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.