Any IT staff person knows the strain and stress that occurs whenever an application or server bites the dust, locks up or otherwise goes down. User’s scream! Customers kvetch! And amidst all the rabble rousing, the IT staff has to get their job done and resolve the issue. However, in the world of Web 2.0, some companies have figured out how to market even the most dire of circumstances.
There is the old marketing saying that “any publicity is good publicity” and you can learn a lot about a web based organization by looking at how they handle the lows – the dreaded site down event!
Twitter has brought the “site down” event to a new level. In fact, if they ever give out Academy Awards for handling IT crises, there is no doubt in my mind that Twitter is bringing home the trophy. Twitter created an actual marketing image – now known as the “fail whale” – to promote their site outages. That’s right, I didn’t say “announce their site outages” I said “promote.” The fail what image has become as well known, and perhaps even better known, than the actual Twitter logos!
Certainly the ultimate goal for Twitter is to eliminate these site outages. It’s hard to imagine that the outage events are any fun for the Twitter employees. However, the publicity that Twitter has received from their service level challenges is amazing. It’s often said that reporting the weather is a great job – your wrong more than 50% of the time and they keep paying you! Twitter, has taken this to a new level as a each Twitter outage seems to create new publicity and new Twitter users.
Other sites have used this approach too. Check out LinkedIn. Hey – we’re sorry about this outage but it means more magical features are coming. The site is down and they are still marketing – any wonder why LinkedIn has been such a success?
Compare this to an “old” company like ADP that is moving online – but certainly does not “get online.”
There is the old saying, “when life gives you lemons – make lemonade” and the most successful and innovative Web 2.0 companies are certainly following this adage! Bloglines, building on the decade’s long success of the Maytag repairman, has used this message. Come on – look at that face – can you really be a cranky kvetchy user after seeing that face and that message!
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