So Many Company Blogs ...

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I’m referring to the “About” section of a blog.

Think about this for a moment.

What type of visitor is going to click for more information about your company’s blog?

Right.

First-time visitors.

This is the property’s big moment to make a positive first impression.

Yet, most company blogs simply push out the company line.

There’s no warmth, much less storytelling.

Rather than bash the guilty, I want to highlight an example (was going to say “terrific example,” but there was Mr. McCall Smith whispering in my ear) of a company that gets this piece right, Southwest Airlines.

The About section for Southwest’s blog kicks off with storytelling techniques at their best:

Southwest’s Cofounders got together in 1967 to discuss their idea for a new airline that would bring the Freedom to Fly to America, and when Rollin King finished sketching out the idea on a cocktail napkin, Herb Kelleher told him, “Rollin, you’re crazy. Let’s do it!”

How can you not like a company with a business model that fits on a cocktail napkin? Might be a Texas thing since Compaq had similar cocktail-napkin roots; albeit, without the same staying power.

Certainly, Southwest’s quasi-wacky culture provides more latitude than, say, a software company specializing in business rules management.

But the idea of being conversational and showing your humanity has relevance to all companies.

Next, Southwest articulates the reason for the blog:

Our goal with the new Nuts About Southwest remains to give our visitors the opportunity to take a look inside Southwest Airlines and to interact with us.

They want you to get to know Southwest, the first step toward trusting the airline with your business.

The close reiterates the interact-with-us message.

Even the disclaimer is used to reaffirm Southwest’s customer-centric mentality.

Even though Nuts About Southwest is moderated, we pledge to present opposing viewpoints as we have done since our blog first went “live” several years ago, and we will strive to keep posts interesting, diverse, and multi-sided.

In preparation for my session on corporate blogging at SoCon11, I captured several About sections that run the gambit from the good, the bad and the unattractive.

I plan to package these in a post down the road.

In the meantime, if you’ve come across a blog’s About section that caused a strong reaction in either direction, I’d welcome hearing about it.


Comments

  • bear market

    Outstanding post but I was wanting to know if you could write a litte more on this topic? I’d be very thankful if you could elaborate a little bit further. Bless you!

    Reply

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