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Stop saying sorry (especially on Twitter)

Microsoft apparently apologized for a tweet they made about Amy Winehouse. Apparently they tweeted that users should go buy Amy Winehouse's latest album in honor of her memory and they linked to Zune (Microsoft's online music offering I guess - I thought Zune was just an mp3 player, didn't know they still had an online store for buying music associated with it).

They apologized for looking like they were taking commercial advantage of her death - she dies, they tell folks to go buy AW music to make a buck.

While it was probably a dumb tweet, there's no need to apologize for heaven's sake. If people don't want to buy her album, I'm sure they will just ignore the tweet. If they do want to buy the album, they will probably appreciate a link advising them how they can do so.

Not to mention, the biggest complement someone can pay to an artist is buying their art. I'm pretty sure Cobain, Winehouse, Joplin... would all be smiling if (the one good thing) their death resulted in was massive increases in people buying their art.

I'm not saying MSFT was smart in their Tweet, but realistically the issue here is Twitter's 140 characters. I bet you anything the short phrasing they had to use made it seem like they were simply driving people to Zune. With more characters they probably could have articulated more that they were just letting folks know where they could get her music if they so chose to honor her passing that way.

I'm all for apologizing. I think a lot of issues in life can be quickly resolved with a quick "Sorry about that." But man, people are jumping to apologies way to quickly now-a-days, which is then watering down the value of saying sorry.

In this particular case, MSFT should have simply stated (not apologized) "It was not our intent to offend anyone, simply to let our Zune users know where they could attain Amy Winehouse's music if they wanted to honor her memory in that fashion" (although I bet even that is over 140 characters).

And for people using Twitter who attack companies because they don't like a Tweet, grow up. How much can you say in 140 characters? Hardly anything. So you have to cut people/companies a little slack and 'assume' their intentions are good (unless they are using hate speech or something, where it's obvious their intentions are bad). 

Comments

  1. ADMINOctober 27, 2011 at 7:31 PM

    Saying sorry hurts? I came across this video which reminded me of your post. If you're going to ask me though, I think saying sorry means that you're brave enough to admit your mistakes. http://youtu.be/-o-OTQXc5pY

    ReplyDelete
  2. rob mcleanOctober 28, 2011 at 9:21 AM

    Hey Sandy,

    Saying sorry is fine where appropriate. I probably should have used a different headline for this blog entry.

    I just feel that corporations are pulling out the 'sorry' card far too often. Half the time I don't think they actually are sorry, they just say it defuse a situation rather than stand behind their actions.

    I think sorry is appropriate if you bump in to someone, are rude to someone, hurt someone's feelings, etc.

    But saying sorry every time someone doesn't like something devalues the meaning behind the word. For instance, if someone doesn't like the shoes I'm wearing, I'm not going to say 'I'm sorry you don't like them."

    And that's what I see a lot of corporations doing via Twitter. Every time a small minority don't like something, corporations are quick to say 'sorry'.

    If they really meant it that would be fine I guess, but I don't think most of them do. It's just become a convenient way to defuse a situation.

    I'm for apologizing when you've committed a wrong, but not simply to sweep a situation under the rug.

    ReplyDelete

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