10 Great Corporate Blogs

by on with 22 Comments

@hugh

Blogging is tricky. It is part information, part personality. Part entertainment, part education. There are so many directions to take a blog, many of which are not that entertaining or informative. One key stumbling block is we all like talking about ourselves, a lot, and as Chris Brogan points out, we might be addicted to giving our own opinions.

What do I like to see in a corporate blog?

  • self deprecation
  • humor
  • photos (please add some life to your posts)
  • video
  • interaction
  • update more often (I assume you guys come to work every day?)
  • talk about me not you (AKA solve my problems)

Who is Doing it Right?

10 Great Corporate Blogs

Zappos – The wild and woolly culture blog at Zappo’s is a great look inside of a fun company.

zappos

Southwest – Very true to the Southwest culture, this blog lives on service, family, and helping Southwest customers.

Southwest

Marriott – No sexy design awards here, but the content is genuine and the community around the blog is strong.

Marriott

GM – Strong in almost every category I can think of. Big splash, big content, rich media.

GM

Quicken Loans – Quicken’s Whats the Diff blog is a nice mix of company culture and a dissection of “exposing the gap between average and excellent”. Stepping back to such a broad view is a unique a engaging strategy.

Quicken

Vans – Heaping spoonfuls of culture here with plenty of video, photos, and stories about the consumers and celebrities that dig their shoes.

Vans

WordPress – Most of the WordPress blog success can be attributed to an understanding of the audience. They know their bloggers, they know what they love, they give it to them.

WordPress

Sharpie – Sharpie truly embraces the creation their product allows. They do a great job of using rich media and telling engaging stories.

Sharpie

Kodak – To be fair, Kodak really does not even have to think about including photos. It is kind of required. But still, A Thousand Words really goes above and beyond to feature real Kodak consumers and fans.

kodak

PlayStation – Feeding the vast, rabid community that is video game enthusiasts is tough. For most, this blog might be a little overwhelming, but for PlayStation addicts, it is heaven.

PlayStation

Update: A couple people have pointed out this list is mostly B2C. Two responses to that, A) I agree and am on the lookout for a B2B list and B) It does not matter. A good blog is a good blog. People are people. The same rules apply. Mostly. [11-28-09]

22 Responses

  1. Jennifer
    |

    I love your list of what you expect from a Corporate blog. So many companies take themselves too seriously, and therefore, make their blog totally uninteresting.

  2. Esteban Contreras
    |

    Great list. I like Zappos, GM, Vans, and Kodak in particular.

  3. Jessica
    |

    I was hoping to see some blogs in the B2B sector but apparently the B2B sector isn’t savvy as those in the B2C marketplace. Great post, short, sweet and to the point.

  4. Michael Barber
    |

    Great list of qualities for corporate blogs.

    Another corporate blog that qualifies is Seagate’s Storage Effect Blog http://storageeffect.media.seagate.com/. It’s mostly written by Pete Steege, Seagate Global Segment Manager. It’s informative and witty with posts like Batman’s storage requirements http://storageeffect.com/2008/07/31/batmans-storage-requirements/ and Size Matters http://storageeffect.media.seagate.com/2009/11/storage-effect/size-matters-in-more-ways-than-you-think/.

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  10. dc2fla
    |

    Jason,
    Thanks for this great suite of 10. The way you captured the highlights of each in a sentence is a highlight of this post for me. Like Jessica, I'd love your take on B2B blogs that work.

  11. jakrose
    |

    Some of my favorites as well Esteban. Thanks. Each of those have nice, unique to their brand, design as well. Which is not top on the list, but important to me with a design background.

  12. jakrose
    |

    I think that is a common mistake. Most blogs suck, let's face it, corporate or otherwise. But just as people tend to write about themselves, companies tend to spin out the same old business speak, product pushing, and boring internal communication. Most companies fail at blogging and many give up. Which is fine, more room for the remarkable ones to shine, but still, wish people would take more chances.

  13. jakrose
    |

    In the grand scheme of things I think blogging is blogging. What works for B2C will work for B2B. But still, it would be fun to look at some B2C examples. I am going to keep a lookout. Please post a comment here if you have some examples that you find.

  14. jakrose
    |

    Thanks for the additions Michael. Going to go check them out now.

  15. jakrose
    |

    Thanks. Will definitely keep an eye out for B2C.

    Debated whether to include the descriptions. Did not want to bias folks, but then I realized, that is kind of what I am suppose to do. =) Kept it short and sweet though. Glad you liked it.

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    Jason: Awesome info. I agree and just blogged about some of this myself. Sorry I missed you in Nashville but hope to meet you IRL soon! All the best and keep up the great work. Amy

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