Marketing Nirvana

So Google turned all mushy with this “Sweet Lil Apology of Mine” blog post, after Gmail went down for a few hours earlier today. It looks like this was the first time a Gmail downtime impacted so many users. So, it seems worthy of a post that so nails it when it comes to corporate blogging best practices.

While I admire this honest, straight forward post addressed at users’ concerns, let’s see earlier examples of how companies (from start ups to Fortune 500, from product managers to CEOs) have used the corporate blogging pulpit to profoundly apologize.

#5. Amazon – “We’re so good; this is unacceptable” post

Though we’re proud of our operational performance in operating Amazon S3 for almost 2.5 years, we know that any downtime is unacceptable and we won’t be satisfied until performance is statistically indistinguishable from perfect. – Anonymous

#4. Twitter – “We’re having issues. Will keep you posted” post

We’ve created a new blog dedicated to status updates regarding Twitter performance and reliability. If something is going on technically, operationally, or otherwise we will put a link in your Twitter home page to a description on this new blog.

This includes good news, bad news, warnings, and miscellaneous heads-up notices. – Biz Stone, Co-founder

#3. Facebook – “We really messed up. Let’s make this right“ apology

We really messed this one up. When we launched News Feed and Mini-Feed we were trying to provide you with a stream of information about your social world.

Instead, we did a bad job of explaining what the new features were and an even worse job of giving you control of them. I’d like to try to correct those errors now. – Mark Zuckerberg, CEO

#2. Google – “Sorry. It’s fixed. Thank You. Did I say ‘Sorry’?“ apology

Many of you had trouble accessing Gmail for a couple of hours this afternoon, and we’re really sorry. We never take for granted the commitment we’ve made to running an email service that you can count on. We’ve identified the source of this issue and fixed it.

In addition, we’re conducting a full review of what went wrong and moving quickly to update our internal systems and procedures accordingly.

Again, we’re sorry. – Todd Jackson, Product Manager

#1. Apple -”It hurts us that it hurts you” apology

We want to do the right thing for our valued iPhone customers. We apologize for disappointing some of you, and we are doing our best to live up to your high expectations of Apple. – Steve Jobs, CEO

While Google’s recent post just takes my breath away in terms of using exactly the right words in its sincerity, Jobs’ post is so accurate in balancing corporate and customer sentiments as succinctly as possible.

Flawless communications from Apple, as is their wont!

What’s your favorite corporate blog apology? Leave a comment.

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