Corporate Blogging

Introduction
This blog entry is meant to compare and contrast the features present in three of the top corporate blogs namely Dell, Nokia and Toyota. The intent is to analyze and understand the best blog practices amongst the top corporate. Here is what Matt Brown- Macromedia Community Manager has to say about Macromedia using blogs as quoted in the book “Blogging: Genius Strategies for Instant Web Content” by author Biz Stone.
“…The idea is that we can get information back to the community more rapidly than a lot of other channels. We do a lot of that anyway, but we do that mostly on a 1-1 basis or spread through a lot of other venues. This way we can bring in the important info to one place and get that out to people."

DELL (Direct2DELL Blog)

Dell’s blog starts with a clearly defined goal which is consistent through the blog where the creation, intent, methods, rules commitments to customers, privacy and Dell’s Online Policies are neatly listed out under DELL’s Doctrine (http://direct2dell.com/about.aspx) and the intended audience are its customers. The various blog topics related to the product are listed on the right side from A to Z which is localized according to specific region. These topics contain a lot of information mostly blogged by Dell’s employee regarding product launch, product delays, battery recalls and environmental campaign to name a few and the blog site also supports user subscription to RSS feeds. There are also topics devoted to Consumer, customer experience which allows the customers to comment as well as send suggestions through emails. The average length of the blog entry is anywhere from one liner such as the one in comments to half a page. Dell uses a variety of visual elements such as screenshots, video collections – under the topic VLOGS and multimedia links. Visual elements in terms of color, font and language were lucid and consistent in usage of screen shots, appropriate use of context sensitive hyper links, all blog entries have footer with links to comments and external websites such as Digg.

Nokia (S60 Blogs)

True to its image Nokia blog was flashy with generous use of the Flash multimedia tools, ability to subscribe to RSS feeds based on topic and support through various podcasts. The tone of the blog is very lively and the blogs are aimed at enabling and enriching the Nokia S60 user community. There are several topics related to user experience, and the site allows user comments by way of links, and there is a “subscribe” link for Posts and Comments. RSS feed is encouraged and the easy navigation allows the reader to navigate to the blog entry and place his/her comment. The length of the blog entry ranging from several lines to one or multi paragraphs, to half or one page in length.

TOYOTA (Open Road Blog)

This blog is aimed at Toyota retail vehicle buyers, the blog entries act as a tool to interact with the customers and to aids the company to tout its corporate image and standing in the consumer market. The mission of the blog is clearly stated in the main page under a note of Welcome on the left hand side. Corporate blogs are listed on the left side and blog related groupings are well organized on the right. The content is distributed evenly on both sides with the blog entries forming the main centre point. This blog encourages user comments; this is evident at the footer of each blog entry where there is a link to post the reader’s comments. Additional importance to reader’s comments is given by creating a category for recent posts and recent comments. The page layout of the blog is very stylish with three columns unlike Dell and NOKIA S60. Few of the more popular and recent blogs are posted with their header hyperlinks at the centre on top of the page and the blog entry itself is in the centre column. The length of the blog entry is not more than half a page. The font used is Trebuchet MS and the color -theme is very pleasing. The tone of the blog is very engaging and several visual elements have been used such as video clippings, multi-media presentations, cartoons and photos as communication tools.

Summary

Each company uses the blog as a strategic communication tool in order to promote brand-building, to build trust and goodwill with the consumers. Dell blog site is mainly used for customer service whereas Nokia S60 blog site is centered on its product features and issues related to it. The categories column in Dell blog is limited to customer service issues only whereas Toyota blog has additional entries promoting its products and company image. Dell was not efficient in eliminating duplicate blog entries on the same topic whereas Toyota had efficiently provided links to topics related to a specific blog entry. Dell’s blog was more forthcoming in providing detailed information on various issues but the navigation was problematic.
In comparing these three top blog sites Toyota seems to have a more effective blog site. The blog site suggests open conversation through its engaging appearance, and content-rich blog topics, it looks professional and community oriented.