar. Because of this, United threw out any good reputation they had in their customer service department. Also, witnesses did claim that United baggage handlers were being careless while transporting passenger’s luggage. Hopefully, United has investigated this and made appropriate changes so it won’t happen as often.

From a PR standpoint, United Airlines did a horrible job in fixing a simple problem. They made a customer unhappy, and it caused them to lose their good name. While in a crisis, United cracked under pressure and Dave Carroll came out as the winner. In the end, United did do a good job at sugarcoating their mistake by saying that their company has made changes and money has been donated from them to a charity in Dave Carroll’s name. Overall, it’s amazing how big of an effect one person can have using social media. It’s a little scary if you think about it, but it could also be used for a lot of good.

Letter to Cousin

Dear Cousin,

In your last letter you asked me about what public relations actually entails. As a public relations major, I will do the best I can to explain it to you. First of all, public relations involves the spreading of information about an idea, person, product or business. A public relations professional strives to present their information to the public in a positive light to gain their interest. Information is spread by public relations professionals through means such as press releases, social media, and promotional events.

Public relations is a people oriented field and good communication skills are necessary in becoming a successful PR professional. Although public relations is very similar to marketing, the two differ in many ways. The main difference is that a marketing professional is trying to sell a product while a public relations professional is trying to sell an idea. To sell an idea, a person has to be able to address their points clearly and accurately for a buyer to be interested. As with everything, this takes practice.

Overall, public relations is a very broad field and the career opportunities are endless. Public relations professionals work for small and large companies all across the world, but personally I plan on working as a PR professional solely for small companies to avoid a heavier workload. Truthfully, whether it's a large or small company, there's always work to do for the public relations department.

I hope this letter has been informative enough so you now have a better understanding of the basics of public relations. If not, please let me know.

Sincerely,

Rachelle