Business Blog: 10 Examples to Set the Goals of a Master Blogger

Does your business have a blog associated with its website? Company blogs are now standard in every industry, from car manufacturers to cereal brands. However, not all company blogs were created equal. The best business blog examples are managed much more successfully than others.

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Social isn’t a new way of marketing; it’s a new way of doing business.

What are blogs?

Blogs, short for weblogs, are online platforms to create specific types of content. Bloggers share them and interact with others around those content objects, known as blog posts. They have some common features such as comment possibilities and trackbacks. Business blogs should focus on non-promotional and regularly updated posts.

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They typically aim to attract prospective customers and other stakeholders. They provide information to pre-defined target audiences or buyer personas. They also drive conversions, including social conversions. While the content typically is not promotional, blogs serve direct and indirect business goals.

Blogs are essential parts of most social media programs and still often the hubs of content marketing strategies. We see this content marketing view coming back in the approaches of many organizations. This view is the blog as the hub and different other channels and content formats. The real hub of any content marketing strategy is the customer value.

Company blogs have great potential value. They can use these platforms for a range of purposes. These include developing a reputation as an industry thought leader. They also include engaging with customers and building brand loyalty.

One of the most difficult aspects of running a good company blog is generating the right kind of content. Posts need to be consistently interesting and innovative. They need to remain on-brand without resorting to generic sales-speak.

Here are our favorite corporate blogs we highlight to customers for examples of blogging success:

Marriott International

One company which always strikes the right tone is Marriott International. Their blog, ‘Marriott on the Move’, is universally recognized as an excellent example of corporate blogging.

Bill Marriot founded and grew the hotel group into one of the largest in the world, and his blog is one of the best around. He doesn’t always write about the hotel business, which is a good thing. The posts are a mix of his insights on the hotel industry. They also have tips for business success and celebrations of Marriott milestones. He even includes instances of his personal life.

He also uses the blog to share his insights on current affairs. For example, after the 2013’s Boston Marathon bombings, he posted a message of condolence and support.

Whole Foods

Whole Foods is one of our favorite social online sites. It is one of the best brands when it comes to health food in the world. It also has an excellent blog that is well-designed and packed full of interesting content.

Food blogs have always been huge online. This one fits into that space nicely with tips, recipes, and company news.

Virgin Atlantic

The Virgin Group and Richard Branson are marketing experts. Their social media accounts are always full of dynamic and interesting content. Hence it comes as no surprise that their company blogs show the same creative flair. Although all of Virgin’s blogs are excellent, the Virgin Atlantic blog is one of the best.

The Virgin brand as a whole is about the experience. For example, holiday upgrades become ‘Mojo Boosters,’ and Virgin Galactic’s on board safety measures are the company’s ‘North Star.’ The Virgin Atlantic blog follows an awesome brand tone.

Visitors enjoy posts about extreme sports, fine dining, and the airline’s myriad destinations. They do also write about their services and products, but these posts are in the minority.

Ikea Design Blog

The Design Blog team is a group of IKEA co-workers sharing DIY and home decorating tips and ideas. Check out their diversity in blog categories. For example: before and after, behind the scenes, colors, done in a day, sustainability, and organization.

Some cool ideas, yes?

Southwest Airlines

One of the most original airlines in the world has been blogging for a while now. It shares tons of information about itself as well as travel content. You’ll hear about new services it’s offering as well as tips on keeping children happy while flying.

While the company clearly focuses on aviation, Southwest Airlines’ content is more diverse than you would initially assume. Covering any area that is linked to travel, its posts are lighthearted and easy to read.

One diverse example is a two-part series on roller coasters.

How to create a business blog … Zappos

Zappos has built its entire culture around social media and wonderful customer service. And it has some well-written blogs. Its main one is where it shares information about products and services and selects the best from the others. Lots of contributors.

ComScore

ComScore in one company we checkout consistently. It is an online company first and foremost so you would expect it to have a very good online presence. Its blog is so original and features such good content that it always pops up in the mainstream news.

Business blog examples … Dell

Another company we follow closely for its ability to do new things. Its goal is proving that more can be better.

Dell has a vast number of blogs which it links up together in the one landing page to create a comprehensive resource. They deal with enterprise IT, customer tips, consumer service and education. New articles are regularly posted, so you’re always kept up to date with new topics.

Adaptive Path

This San Francisco design company focuses on the technical side of things, covering design and development. It keeps a personal touch and makes sure most of its employees contribute. This means that you will get something different every time with lots of viewpoints.

