Does your business have a blog associated with its website? Business blog examples 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.
Social isn’t a new way of marketing, it’s a new way of doing business.
What are blogs really?
Blogs, short for weblogs, are online platforms to create specific types of content, share them and interact with others around those content objects, known as blog posts. They have a number of common features such as comment possibilities and trackbacks. Business blogs should focus on non-promotional and regularly updated content posts.
They typically aim to attract prospective customers and/or other stakeholders, provide information to pre-defined target audiences or buyer personas, and drive conversions, including social conversions. While the content-type is not directly promotional, business blogs obviously serve direct and indirect business goals.
Blogs are essential parts of most social media programs and still often the hubs of content marketing strategies. In practice, we see this view of content marketing coming back in the approaches of many organizations: the blog as the hub and different other channels and content formats as the spokes. Yet, the real hub of any content marketing strategy is the customer value which generates business value.
Company blogs have great potential value. They can use these platforms for a range of purposes, from developing a reputation as an industry thought leader, to 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, remaining on-brand without resorting to generic sales-speak.
Here are our favorite corporate blogs we highlight to our customers for the best examples of blogging success:
Marriott International
One company that 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 own insights on the hotel industry, tips for business success, celebrations of Marriott milestones, and his personal life.
He also uses the blog to share his insights on current affairs – in the aftermath of 2013’s Boston Marathon bombings, he posted a message of condolence and support to those who had been affected.
Whole Foods
Whole Foods is one of our favorite social online sites. One of the best brands when it comes to healthy foods 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 and this one fits into that space nicely with tips and recipes as well as 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, so 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 – holiday upgrades become ‘Mojo Boosters’, and Virgin Galactic’s on-board safety measures are the company’s ‘North Star’. The Virgin Atlantic blog follows this brand tone – visitors to the site can enjoy posts about extreme sports, fine dining, and the airline’s myriad destinations. They do also write about their own 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 decorating tips and ideas to help you improve your life at home. Check out their diversity in blog categories: 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 and it shares tons of information about itself as well as content that could be useful for any traveler. 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 an area that is linked to travel (like an entire two-part series on roller coasters), its posts are lighthearted and easy to read.
Zappos
Zappos has built its entire culture around social media and wonderful customer service and it has a number of blogs. Its main one is where it shares a bunch of information about products and services and selects the best from the others. Lots of contributors.
ComScore
ComScore is one company we check out 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.
Dell
Another company we follow closely for its ability to do new things. Proving that more can be better; Dell has a vast number of blogs that it links up together in the one landing page to create a comprehensive resource. Dealing with enterprise IT, customer tips, consumer service, and education, new articles are regularly posted so you’re always kept up to date with new subjects.
Adaptive Path
This San Francisco design company focuses on the technical side of things, covering design and development. Keeping a personal touch and making sure most of its employees contribute to the blog means that you will get something different every time with lots of viewpoints.
Adobe
Like Dell, Adobe makes great use of its employee blogs, allowing 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 in their posts meaning that the reader gets more value as a result.
The bottom line
It starts with researching your target readership thoroughly. Understand who your audience is, and what type of content they’ll enjoy reading – and, more importantly, which posts they’re likely to share on social media.
If you have the 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.
Research your target readership thoroughly. Understand who your audience is, and what type of content they’ll enjoy reading – and, more importantly, which posts they’re likely to share on social media.
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.
Engage with your readers. Interacting with your audience is one of the best ways to encourage social media shares – hashtags are one way of doing this, although you could also open a conversation in the comments section under each post.
Blog about current affairs. Diversity is always appreciated by blog readers, and topical posts often tend to do well in terms of 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.
Test. Learn. Improve. Repeat.
Are you devoting enough energy to be creative in your social media strategy?
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.
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