12 Most Successful Corporate Blogs

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This post will complete my 12 Most series on Corporate Blogging by showcasing blogs that have utilized some or all of the strategies I’ve outlined in the 12 Most Successful Tactics for Launching a Corporate Blog and the 12 Most Effective Strategies for Corporate Blog Curation.

Aside from the criteria outlined in the 2 posts referenced above, these were chosen because they also represent a cross sampling of industries. This was done to illustrate the point that it doesn’t matter if you’re a B2B or B2C business, what industry you’re in or if you’re posting original or curated content — every business can utilize a blog to augment its brand, connect its staff with their audience and demonstrate personality, point of view and subject matter expertise… all leading directly to bottom-line impact.

1. IBM

IBM encourages IBMers to blog their own thoughts and ideas, which don’t necessarily represent the company’s positions, strategies or views. IBM understands the branding power of free-flowing idea-sharing over staged, formulated posts. Legal team be damned.

2. Garmin

Along with news, events & product information, Garmin provides “behind-the-scenes” info directly from their employees and showcases customer’s unique uses of their product.

3. Cisco

This is an excellent example of a blog that has evolved into a community-hub; great use of multi-media, commenting, rating and multi-option RSS subscriptions.

4. Southwest Airlines

A dedicated team of eclectic bloggers extend the company’s brand through fun and irreverent posts. The blog seems to be more about their people than their company. Oh yeah, a business IS made up of a bunch of people. Who’d have thunk?

5. Starbucks

More of an open brainstorming platform than a coffee blog, this is the epitome of crowdsourcing and “social enterprise” at work.

6. Whole Foods Market

This is an excellent example of a blog that is focused on customer education vs. product sales pitches. A blog that’s really a community… no arguing with their success.

7. Caterpillar

Fantastic B2B corporate blog that proves anyone can blog and that everyone reads them — regardless of the color of their collar. Excellent use of categorization and focus on problem-solving vs. marketing speak.

8. Fiskars

When your customers love your product as much – or more – than you do, why not simply hand over the blog’s reins to them? Can you say “brand ambassador”?

9. Marriott

This blog proves that the C-Suite should and must be blogging. Authored by the President himself, it’s become the go-to “voice of the business” for customers, media and staff. Best of all, they’ve measured direct sales increases from engagement on the blog.

10. Adobe

Why create a dry FAQ web page when you can create a blog that puts customers in direct contact with employees through 411 blogs? At last count, there are 26,142 blog posts that have generated 95,377 comments. Get it?

11. Wegman’s

This is a great example of a blog mimicking the real-life, in-store experience through imagery, content and themes. Content focuses on improving the customer’s lifestyle rather than selling products. Further, I’d swear that there are real-time conversations going on between the bloggers and their customers.

12. General Electric

This blog demonstrates a phenomenal use of multi-media content to create an emotional connection with the brand. It’s also uses story-telling to entertain the reader as it increases the awareness of the company’s full range of products.

So there you have it, my list of 12 Most Successful Corporate Blogs. I encourage all businesses to peruse them. You’ll find inspiration for building and managing your own corporate blog. Which have I missed? Share your nominations for best corporate blogs below.

Featured image courtesy of Adobe.com.

Sam Fiorella

http://www.senseiwisdom.com/

Sam Fiorella is a globetrotting interactive marketing strategist who has earned his stripes over the past 20 years in senior management roles with corporate sales &marketing teams as well as consulting for more than 30 marketing agencies. Sam’s experience with over 1600 Interactive projects during the past 15 years spans the government, finance & insurance, manufacturing, national retail and travel/tourism sectors. Currently, Sam is the Chief Strategy Sensei at Sensei Marketing, where he is charged with strategic campaign guidance and marketing technology development that power the Sensei Customer Lifecycle Methodology. Sam is a respected blogger and popular keynote speaker on marketing, branding and social media communications having presented at more than 200 conferences in the past 2 years. Follow Sam on Twitter or Connect with him on LinkedIn.