We use Google Apps for our email, meaning we have a business version of the web email system Gmail.
It’s worked fine for three years but this morning is down. Argh! Have we done something wrong?
No. It’s not us, it’s Gmail. And it’s down across the world.
What’s interesting is how we found out. 20 minutes before there was anything in Google News, it was all over the micro blogging service Twitter. At one point 100 people a second were tweeting that their Gmail was down.
You can follow it with a simple Twitter search, or using a clever application like Twitterfall.
An important part of PR is connecting to your audience in the way they want to be communicated with. Right now, Twitter is a hot way of talking to people.
Our friends at Bytestart have a very useful guide to using Twitter in your business.
UPDATE: Our email is back! And apparently, Google’s London PR team couldn’t send out a statement… because their email was down!
