Risk #7: Too Much Success, Too Soon
Too much success? Sounds crazy, we know. But not being prepared for an online home run can be a disaster. The Twitter fail whale is an example of what can happen when you experience overnight success. When Twitter crashes and the site goes down, a whimsical image of small birds trying to hold up a whale appears as an error message. The term fail whale has become synonymous with frustrating user experiences—not quite the brand reputation you're after. The fail whale has inspired poetry, T-shirts, tattoos, songs, and even short YouTube films. While Twitter can be forgiven for not anticipating such a massive, immediate uptake, you must do everything you can to avoid your own fail whale.
In the spring of 2008, the ...
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