Types of Business Blogs

I was looking at something that someone sent me from Paul Gillin’s Social Media Report about different types of blogs. I found it pretty interesting especially some of the examples.

First, he talks about company blogs including the CEO blog and the group blog. They definitely can be interesting, but it really is a question of momentum and interest. I also think blogging has to be from top of mind not from some carefully scripted public relations process. (I.e., there will be times that the blogger gets someone upset and stirs some discussion…which ultimately is a positive)

For example, I was really disappointed to see that Unica was unable to continue their blog. Now, on the other hand, I do think there is a definite role for topical blogs that have numerous participants from several companies. I used to syndicate my old process management blog through one of these sites and found it worked great. (Not to mention that I got 7,000 readers overnight.)

Paul talks about three other types of blogs – Executive Blog; Advice Blog; and Advocacy Blog. Here are a couple of examples that he gives:

• Executive Blogs: PriceWaterhouseCoopers UK, Hewlett-Packard, and Edelman.
• Advice Blogs: Extended Stay Hotels’ Road Warrior Tips, Clutter Control Freak from Stacks and Stacks, and AlliConnect from GSK.
• Advocacy Blogs: McDonald’s Corporate Responsibility Blog, the National Association of Manufacturers’ ShopFloor.org, General Motors, Benetton and Chrysler.

For more on corporate blogs, you can go to his website or BlogWrite.

I have talked about why I blog before, but I often think about it as a modern journal and an alternative to e-mailing people with articles that I read. If it helps business…great. The reality is that I am passionate about what I do and talk about it all the time. I choose the job to emulate my passion. I would think that is the only way a corporate blog will work and be genuine.