Here is another good reference:

12 ESSENTIAL SKILLS TO BE A PROFESSIONAL BLOGGER!

Adobe

Like Dell, Adobe makes great use of its employee blogs. They allow them to post tutorials, guides, and other bits and pieces that help enrich the reader experience. Another important part is that they’re not required to reference Adobe products. This means the reader gets more value as a result.

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Takeaways

It starts with researching your target readership thoroughly. Understand who your audience is, and what type of content they’ll enjoy reading. Most importantly, this clues you to which posts they’re likely to share on social media.

If you have expertise, share it. Sharing your insights can drive traffic to your blog, and raise the profile of your brand.

Be authentic. Personality is a vital ingredient for any company. It separates great companies from the rest.

Find the story. Top bloggers find interesting angles, and approach stories in unusual and innovative ways. If your product or service isn’t exciting on its own, find a way of making it dynamic.

Blog about current affairs. Blog readers always appreciate diversity, and topical posts often tend to do well regarding page visits.

Do you have a lesson about making your customer experience better you can share with this community? Have any questions or comments to add in the section below?

So what’s the conclusion? The conclusion is there is no conclusion. There is only the next step. And that next step is completely up to you.

It’s up to you to keep improving your customer attention and focus. Lessons are all around you. In many situations, your competitor may be providing the ideas and or inspiration. But the key is in knowing that it is within you already.

All you get is what you bring to the fight. And that fight gets better every day you learn and apply new lessons.

When things go wrong, what’s most important is your next step.

Need some help in capturing more customers from your marketing strategies? Creative ideas to help the differentiation with potential customers?

Call today for a FREE consultation or a FREE quote. Learn about some options to scope your job.

Call Mike at 607-725-8240.

All you get is what you bring to the fight. And that fight gets better every day you learn and apply new ideas.

When things are not what you want them to be, what’s most important is your next step. Call today.

Test. Learn. Improve. Repeat.

Are you devoting enough energy to improve your marketing, branding, and advertising?

Do you have a lesson about making your marketing strategy better you can share with this community? Have any questions or comments to add in the section below?

Mike Schoultz is the founder of Digital Spark Marketing, a digital marketing and customer service agency. With 40 years of business experience, he blogs on topics that relate to improving the performance of your business. Find them on G+, Twitter, and LinkedIn.

Digital Spark Marketing will stretch your thinking and your ability to adapt to change. We also provide some fun and inspiration along the way. Call us for a free quote today. You will be amazed how reasonable we will be.

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12 Whole Foods Customer Engagement Secrets Using Social Media

Whole Foods customer engagement is the basis for their strategy of growing customer relationships. Check them out to learn from them.

Social engagement is not about farming followers, it’s a way of cultivating relationships. Does your business have a strategy for building customer relationships? Is it based on natural customer engagement?

Check out our thoughts on customer focus.

When choosing to learn from others’ social media strategies, it is always helpful to choose the best of the best.

Whole Foods marketing strategy is one of those. They have been successfully executing their customer engagement using social media for over 7 years. Their strategies have played a significant role in their growth.

Before we continue, let me ask you a question.

What works best for social media design in your business? We would love to hear what it was. Would you do us a favor and post it in the comments section below? It would be greatly appreciated by us and our readers.

The ultimate goal of all the points I list below is this. Eliminate the fluff from your marketing strategy, and focus only on the things that work.

Are you familiar with Whole Foods? It’s a leading natural and organic food store with nearly 300 locations in North America and the United Kingdom. A large enterprise.

Their social media strategy is built around their company website and 6 additional social platforms. These include Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, and their blog. They have recently added Foursquare and Pinterest.

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Yes, Whole Foods has developed an incredible brand presence wherever it has chosen to set up shop. This includes across the country, on the web, and in just about every social media venue on the internet.

These include even internally “owned” properties such as local websites.

Their ability to engage the community and foster customer loyalty is nearly unmatched.

Here are 10 philosophical precepts that drive the company’s customer engagement efforts from their social media platforms:

Customer conversation

Whole Foods social media centers on letting customer engagement and conversation occur as naturally as possible.

They listen, observe, and apply new ideas from what they learn. Can’t beat that, can you?

It’s about building customer relationships, not marketing

Building meaningful relationships is key. Whole Foods’ marketing efforts focus less on traditional marketing. They focus more on giving texture to the brand in the fun, engaging formats.

