'Tiny' Nonprofit Reaches Its Goal After 12 Years

So, remember last week when we talked about focusing about your product, service or cause more than your publicity (or lack thereof)?

Consider the 12-year battle of the nonprofit organization, The Promotheus Radio Project. According to Reuters, this "tiny" organization operated a national campaign to get more noncommercial radio stations approved. On Jan. 4, President Barack Obama signed the Local Community Radio Act into law, which requires the Federal Communications Commission to allow more low power stations to access the FM radio dial.

The law could reportedly result in 2,000 new radio stations, beginning in 2013.

Promotheus is a grassroots organization that operates out of the basement of a west Philadelphia church. Nevertheless, the organization's leaders have been tapped to comment on radio-related issues hundreds of miles away, such as Houston and Florida. Check out their In the News section.

The story is a prime example of how an organization's dedication toward its cause resulted in achieving its goals, attracting media attention. That same dedication established Promotheus leaders as expert sources and activists. It doesn't matter how "tiny" the organization is, focus on the bigger picture -- the cause and how your organization can help.

Looking for media attention for your business? Consider Apple status

I was perusing the news stories and blogs -- I often do, I'm a serial peruser -- and a News Stream post from CNN caught my attention.

It was an article about Apple, the electronics hardware and software giant that seems to stay in the news for one thing or another: co-founder and CEO Steve Jobs' medical situation, new products and the like. It wasn't so much the topic at hand that caught my attention -- after all, it is Apple. But the first few lines of the story are what drew my eye, something I frequently tell clients and potential clients.

"I hear it in the newsroom every time Apple announces a product," Kristie Lu Stout wrote."'Why are we covering this? Aren’t we just giving Apple free advertising? We wouldn’t do this for any other company.'"

And there it is.

As a media consultant for small businesses, I tell the truth: it can be a rather tough sell to convince the media to give you coverage because, well, the media isn't about free publicity. We would rather you just buy an ad.

"The sentiment isn’t wrong," the reporter continued. "We probably wouldn’t give the attention we give Apple to any other company. But Apple isn’t any other company.

"Apple is unique because it’s able to project influence far beyond the marketshare it holds. It’s not just journalists and consumers hanging on to their every word: Apple can shape the direction of the entire technology industry."

But when your company has something so great, in such demand and has inspired such brand loyalty as the likes of Apple, the media is bound to notice, again and again.

So, is media attention for your company impossible? Absolutely not. But do you think Steve Jobs and his ilk wake up in the morning and wonder, "Oh, how are we going to get on the news today?"

Well, the company may pay a PR team to wonder, but the truth is that Apple's core team is focused on the product. The company has carved out such a unique place in the market that if the company didn't make the news, it would make the news that it wasn't in the news.

The moral of the story? It won't happen overnight, or maybe over the next year. But focus on your product, your service, making the experience of your company so unique that publicizing your efforts and products is like doing the public a favor.

Strive for Apple status. The publicity will eventually follow.

Bridgette Outten is a journalist and media consultant with The Write Vision Group, Inc.  Her background is in print journalism and she has written hundreds of articles for newspapers and online publications. At The Write Vision Group, Bridgette consults with nonprofits and small businesses about how they can get media attention for their programs and efforts. Meanwhile, she blogs on all things journalism.

Do You REALLY Get Your News From Twitter?

I love Twitter. I'm on it on my laptop, on my phone and eventually on my Samsung tablet when I get one. It can be entertaining, informative, whatever you want it to be -- depending on who you follow.

But I do cringe when someone says they now get their news from Twitter and hope they don't mean in the literal sense, as in whatever someone posts, they believe it and call it "news."

Don't misunderstand; I do know that some people get their news from Twitter in the sense that they see a link someone tweeted, click on it and lo and behold, it's news from a credible source. Twitter is also great because live accounts of events (Iran election, Kanye West's latest situations and so on) come directly from the tweeting public as they happen.

However, all we have to do is look at the number of celebrities that tweeters kill off daily, the number of rumors that swirl in an instant and the rampant misspellings of things that may be news (but frankly, we're just not sure) to remember that Twitter is full of regular, everyday people. People who don't necessarily have the access or know how to actually report breaking news. It's kind of like getting your research from Wikipedia...wait, you don't do that, do you?

I was on Twitter when Ron Isley (@theRealRonIsley) tweeted about Teena Marie's death. While I acknowledged that he sent out the tweet with one of my own, I immediately became what I described as "a Googling fool" to find some verification. It was amazing the watch the news outlets catch up with Twitter posts, but it was eventually a journalist, Roland Martin (@rolandsmartin) whose retweets confirmed it for the Twitterverse. Twitter seemed to know Michael Jackson died before mainstream outlets but I still waited on a credible verification before I broke out the old CDs and candles; I wondered about the people who simply took others' word for it without any confirmation.

It's those kind of blindly retweeting people who may be to blame for the latest celeb death fiasco -- those posting about the supposed death of Nelson Mandela  when the former South African president is quite alive, although ill.

In my humble opinion, these situations show that many stories are just rumors until they are confirmed, even if a news source (CNN, MSNBC, Fox and the like are all on Twitter) verifies via the microblogging site. If that is the case, you didn't get your news from Twitter -- you got it from journalists who are using Twitter.

So my good tweeters, if you INSIST on getting your news from Twitter, here's a tip: follow a reporter.

Bridgette Outten is a journalist and media consultant with The Write Vision Group, Inc.  Her background is in print journalism and she has written hundreds of articles for newspapers and online publications. At The Write Vision Group, Bridgette advises nonprofits and small businesses on how they can get media attention for their programs and efforts. Meanwhile, she blogs on all things journalism.

We'll Want to Know What Happens to Ted Williams

From a journalist's standpoint, the story of Ted Williams is a dream come true.

Rags to riches. Overnight success. And all of the other choice phrases.

That's the same reason why it appeals to the public. The now-famous homeless man -- the former addict with the golden pipes discovered by a Columbus, Ohio producer -- is virtually everywhere.  Williams and his mother have hit the TV show circuit and the touching reunions.

Even how Williams was filmed by the producer is a story: Doral Chenoweth III is something of an advocate for the homeless, for the downtrodden, for people like Williams. Chenoweth's need to help is what made him stop and film that day, but he held the story for five weeks before he posted his video on Youtube, according to CNN.

But because we are journalists, of course, it didn't take long for us to discover the other side of the story. The Smoking Gun published reports of Williams' long rap sheet. And it wasn't long before it was common knowledge that Williams' allegedly has nine kids.

My prediction is that even with Williams' past run-ins with the law and less-than-stellar background (not so surprising, considering his addictions and his homelessness) he will continue to hold the airwaves captive. People are going to want to know: did he make, did he fail? Did he disappoint his mother again? Did he fall off wagon the again?

And my fellow journalists, as tenacious as we are, will be right there to tell the story.

Bridgette Outten is a journalist and media consultant with The Write Vision Group, Inc.  Her background is in print journalism and she has written hundreds of articles for newspapers and online publications. At The Write Vision Group, Bridgette advises nonprofits and small businesses on how they can get media attention for their programs and efforts. Meanwhile, she blogs on all things journalism.