April Fool’s Day wasn’t kind to Slideshare, the San Francisco/New Delhi-based site that hosts slideshows of presentations. It’s the equivalent of Youtube, but for PowerPoint presentations instead of videos.

On April 1, Slideshare sent to its users an email saying, “You are a Slideshare rockstar.” It detailed the number of views users had received on their presentations, claiming a number higher that what was really the case (by adding two digits to the actual count). Slideshare then invited users to tweet about this success.

But it wasn’t true. And there was no indication – at all – that it was a joke. The cat came out of the bag on a broad scale when Mashable wrote about the company’s deceptive prank.

I read it and was pissed. I was a victim of the joke and believed that my one and only Slideshare presentation, which was embedded on my LinkedIn profile, had received hundreds of views. I quickly removed my presentation and posted on Twitter my thoughts about Slideshare’s stunt.

Within minutes I was contacted directly by a Slideshare representative, who asked if there was anything that they could do. I responded. We ended up having a number of exchanges by both email and phone (Slideshare’s Daniel Lu called me twice), where I suggested approaches to handle the situation.

While Slideshare did not send a follow-up email apology to those who received the original email, which is what I suggested, the company’s representatives were aggressive in managing fallout. A summary of the situation was posted on the Slideshare blog.

It is, to me, a shining example of taking ownership of a situation unintentionally gone bad.

Here’s why:

The effectiveness of an apology is at least a two-part process. First, grave grievances must be acknowledged by the offenders. Making mistakes comes with the human territory. We are fallible creatures and we will create quandaries and exacerbate conflicts with resounding effects, intentionally and unintentionally. It is one thing to have nagging critics always on our backs; on the other hand, if we do not, or cannot, see where we have done something wrong, more trouble is around the corner.

Second, the apology must be sincere. In this sense, Slideshare went above and beyond the call of duty in dealing with its mistake. The apology, written by CEO Rashmi Sinha, reads beautifully, like a work of prose (at least to us PR geeks). It is detailed, well written and tackles the situation head on. It also points out just how the prank had an impact on its users. (I can imagine legal counsel cringing at the statement.)

One reader comment pointedly says in response: “You’ve put this really nicely and thoughtfully. It’s going to be a harsh critic who’s still unhappy.”

If had an award to give out for this kind of PR situation, Slideshare would win the gold. It is that well done.