Who expresses their thoughts the best?

When it comes to corporate blogging sites, it is easy to tell which companies have effectively utilized blogs in the development of their business. But when less than 1% of blogs on the internet are purely for corporate use, analyzing and drawing out the best personal blogs from the other 99% of online blogs can be a little bit more difficult. (1)

Below is the list of the ten highest rated blogs according to TopBlogArea.com:

1. donpepot
2. De Todo Blog
3. read my mind
4. CuriosoBlog
5. David's Musings
6. NoSeas.com
7. Los Ziegler in Canada
8. Raini the Braini
9. Life, the Universe, and Everything
10. Maybe it's just me...

While this list is not original to my observation, after studying these particular sites, it is clear to see why TopBlogArea.com and other sites and users have rated these sites so high. Each of these blogs sites is unique but there are certain features that put them ahead of others. These features include:

• Unique, and sometimes obscure opinions on popular and random topics. These opinions are humorous and informative posts that present a completely original view on certain themes.
• RSS feeds that allow for readers to get notifications and updates regarding new posts of comments immediately when they are uploaded to the site.
• Media in posts (i.e. pictures, games, videos, etc.) . These "extras" not only add visual appeal to the site, but also credibility and additional information supporting the view of the author.
• Links to other blogs and sites.
• Unique and appealing color scheme and layout.
• An endless variety of topics that are being blogged about. There is no "hallowed ground" in any of these blogs. Where corporate blogs are confined and focused on the company's practices and functions, all of these personal blogs are extremely diverse and cover topics anywhere from politics to teddy bears.

These characteristics are very important in developing an effective personal blog. But just as you might think, the content of your posts is the most important thing in blogging. Thus, according to these sites, the more random, opinionated, and wide-spread your content is, the more interesting, effective, and popular your blog will be.

(1) http://blogsurvey.backbonemedia.com/archives/2006/03/fortune_500_tak_1.html

Ten Corporate Blogs Done Right

First, I will just list the ten corporate blogs that I found to be the most effective, unique, important, and well-managed.

1. Dell

2. Adobe

3. BBC

4. Southwest Airlines

5. Marriott International

6. General Motors

7. Accenture

8. Amazon Web Services

9. 37 Signals

10. Freshbooks

Now there are many things that I think make these companies, in particular, good bloggers. As you can probably guess, each company has their own unique ideas and techniques when it comes to blogging. However, there is a couple commonalities that all of these companies utilize in their corporate blogs. Each of these blogs are used announce corporate news through blogs as opposed to frequent press releases and press conferences. Each of these companies also are very frequent in posting updates on their blogs. For example, Dell will update its blog with new information, announcements, etc. anywhere between 1-3 times per day. (1)

Individually, these companies display some very important and cutting-edge blogging techniques. These techniques include:

• 37Signals and Freshbooks take advantage of blogs to post about ideas as opposed to news or products. They will share insights about business, designs, editorials, and other topics that give readers an idea of how the company goes about business. (2)
• GM and Accenture take the opportunity to not only discuss their news and products, but they devote many blogs posts to discussing issues and offering advice to its readers about general topics such as "Becoming Green." (3)
• Companies like Amazon Web Services use a entirely different voice in their blogs. As opposed to a professional, corporate big-wig posting proper business writings, Amazon's blogs utilize a very "fired-up" and "fan-boy" style of writing to present ideas, product information, and news. (4)
• BBC offers "behind-the-scenes" and "Editor's" blogs where additional information and even evaluation of news coverage can be found. Reserving certain information for blogs and offering intra-business evaluation and opinions stimulates readers with new and unique ideas. (5)
• Adobe chooses to host many employee blogs as opposed to a few large corporate blogs. In these employee blogs, the workers have posted information about products, reviews about Adobe products and competitor's products, and even tutorials describing how to do certain task or effectively use Adobe's products. (6)

Each of these companies takes a different approach to their blogs. But because of the unique and effective presentation techniques, variety of information posted, and the structure and voice of the blogs, these companies are seen as the pioneers of corporate blogs.

(1) http://en.community.dell.com/blogs/direct2dell/

(2) http://www.sitepoint.com/blogs/2008/08/08/15-companies-that-really-get-corporate-blogging/

(3) http://www.accenture.com/Global/Accenture_Blogs/

(4) http://aws.typepad.com/

(5) http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/worldupdate/2009/10/russia_china_future.html

(6) http://blogs.adobe.com/