404 error pages are usually such a missed opportunity for brand building. Gojee.com made me laugh with this image - such a great way to address what is normally a dry and frustrating experience. Honestly made think better of their brand.

Edit: Twitter’s “Fail Whale” also comes to mind of course… most brands have 404s as a full afterthought.   Why… when a simple message here speaks so much about the values of your brand.

A brand is an embodiment of a message… and regardless of that message - and who is defining it - remember that the message is still the important part of the equation. Of course, any message - good, bad, push, or pull - is more or less important given the amplification of the particular message. This is marketing 101. It’s not surprising then, that the online branding game - personal or otherwise - is still very much about volume of content. It’s about blogging quality posts often, about tweeting 25 times a day, about being part of the conversation as it’s happening, being relevant, being recent, being interesting… getting your information, your “message” out there continuously in its various forms. You need to have a firehose… and you need to turn it on.