FINAL Press Release 3: Cause Promotion

September 30, 2009 at 12:53 am (Uncategorized) (, , )

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

Sept. 30, 2009

Cache Valley Area Investors Association (CVAIA)

Preston Parker, President

Cache County Chamber of Commerce

160 N. Main St.

Logan, UT  84321

http://www.cvaia.com

HOW TO MAKE MONEY AND STILL DO WHAT YOU LOVE

Local Association Aims to Help Members become Financially Independent

LOGAN, Utah – Learn to build a strong financial foundation and make yourself happier as a result, with the help of Cache Valley Area Investors Association (CVAIA).

It is no surprise that money and happiness tend to follow each other.  CVAIA was created to help its members enjoy their lives, and one way of achieving this happiness is by becoming financially independent.

“I want people to be happier with their lives,” said Preston Parker, president and founder of CVAIA.  “Doing a career you hate isn’t worth it. Once you’re financially independent, you can do what you love.”

CVAIA teaches members the many benefits of passive income as a way to achieve financial independence.  Parker defines passive income as earnings that require very little effort to maintain and that come from smart investments of an individual’s time, assets and experience.  With every investment there are risks associated; therefore, one of CVAIA’s goals is to help individuals make their investments with as much information as possible.

“Education is the best way to mitigate risk,” Parker said.  “CVAIA is a formal way of educating others about smart financing.”

CVAIA aims to help members build a strong financial foundation that can support them through the steps necessary to reach financial independence.  The association embraces the Law of Attraction, Law of Abundance, and Law of Exchange.  Each of the philosophies help members learn positive ways to engage themselves when seeking investments or working in a business atmosphere.

If you’re looking to join a cause to better your financial situation, come and take a look at CVAIA.  Meetings are held at the Cache County Chamber of Commerce every-other Thursday promptly at 7 p.m. and are free to attend.  In the month of October, CVAIA will be welcoming Shawn Cottle, Mark Lunt, and Justin Hamilton to speak about their financial successes.  For more information about CVAIA, check out their Facebook Fan Page or their website at http://www.cvaia.com.

Cache Valley Area Investors Association (CVAIA) teaches people how to achieve financial independence through passive income.  Members embrace philosophies and ideologies that help them build a strong financial foundation on their way to attaining financial independence.  CVAIA began in August of 2007 and now has members from many geographical locations and from all walks of life.  Members of CVAIA come together with the same belief: that education mitigates the risk of investing.

Media Contact:

Lisa Janssen

lisa.janssen@aggiemail.usu.edu

-END-

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DRAFT Press Release 3: Cause Promotion

September 24, 2009 at 2:44 pm (Uncategorized)

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

Sept. 24, 2009

160 N Main Street

Cache County Chamber of Commerce

Logan, UT  84321

INVESTING CLUB TO ADVISE CITIZENS

Cache Valley Area Investors Association Teaching Logan about Financial Independence

LOGAN, Utah – For citizens seeking help with their money troubles, Cache Valley Area Investors Association (CVAIA) is available and willing to help.

CVAIA has been helping Cache Valley residents for the past two years learn more about loving what they do.  Preston Parker is president of the organization and has been with the group since conception.  He said that people can achieve happiness with their current career by lowering expenses and increasing passive income.

“I want people to be happier with their jobs,” Parker said.  “Doing a career you hate isn’t worth your time.”

Parker defines passive income as income you acquire that doesn’t require any current thought.  This can be achieved through investing your assets, time and experience.  Parker recommends investing in things that can give you passive income.

Meetings are free to attend and seek to educate citizens about the possibilities of increasing their amount of passive income.  Parker believes that education is the primary foundation for anyone looking to start new ventures.

“Education mitigates risk,” Parker said.  “CVAIA is basically a formal way of educating others about financing.”

Meetings are held every other Thursday at 7:00 p.m. at the Cache County Chamber of Commerce and are free to the public.  Guest speakers are brought in to discuss different ways of achieving financial independence.  For more information, check out CVAIA’s Facebook page or the website at http://www.cvaia.com.

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 Wealthey Barber, The Millionaire Next Door, Atlas Shrugged, the Automatic Millionaire, and The Secret.  CVAIA began in August 2007 and now has members from many geographical locations and walks of life.  The members come together with the same belief: that education mitigates the risks of investing.