Social media fits within a larger digital strategy

At Whole Foods, social media is not a separate and distinct entity. Various stores collaborate online and offline to develop and implement plans designed to fully engage the community.

One such effort was a special film series, ‘Do Something Reel Film Festival’.

This extensive 6-month series was a celebration of people who understand that small ideas can create big change.

The festival’s objectives were to connect the brand with food and environmental issues. Their objectives also sought to inspire people to make a difference.

Local social media elements

Whole Foods, while a large, international company, puts the priority on the local component of its strategy.

There is a community manager assigned at every store. His job is to manage their customer engagement through multiple platform accounts. His focus is being where the customers are.

They maintain very loose control from corporate headquarters. They assist and collaborate, but the local stores maintain lots of freedom of initiative.

Local. An important component of their strategy.

Make it clear where to start

Whole Foods believes you need to focus on where customers start. This permits customers to know where to find them on various social media venues.

For each vertical (jobs, deals and so on), Whole Foods launches a separate account. As an example, they use Twitter.com/wholefoodsrecipes to focus on recipes.

This account focuses exclusively on generating ideas for new and different recipes at Whole Foods.

Whole Foods customer engagement … platform integration

All of the efforts are continually focused on improving the relevancy of customer engagement. They are not afraid to experiment to see what works and what doesn’t.

Each social media platform has its primary objectives. Of course, some flexibility and adaptability are maintained.

The strategy sets a goal of linking and loose integration of all the platform efforts.

Look around the corners

Whole Foods may be full of surprises, but the company does not like to be surprised.

They like to look around the corner to attend to all the little details. They address any issues that may arise.

The company looks ahead to see how customers will reach the page, how they will navigate the site, and how a customer’s experience may change.

It also tries to anticipate and plan for incidents in which someone doesn’t like a particular product or project. Customers will occasionally take them to task for it. In other words, the company plans for all scenarios.

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Be authentic

Rule No. 1 in social media is to be genuine and transparent, so this precept is not breaking any new ground.

What is crucial here specifically for Whole Foods is that they remain true to the brand.

They started with their food culture, so each social media team is expected to be centered around food when engaging with social media.

Build coalitions

Internally, collaboration is key to inventing, planning, and executing any projects or campaigns. Every department, including legal, the call center, communications, PR, managers, and executives, must be on board.

The magic of social media is that you can recognize the opportunity quickly. The challenge is in responding just as quickly.

Without a coordinated effort and buy-in, you quickly lose momentum.

Make Twitter a key platform

To see what’s going on in real time, they plug into Twitter. In Twitter, they have found that things tend to go viral fastest.

Real-time monitoring increases your response time to what people are saying about your brand, negative or positive. In addition, it provides early notice of any opportunities that arise, at any given second, any given day.

Their Twitter accounts are used primarily as a customer service tool. Their goal is responding to individual customer questions and requests.

They have several niche twitter accounts for such special topics as wine and cheese, as well as accounts for most of the local stores.

Focus on the four response message strategies

Whenever Whole Foods identifies a problem or opportunity, it responds in one or more of the following four ways:

Amplify: As trends are identified, or something its customers seem to like, Whole Foods amplifies whatever it is. This helps them bring it to the surface and increase visibility and enthusiasm.

Context-ify: By context-ifying their messages, Whole Foods makes sure customers fully understand.

Change: If it’s broke, fix it. Whole Foods likes to actively solicit constructive criticism and ideas to improve its business. They gather suggestions for products, services, and projects. They are not afraid of adaptation or change.

Ignore: You gotta respond? No, sometimes it’s best to ignore. This is especially true when it appears you’re being provoked into a response or fight. It’s easier to ignore things when you can put them into their proper context.

For example, if your primary critics are a Facebook Group with 150 members out of the 400 million-plus Facebook accounts, you have little to worry about.

Take chances, but “be mostly right”

All of Whole Foods social media teams were scrappy, savvy and confident from the very beginning. They succeeded by asking for forgiveness, not permission, and by “being mostly right.”

If you’re transparent and do mostly right, the social media space is very forgiving.

The bottom line

There are many ideas that you can take away from Whole Foods marketing strategy. They are going great guns in trying new things and learning a ton.

Looking to create a smashing brand image?

Do you have a lesson about making your customer focus better you can share with this community? Have any questions or comments to add in the section below?

Need some help in capturing more customers from your social media marketing or advertising? Creative ideas to help the differentiation with your customers?

Call today for a FREE consultation or a FREE quote. Learn about some options to scope your job.

Call Mike at 607-725-8240.