Company blogs seem to fall within one of two broad categories.
1. The companies who have an online or tech product as their main focus.
I’m thinking the big, well known companies, like Google, Twitter or Flickr. They tend to be all about what the company is doing with their product(s). There are also some smaller, more local companies with blogs -
- Kogan, a Melbourne-based tech goods company
- Techdirt, a technology and business analysis company
- Digital Pacific, an australian web host
- even the Australian Government has a number of blogs (the Government 2.0 blog is worth a visit).
- here’s a pretty good list of Aussie companies on Twitter
2. Companies that have a web presence because it is required.
These companies tend to be in a completely non-Internet-related area, and do not have much knowledge about maintaining a web presence. A Web Manager or “new media”specific roles are more likely in these companies.
Increasingly, it is being noticed that blogs are not the only method of interacting with customers. More and more, if you want to go where the people are, it is most useful to be active on a number of social platforms. Some businesses taking this path include:
- Bleeding Heart, which runs public benefit projects
- Good Old Games, offering cheap older games for download
- QPAC, Qld Performing Arts Centre
- Translink uses Twitter for broadcast (but replies occasionally)
This path can be more straight-forward and practical when regular large chunks of information are not really applicable.
No matter where a company falls, there are some common pointers for company blogs, in addition to ideas for personal blogs. The most important thing to remember is that on the Internet, nothing is done in a vacuum. If you want to have some influence on customer sentiment, you need to interact and converse.
