Fastly runs a CDN — a content delivery network that makes delivery of Web pages faster globally. Due to a bug, major Fastly clients including Amazon, Reddit, Spotify, eBay, and Pinterest were unable to serve pages to customers for about an hour Tuesday. Fastly apologized — and its apology is a clinic in how to…
Are you ready to ask for blurbs (endorsement quotes) — for your book? Do it right and you’ll maximize your chances of getting the golden endorsement from your most influential connections. Blow it and they’ll resent you for asking. Here are my best tips for a successful blurb campaign — including a few war stories….
Zoom went down for a lot of users on Monday morning. That was also the first day of school for a lot of public school and college students. The company treated the outage as a matter-of-fact event and communicated clearly and regularly throughout. Was that enough? How Zoom communicated Zoom’s problems first started appearing at…
US Representative Ted Yoho had a heated verbal altercation with Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC) on the steps of the capital. According The Hill, he referred to her as a “fucking bitch.” Later, he apologized on the House floor. It was one of the worst apologies ever. AOC had made some controversial statements about why poor…
Greg Glassman was CEO of Crossfit, a fitness system that is affiliated with many gyms. He shared insane and racially insensitive conspiracy theories on a call with gym owners — and then the company issued a rambling and ineffective statement to justify itself. Glassman’s now out the door. The statement is practically a case study…
Young students, so social,They crave friends like a drug.Not TikTok. Not Insta.They have to chat and hug. Their longing for friendshipOutlasts their parents’ rage.They gather, so close now,Like actors on a stage. Don’t stand so. Don’t stand so.Don’t stand so close to me.Don’t stand so. Don’t stand so.Don’t stand so close to me. The Boomers….
So many people have sued the Boy Scouts of America over childhood sexual abuse that the organization has filed for bankruptcy. The organization made one official statement and one heartfelt statement. While what happened is terrible, their communication about it is intriguing. Let’s start with this. Childhood sexual abuse is horrifying and awful, ruining lives….
When you have a difficult decision to share, it matters a lot how you communicate it. Sonos proved this by annoying its customers with a message about obsolescing products, then turning around and making things better the next day. The original Sonos post was offensive Here’s the hard fact: technology products become obsolete. After a…
Despair, Inc. makes posters and tchotchkes that satirize motivational sayings (you know, like “Tradition: Just Because You’ve Always Done It That Way Doesn’t Mean It’s Not Incredibly Stupid.”). And like any other business, they screw up. Unlike other businesses, their apology is self-deprecating and funny. Here’s the email a friend of mine got from Despair…