We all know how to do that, just have people talk about it. Now that is much easier said than done. We tried pushing our companies viraly through Facebook, and Refer a Friend campaigns and so on. Some of us even sent Mike Arrington at TechCrunch mails so that he can talk about us.
Have you considered making due with fewer people using your company initially - start with a small core base - and in them doing so you will gain a larger user base without viral campaigns or Facebook? How about plugging your feedback system into GetSatisfaction.com or systems a like. I find so many new companies from just going onto GetSatisfaction.com to post about a companies service I use. In doing it this way you will be able to grow inline with your customer needs far better than trying to gain a huge customer base off the bat.
What I am getting at is that if your customers, those who love and hate your company, talk about your company in the right places you will be allowing your company to grow organically, which I think is more sustainable. It might take longer for you to gain that 1m customer base but the truth is you will have customers genuinely interested in your business and possibly they will be paying customers.
So to get to my point I think that for you to get your company known you should align yourself with companies that allow your customers to interact with you in a public arena with alot of spectators. Whether the interaction is positive or negative you can control it by how you respond and thus gain new customers. Good or bad exposure is still good. The conversion of someone doesn’t happen when you have good or bad exposure from a customer, or ex-customer even, it comes from how you handle and respond to it.