Corporate blogging takes on a slightly different meaning than business blogging or company blogging. When I think of a corporate blog I think about an executive blogging or someone within the company that has insider information that is really interesting and appealing to an audience.
The concept is appealing to people and can raise the profile of the corporation leading to more exposure and sales. It’s how a corporate blog can lead to success.
Only a few corporations are willing to do it at this point, but the number appears to be growing. Some are afraid of opening up to the public in the form of a blog, but those that have seem to appreciate the feedback and other benefits of starting a corporate blog.
Here are a few corporate blogs that seem to have found success in one way or another.
Corporate Blogs Examples
I would imagine these corporate blogs are written by the executives. Some probably receive help, though. After all, these are busy people and while they want to get ideas down on the site they know it’s the best use of their time to send ideas to a writer and have that writer create a useful and interesting blog post for the public.
Oracle Executive Blogs
Oracle is one of the largest corporations in the world. It’s hard to imagine how much information they control and their processes and systems help other corporations operate. It’s amazing.
What else is amazing is the information the company’s executives share on the Oracle Executive Blogs.
Check out the blog of Vice President Judson Althoff. The posts are listed under someone else’s name, but the information is great. You’ll also notice some personality injected into the posts. That’s important.
Share useful information and show your personality. That’s what blog readers expect.
Official Google Blog
The Official Google Blog is really the place where Google makes huge announcements. Google users are almost required to check this blog for updates on the various Google products.
Google has many different blogs for each of its products. Each follows the basic format of this main corporate blog. The idea is to share new information with users. It’s an official source of information straight from the company.
With this type of resource it’s hard to believe that blogs still get a bad reputation for having bad information. Blogs can come straight from the corporation itself.
Rand Fishkin of SEOmoz
Rand is really one of the poster boys for corporate blogging success. His company, SEOmoz, started as a marketing consulting company that his mother started in the ’80s and has now evolved into a large SEO software corporation.
Through the mid-00s the company underwent a change and Rand was at the forefront of the change and part of it included blogging. Rand would share his knowledge about SEO and marketing on the blog and the audience for SEOmoz grew. Trust was built and now SEOs and companies trust SEOmoz and its software with millions of dollars.
Today, Rand still blogs on the SEOmoz company blog. He also posts weekly videos. In addition, he also maintains more of a personal blog where he shares thoughts about being a CEO and running a company. It’s a great resource for anyone.
It’s amazing you can get this kind of information about life for free.
Royal Caribbean
Adam Goldstein is the CEO of Royal Caribbean and he’s a blogger. The most recent post is a Q&A where Adam takes questions from customers and readers and answers them. It’s like a sight into the workings of one of the biggest companies in the world.
The blog is also about sharing the values of the company, which is important. There is no hiding with a corporate blog. You can try to be vanilla, but if you do nobody will pay attention. You have to let your personality come through. For most it happens naturally.
You’ll attract your ideal customer and build an even greatest sense of trust with them.
It all leads to more sales.
Final Thoughts
A corporate blog doesn’t need rules. You can really take any direction you want. The goal for most is to earn more sales and more customers, but there is no specific roadmap for achieving those results.
Each of the corporate blogs analyzed here takes a slightly different approach, but the successful results are the same.
Each of the companies is successful and growing.