Companies that blog

photo credit: mangpages

This is a follow up post about corporate blogging. Check out my original post - Why companies should blog

One of my readers Kacper asked me to provide a list of my favorite corporate blogs. This is actually not a trivial task (thanks Kacper for the challenge) because I follow corporate blogs for a little different reasons than I follow personal blogs.

My main reason to read corporate blogs (corporate seems a bit stiff, does company’s blog sound better?) is to get current information on what is happening to the products I am using. And this implies that I only read company’s blog if I use its product. Is that true? Yes. But there are some exceptions.

And so we move to my listed without particular order corporate blogs that I read

• Twitter blog - I just can’t let go the Twitter issue can I? Well, with all what is happening on twitter lately its blog is the best source of information on current dealing of the Twitter dev team. Although I might not be too happy on how are they handling things on their blog I do have to appreciate the effort to inform users.
• Google blog - with all that Google is doing right now, reading this blog to keep track is a must. Plus it is a great way to learn all about new features that they are adding to already existing products.
• Flickr blog - I do not spend as much time on Flickr as I would like to but when I used to hang out there it was great place to keep track of what is going on on the site.
• Cognifide blogs  - call me a little biased putting company that I work in on the list but I like the approach we have. Instead of having dedicated blog Cognifide moved one step down and gathers blogs of its employees. Why is that cool? Well, this way you are sure that you read opinions of Cognifide bloggers (there are not too many of us) not some PR handled press releases.
• The Big Noob - this is a bit different example. This blog is being written by people behind projects like Virb or cottyn and it is not corporate blog at all. I put it on the list because I love the way those guys are branding themselves as people behind the product. This way no matter what project they will take upon them they will have solid branding. Pure genius.

This is it. There aren’t many items on the list and all of those are pretty mainstream. Does it mean that there is no need for smaller companies to blog? Of course not! Think about your company’s blog as mean to attract loyal clients. Plus if you really have an eye-catching design and something interesting to say your blog might be in fact the tipping point that will make me want to use your product. And that sounds like a good thing, does it?

And it’s a wrap. Once again, thanks Kacper for your interest. And all you dear readers - what is your opinion on the subject? Do you think that corporations should blog? Or is it just a waste of time?