Media Contact:

Lisa Janssen

lisa.janssen@aggiemail.usu.edu

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FINAL Press Release 2: Image Management

September 23, 2009 at 10:29 pm (Uncategorized)

For Immediate Release

Sept. 22, 2009

James E. Muellenbach III, CEO

Burger Planet

123 Lakerway

Gary, IN  87265

219-555-6789

Burger Planet Defines Quick-Service Health Food with Jayne Petersen

Popular Fitness Instructor Joins the Burger Planet Team

GARY, Ind. – Burger Planet, leader in the Quick-Service Restaurant Industry, and Jayne Petersen are teaming up to help calorie-counting customers get healthy food fast.

It’s no surprise that women are worried about the size of their waistlines and in order to keep up with their customers, Burger Planet has brought on Jayne Petersen to give customers more options when they’re trying manage their calories.  Petersen is credited with the well-televised weight loss success of talk show hostess Opal Whitcomb, and is excited about bringing new choices for Burger Planet’s customers.

“Burger Planet has been a leader in the Quick-Service Restaurant industry in offering healthy menu choices,” Petersen said.  “The company believes in encouraging customers to live healthier, active lifestyles and I have spent my life trying to teach women that lesson.”

Over the past year, Burger Planet has added more options to the menu than just the traditional burgers and fries.  Customers have options like a 150 calorie chicken breast sandwich and a variety of 150 calorie gourmet salads. Those looking to hold off on the Hemisphere French fries can substitute a variety of fresh fruit packages at 150 calories each for no extra cost.  Burger Planet will be keeping everything from its original menu, including the popular Saturn and Venus burgers, and now customer’s can order their favorite items “bun-less”, to curb their carbohydrates.

In addition to helping add new menu options, Petersen will be making appearances with the Burger Planet Mascot, Corny the Clown.  Petersen and Corny will be touring the country and visiting different Burger Planet locations to promote a healthy and active lifestyle.

“Jayne Petersen and Burger Planet share a commitment toward health,” said CEO James E. Muellenback III, who is looking forward to the future business relationship with the fitness instructor.  “For more than seven decades, the company has succeeded because it put customers first. We listen to our customers and our customers desire healthy choices, of which we offer many.”

Founded in 1934, Burger Planet is the leader in the Quick-Service Restaurant Industry.  With over 8,921 franchises, including one in every state and 17 countries worldwide, Burger Planet has served over 52 billion customers.  With its headquarters in Gary, Ind., Burger Planet employs nearly 50,000 people.

Media Contact:

Lisa Janssen

bpPR@burgerplanet.net

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DRAFT Press Release 2: Image Management

September 22, 2009 at 7:24 pm (Uncategorized)

For Immediate Release

Sept. 22, 2009

James E. Muellenbach III, CEO

Burger Planet

123 Lakerway

Gary, IN  87265

219-555-6789

Burger Planet Shaping Up with Jayne Petersen

Popular Fitness Instructor Joins the Burger Planet Team

GARY, Ind. – The Quick-Service Restaurant Burger Planet is launching additional menu options with the help of popular fitness instructor Jayne Petersen.

It’s no surprise that women are worried about the size of their waistlines and in order to keep up with their customers, Burger Planet has brought on Jayne Petersen to give customers more options when they’re trying manage their calories.  Petersen is credited with the well-televised weight loss success of talk show hostess Opal Whitcomb, and is excited about bringing new choices for Burger Planet’s customers.

“Burger Planet has been a leader in the Quick-Service Restaurant industry in offering healthy menu choices,” Petersen said.  “The company believes in encouraging customers to live healthier, active lifestyles and I have spent my life trying to teach women that lesson.”

Over the past year, Burger Planet has added more options to the menu than just the traditional burgers and fries.  Customers have options like a 150 calorie chicken breast sandwich and a variety of 150 calorie gourmet salads, and those looking to hold off on the Hemisphere French fries can substitute a variety of fresh fruit packages at 150 calories each for no extra cost.  Burger Planet will be keeping everything from its original menu, including the popular Saturn and Venus burgers, and now customer’s can order their favorite items “bun-less”, to curb their carbs.

In addition to helping add the new menu options, Petersen will be making appearances with the Burger Planet Mascot, Corny the Clown.  Petersen and Corny will be touring the country and visiting different Burger Planet locations to promote a healthy and active lifestyle.

“Jayne Petersen and Burger Planet share a commitment toward health,” said CEO James E. Muellenback III, who is looking forward to the future business relationship with the fitness instructor.  “For more than seven decades, the company has succeeded because it put customers first. We listen to our customers and our customers desire healthy choices, of which we offer many.”

Founded in 1934, Burger Planet is the leader in the Quick-Service Restaurant Industry.  With over 8,921 franchises, including one in every state and 17 countries worldwide, Burger Planet has served over 52 billion customers.  With its headquarters in Gary, Ind., Burger Planet employs nearly 50,000 people.

