A lot of small businesses use business blogs to grow.
For a small business, getting one person to read a blog post and contact about services is a big deal. That can lead to tens of thousands in revenue for the small business or sometimes even more.
But what about bigger brands? Can they benefit from business blogging like small businesses?
The answer might be in the way big brands are using blogging. Here are some of the biggest brands in the world with great business blogs. We look at the type of blogging they’re doing and why they might be blogging.
One thing is obvious – these brands believe in the benefits of blogging, which is ultimately about brand recognition, traffic and sales.
1. Walmart Moms by Walmart
Walmart is the biggest brand in the world by revenue. They’re all over the world and it started with one shop in the southern USA. It would seem like Walmart has enough going for it that they don’t need a blog, but they have a great strategy with the Walmart Moms blog.
Walmart brought these mom bloggers on board to write about different things that impact their target customer; many of whom are moms. Where things get different is that this page on Walmart takes you to the individual blogs that the moms manage and maintain on their own.
That’s a little different, but the idea is to form a community that is involved with Walmart.
And Walmart still had its own content on a ton of pages with one example being the Health and Wellness Center.
Visit: Walmart Moms | @Walmart
2. ExxonMobil’s Perspectives by ExxonMobil
ExxonMobil is a very recognizable brand. Oil and energy companies make up a large portion of the list of biggest brands in the world. ExxonMobil does a lot of things to brand themselves and put their likeness in the good graces of the public.
They also do the same with their blog, which is called ExxonMobil’s Perspectives.
ExxonMobil talks about things mostly related to their brand and their efforts. There are posts on investments in shale. There are posts adding perspective on what’s going on with free trade and how it can benefit economies around the world.
What I like most are the posts that are how-to in nature that discuss common topics like shale and fracking, but provide understanding on these complex issues. It’s something many of us have heard about, but don’t really understand.
Any time a brand can provide that understanding it’s very interesting and useful for consumers.
Visit: ExxonMobil’s Perspectives | @ExxonMobil
3. Samsung Tomorrow by Samsung
Samsung is a huge name in electronics throughout the world. The brand actually has multiple blogs, but we’re going to focus on the Samsung Tomorrow blog and I think it has some interesting lessons for other blogs especially for big brands.
Many of the posts on the Samsung Tomorrow blog are announcements for new products. There are posts that discuss the details about products and how consumers can use those products to do creative things and to make life a little easier.
Looking at some of the popular posts, though, shows that people are interested in stories like the post on the history of Samsung phones. That’s a pretty cool post and it shows that stories can attract readers even for really big brands.
Visit: Samsung Tomorrow | @SamsungTomorrow
4. Volkswagen Stories by Volkswagen
Volkswagen is a huge automaker. They have cars all over the world under multiple brands. What’s pretty cool is their VW Stories blog. It’s a hybrid blog where VW users can share their stories of traveling around the world or the local area in their cherished VW, but there are also stories and posts from official workers at VW.
This is an interesting mix and it really makes sense for big brands. They have so many customers that they can tap into the power of the community to create a large amount of content.
But VW obviously sees the power to adding their own content as well and that’s why they have the experts that also contribute to the blog like this post from the vault.
Visit: Volkswagen Stories | @VW
5. AT&T Consumer Blog by AT&T
AT&T has a few blogs. We’re going to focus on one that appears to be pretty new in the Consumer Blog. Right now there are only a handful of posts. From the early signs it looks like AT&T will use the blog to make announcements, talk about new trends in the mobile industry and probably share a few mobile tips with consumers.
That will likely be a great strategy. With big brands, it’s always good to share the latest company news on a blog. Google does this and always gets big time media attention directed right to their blog and website when they do it.
AT&T can do the same and I’m sure they have other great strategies on tap. I would love to see tips for saving battery life with phones and some suggestions on apps and others things like that.
Visit: AT&T Consumer Blog | @ATT
6. Better Thinking For Better Health by McKesson
McKesson has a really great opportunity with their Better Thinking For Better Health blog. It looks like they put in effort to launch the blog and to get some good content on it, but now it looks like they aren’t keeping up with it.
This is not uncommon in the blogging world. Many give up on the blog before it even has a chance to get going. That gives others a chance to catch up in terms of online mention, engagement and traffic. You see it all the time with smaller, newer businesses that creep up on bigger brands. It can all happen with blogging.
McKesson has a few great posts on this blog. They could write about new research in the health field. They could share tips for consumers and all kinds of things.
We’ll have to see if they decide to ramp up the posts.
Visit: Better Thinking For Better Health | @McKesson
7. HP Blog Hub by HP
HP has all kinds of blogs and they all come together in the HP Blog Hub. This is where you can go to find the collection of all the blog posts that HP puts out. It’s an incredible content strategy.
I kind of like the Innovation blog. There is something about knowing what’s coming in the future and seeing all the really cool things that piques curiosity. I think people like this type of blog and HP obviously knows that they can build interest with this blog.
HP covers all kinds of topics on their blogs. They’re all over the place, but they’re curious and providing perspective on it all. This company has been on the forefront of technology for decades and one of the reasons is that they want to stay involved with what’s new. A blog is a great way to do that.
Visit: HP Blog Hub | @HP
8. United Hub by United Airlines
United it all over blogging. They put up multiple posts each week. They have multiple strategies for posts that work well no matter what type of business you’re in.
First, they’re writing about current events and mentioning other big brands in their posts. One such example is the Oscars. When you align your brand with another recognizable brand you’re doing two things. First, you’re making yourself look even better by association and you’re increasing the size of the blog audience because the other brand might share the post with their community, which will send you traffic.
Second, United has this Ask The Pilot section, which is pretty cool. When you’re flying you don’t always get to talk with the pilot. In fact, it really never happens, but have you ever wanted to ask the pilot a question?
You’re not alone and United gives you the opportunity to do that. It’s a good way to go about the common question form of blogging that works well for any business.
Visit: United Hub | @United
9. Wells Fargo Blog
Here we have one of the biggest and oldest banks in the world with a frequently updated blog.
You might wonder why a big brand like Wells Fargo would even want to blog. You could ask that question about any of these brands. They have many different ways to bring in new interest and business, but they keep turning to blogging more and more. It’s a great way to control your online message and also to build trust with consumers.
I like the Wells Fargo blog for a few reasons. One of those reasons is that they write about recent events in the financial world and they share their insight into how those current events might affect consumers. There’s a post on the construction industry and its outlook. They also talk about the stock market.
And they have other posts with tips for saving and spending. Great stuff from one of the biggest brands in the world.
Visit: Wells Fargo Blog | @Ask_WellsFargo
10. Go Daddy
Our last blog on the list is the Go Daddy blog. They do things a little different. Their blog is housed in the support area of their site and you probably know that Go Daddy has had a reputation for support – good or bad – over the years. I think they’ve actually done a good job with things because they’ve been the biggest name in hosting for a long time and with all those customers there are bound to be requests.
In their blog, Go Daddy releases software updates, but they do more. They share tips on how to get found online. They share security best practices. It’s the kinds of things their customers are interested in seeing and that’s the biggest thing with blogging – write about the things your customers care about and they’ll come to your blog.
Visit: Go Daddy Blog | @GoDaddy
Conclusion
Chances are you recognize some or all of these brands. They are some of the biggest companies in the world and they believe in the benefits of blogging.
Each has a little different strategy for their blog, but there are similarities as well between the different brands. It’s interesting to see how each is using a blog to their advantage.
While there are many things to take away the biggest is that each of these world-renowned brands believes in business blogging.
The question now is – what is your blogging strategy?