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Social Media Excellence: Learning from Five Outstanding Corporate Blogs

When it comes to starting up a business blog, most people find themselves overwhelmed from the get-go. There’s much more than posting to account for when strategizing for a striking blog, in fact, the key areas to consider are the theme, topics, audience, design, multimedia and promotion. Plus, if you haven’t already chosen a domain name for your blog, that’s a primary feature you’ll want to carefully develop to represent your brand most effectively.

Today, Mashabale.com published an article to showcase 15 fabulous business blogs; each represents a separate, valuable component of orchestrating a successful corporate blog to captivate the inquisitive nature of web surfers worldwide.

To keep things simple, however, we’ve selected the five most prominent must-haves for any business blog. This should to get you started sans the headache and hassle of sorting through an overwhelming to-do list. 

1. Squarespace: Choose a Suitable Blog Design

Business blogs often lack originality thanks to a corporate misconception that they need to be branded with overpowering images and text or visually underdeveloped and boring.

To rectify this fictional blunder, freelance web and graphic designer Grace Smith, who is also a contributing writer to Mashabale.com, dubbed Squarespace “one of the best designed corporate blogs around.” She continued to describe her admiration for this web publishing platform by saying:

“Squarespace is a fine example of a creative, yet brand-aware corporate blog design. The subtle details of the ruler marks and slight transparency are small but beautiful details. It perfectly sits within the Squarespace brand, with attention to great typography and a simple yet engaging layout. The blog is beautiful, uncomplicated, subtle and successfully engages the reader with a strong company voice.”

2. 37signals Product Blog: Showcase Your Products and Services

For business owners who prefer the simplistic nature of a traditional corporate blog, but recognize the need for a modern, interactive platform, 37signals Product Blog has found a way to combine the best of both worlds – they have two blogs.

The first blog, Signal vs. Noise, encompasses design, the web, experience, culture and more into its promotion while the second blog, The Product Blog, has a strict focus on the products.

3. Zillow: Provide Valuable Insights on Your Area of Expertise

When developing an online presence it’s crucial to think about your audience. Think of their needs and then generate the type of content they would consider valuable.

Zillow is a complementary real estate valuation website that hosts a blog featuring details on real estate, mortgages and celebrity real estate. By using their key strength in every post, they establish quality content that serves as resources for the blog’s targeted market.

For example, Mashable.com reports that “they (Zillow) recently posted on top-tweeting real estate pros, questions to ask mortgage lenders, and Sharon and Ozzy Osbourne’s oceanfront Malibu home rumored to be up for rent for $40,000 per month. They cover the difficult real estate and mortgage questions, but also keep it light with interesting stories about the high-end real estate market.”

4. PlatStation.Blog: Gather Ideas from Your Fans

Looking specifically at the PlayStation.Blog Share – a key section of their blog page – this component of their business blog allows users to submit and vote on ideas for the improvement of PlayStation’s products.

The most popular idea submitted “proposes the ability to talk to friends via the PS3 Bluetooth Headset even if they are playing other games; the idea has received over 25,000 votes,” reported Mashable.com.

5. GM FastLane Blog: Keep a Focus

Don’t cloud your blog with irrelevant information. It’s important to keep a focus on what you’re selling when it comes to blogging, otherwise, you run the risk of confusing, and ultimately depleting, your audience.

GM’s FastLane Blog is a superb example of a blog with a niche focus. Most importantly, it manages to provide “valuable content in a genuine way” while staying true to the array of products and services they offer.
 

Click here to view the complete list of all 15 corporate blogs selected by Mashabale.com.