Media Contact:

Lisa Janssen

bpPR@burgerplanet.net

-END-

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Press Release 1: Announcement, FINAL DRAFT

September 15, 2009 at 12:03 am (Public Relations) (, , , )

Press Release 1: Announcement

Sept. 14, 2009

Social Media Club of Cache Valley

President Preston Parker

851 N Main St.

Logan, Utah 84321

661-772-7537

TWEETING, NOT JUST FOR BIRDS

The Social Media Club of Cache Valley Looks for new members in Logan

LOGAN, Utah – The Social Media Club of Cache Valley is looking for members interested in learning about social media.  If you’ve ever wanted to learn the ins and outs of blogging or Tweeting, than your chance has arrived.

The Social Media Club of Cache Valley, a chapter of the global Social Media Club, is the first of its kind in the Logan area.  Preston Parker, a public relations professor at Utah State University and an avid social media user, acts as president of the club that was established in July of 2009. Parker said he and several other board members met at a chapter meeting for the Social Media Club of Salt Lake City, when they decided to create a club in Cache Valley.

The Social Media Club of Cache Valley has three goals, to educate citizens about social media, to help these people utilize social media to their advantage, and to create a network of individuals for a support system.

Social media has become an increasingly active realm of the online world.  Users can share their opinions with the world in a blog, reconnect with a long-lost classmate through Facebook, and give instant information updates , called Tweets, via Twitter.  The Social Media Club of Cache Valley plans to hold monthly meetings, where members from a variety of skill levels can learn how to better utilize social media.

“There is no better place to learn about social media than in a Social Media Club,” Parker said.  Anyone can join the Social Media Club of Cache Valley and memberships, as well as the meetings, are free of charge.  Parker said the club is geared to teach what the members want to learn and he encourages citizens who get involved with the club to bring their questions and ideas.

The Social Media Club of Cache Valley is a chapter of the Social Media Club, a global organization.  With a total of 26 members and growing, the Social Media Club of Cache Valley aims to teach locals about the importance of social media in their lives. Meetings are held every second Thursday of each month, promptly at 6:30 p.m..  For more information, check out the Social Media Club of Cache Valley’s Facebook page or their website at http://smccv.net.

Media Contact:

Lisa Janssen

lisa.janssen@aggiemail.usu.edu

-END-

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Press Release 1: Announcement

September 8, 2009 at 2:48 pm (Uncategorized)

Sept. 8, 2009

Social Media Club of Cache Valley

President Preston P. Parker

851 N Main St.

Logan, Utah 84321

661-772-7537

GLOBAL ORGANIZATION ANNOUNCED IN UTAH

Social Media Club of Cache Valley begins Teaching Citizens in Logan

LOGAN, Utah — The ever-growing Social Media Club has started now has a new chapter in Cache Valley to help citizens better utilize and understand social media.

Preston P. Parker, the president of the Social Media Club of Cache Valley, announced the beginning of the area’s latest chapter of the Social Media Club.

The club has three goals, to educate citizens about social media, to help these people utilize social media to their advantage and to create a network of individuals for a support system.  Parker said he and the presidential board met at a meeting for the Social media Club of Salt Lake City when he and six other members decided to create a club in Cache Valley.

Parker said, “There is no better place to learn about social media than in a Social Media Club.”

The Social Media Club of Cache Valley is a chapter of the global Social Media Club.  With a total of 26 members and growing, the Social Media Club of Cache Valley hopes to teach locals about the importance of social media in their lives. Meetings are held every second Thursday of each month promptly at 6:30 p.m.. For more information, check out the Social Media Club of Cache Valley’s Facebook page or their website at http://smccv.net.

Media Contact:

Lisa Janssen lisa.janssen@aggiemail.usu.edu

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2310, United Breaks Guitars

September 1, 2009 at 11:07 pm (Public Relations) (, , , , )

The age of social media and social networking is upon us and the use of it has become an essential key in getting your story heard. It is almost impossible to make it through the day without hearing mention of sites like Twitter, YouTube and Facebook, and not just from teenagers.  Social media has worked its way into households of users both young and old (my grandfather now has a Facebook account) and has become a standard for communicating information, both fact and opinion, immediately.  Not only is this sharing of information fast, it’s free.  In the world of public relations, free is usually a good thing.  Unless of course that free information is slamming your company’s image.

Canadian native David Carroll, a country musician and member of the band Sons of Maxwell, had an unfortunate experience with United Airlines back in 2008. Carroll’s Taylor made guitar was broken by baggage handlers at Chicago’s O’Hare Airport and after multiple phone calls (try a year’s worth of attempts) to reach someone who would compensate him for the damages, Carroll gave United an ultimatum: help me out or else.  Like many other large corporations, the airline didn’t take Carroll’s threat seriously, and from that point forward, the “United Breaks Guitars” trilogy began.

Carroll proceeded to write and produce songs and music videos about his experience with United. The first video entitled, “United Breaks Guitars: 1,” was released on YouTube in July of 2009 and now has over 5 million views.  Carroll has just recently (two weeks ago as of September 1) released the second video in the trilogy, “United Breaks Guitars: 2,” and has amassed over 280,000 views in jut a short amount of time.  According to a number of blogs on the issue, United lost roughly $180 million due to falling stock the three days following the posting of “United Breaks Guitars: 1”, although I didn’t find an official release in my search attempts.

While the public joined voices with Carroll about bad experiences with the airline, it would be expected that United would begin attempts to right this public relations disaster; however, it seems they did the exact opposite. Instead of combating the negative image, United looks to have done absolutely nothing.  I searched United’s website and found the page where news updates and news releases are posted.  There is not one speck of information regarding the debacle with Carroll.

After the amazing success of his first video, Carroll released a video statement about his experience with United. He said that he was no longer seeking compensation, to the tune of $3,500, instead he asked that the airline give that money to a charity of their choice.  According to a Twitter post from United dated July 10, 2009, “Wud like Dave 2 sing a happy tune – as asked we gave 3k to Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz 3 music education 4 kids.”  I thought for sure there would be some sort of “Thank You” from the Thelonious Monk Institute so I investigated their website.  And I again found nothing, much like United’s website.

I only found two places that contained a response from United. The first was the previously mentioned Twitter page where I counted a total of 13 tweets about the situation, all within a few days.  No new tweets have been posted regarding Carroll’s second video.  The second place I found comment from United was on Elliot.org, a blog from Christopher Elliot.  Elliot is a journalist who specializes in pieces regarding travel and it says on his blog page that he is considered a leading expert in travel.  One blog entry is an interview between Elliot and the vice president of United’s customer contact center, Brenda Higgins.  In the interview, Higgins said Carroll’s videos were going to be used for future training sessions in how to handle customer complaints.

Here’s what I think about the whole situation: United could have done a lot more to fix the negative PR, but in the end, they didn’t do much of anything. It’s too bad United didn’t realize the threat in the beginning; it seems the airline underestimated the power of social media and therefore suffered the consequences.  It is increasingly important for companies, even ones that have been around for longer than the internet, to realize that social networking is not just for bored college students anymore, it’s a way to market to your public.

United should have taken action, not necessarily as soon as the threat emerged (honestly, who thought this Canadian guy’s video would actually be this successful), but once it became obvious that there was some image smashing going on. There should be somebody somewhere in United’s fleet of employees, whose job it is to sit and research this kind of thing and see what the world is saying about their company on the internet.  It makes sense to know how the public feels, that way you can better cater to their wants and fix these sorts of situations before they become out of hand.

The only information I could find regarding the donation of money to the Thelonious Institute was from United’s Twitter page. If the airline was hoping to calm the irritation by doing as Carroll asked, they sure didn’t publicize the event very well.  Also, perhaps they should have found a music genre a bit more fitting to the situation, seeing as how Carroll is a country music artist and not a jazz musician.

One of the most important things I learned from a public relations class is to accept a problem and move on to finding a solution, especially when it comes to pleasing the customer. Although most of the time we’d rather point fingers than take responsibility for a situation, solving the problem is the only way to move forward and learn from the experience.  In this case, United sent Carroll on a rollercoaster ride of blame with no individual giving him concrete answers until almost a year after the incident.

In the end, this whole public relations nightmare would have never occurred on such a large scale had it not been for social media and the Internet. Before YouTube, the only way Carroll could have shared his music video would most likely have been through television stations, but that would have cost him a great deal in the end and probably not worth his time or money.  If you search for “United Breaks Guitars” you come up with multiple blog postings, several with the music video attached.  These are people spreading the word about Carroll’s situation, basically free advertising, and this would have been impossible without social media.

So the take away message boys and girls, never underestimate the power of social media, both good and bad. And to all of you disgruntled travelers, remember: the squeaky wheel gets the grease, or at least the wheel becomes ridiculously popular on the Internet.

P.S. If you want the whole story straight from Carroll, check out his website.

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