Apr
26
2007
What a good corporate blog should look like
Posted in the Category of Stuff
Congrats to Mario Sundar on the launch of a new corporate blog for LinkedIn. Mario has been publishing his own blog, Marketing Nirvana, for about a year (can't find the archives so I'm not sure when he started it).
It's one of my favorite resources for tips and insights related to corporate blogging. Looks like his blog helped him get his new job as Community Evangelist with LinkedIn.
See below for 10 things that work on the new LinkedIn corporate blog
... plus a few minor quibbles
1. Platform - LinkedIn is using TypePad*, a simple hosted platform for the blog. Perfect. Why reinvent the wheel?
2. Design - simple and clean; two columns.
3. Navigation - simple and intuitive; at the top of the blog page. Links go to the archives, about the blog, LinkedIn home page, etc.
The "Subscribe" link should go to an interim page or entry that explains what RSS is and what it means to subscribe via RSS. As is, it links directly to the FeedBurner page. This will be confusing to some folks.
Also, there is no Subscribe via email option. A lot of folks prefer this or want it in addition.
4. The first entry - Your window to LinkedIn gracefully introduces the blog. It doesn't go into a lot of depth. But says just enough:
"Today we’re launching our corporate blog to not only help you leverage LinkedIn more effectively but also to provide you a sounding board for all things LinkedIn." - LinkedIn blog
5. Comments - a respectable 46 comments on the first entry, as of this writing. Great work. This blog's already got traction!
6. A photo - the entry includes a photo. It could be bigger and it would be more appealing if it were a person, like Mario Sundar.
7. Brief bio of blog editor - that would be Mario. Appropriately, this goes to his LinkedIn page!
8. Flickr photos - a nice addition in the left-hand sidebar. But they should all be labelled. Presumably these are all folks who work at LinkedIn.
9. A comments policy - simple, straightforward and easy to find (bottom of left-hand column):
"We love to hear from you. So feel free to comment, but keep in mind the basics of blog etiquette — no spam, no profanity, no slander, etc. All comments are moderated." - LinkedIn blog
10. Subscribe via RSS - The RSS button is clearly visible. But why is it gray and not the usual distinctive orange? Don't buck convention for the sake of design. If people recognize something on the Web, use it.
*WordPress is another simple option for a corporate blog. The Extensis blog is a nicely-designed example built on WordPress.
I don't whether Extensis is using WordPress.com, which is hosted. Or WordPress.org, which is open source software you install. Does anyone know?
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Comments
Mario Sundar said on April 26, 2007 at 02:58 PM
Thanks, Debbie.
I appreciate it a lot. To respond to your comments --
the RSS sign was designed to blend into the look and feel of the blog.
Labeling the Flickr photos is something we’re working on.
We’re also working out some issues with the RSS feed. Thanks for bringing that up as well.
Chris Thompson said on April 26, 2007 at 04:12 PM
Debbie, great post. I especially like that Extensis blog, I’d never seen it before. The IP addresses point to it being the wordpress.org variety hosted on their own server. That’s what I went with and I was amazed how easy it was to install on our server and get it up and running.
Jim Kidwell said on April 30, 2007 at 03:46 PM
Hi Debbie,
Thanks for the nod to our blog. We’re using WordPress on our own servers. It was fairly easy for our IT guys to deploy on a Linux server solution. Though, even without the IT guys available, I was able to get a test site up and running on my own personal machine. We then migrated what was on our test site over to the live site via the backup utility included with WordPress. It was a good way for us to bank up a few posts, and add a bit of helpful historical information before we went live. Your blog actually helped us quite a bit when deciding how our corporate blog should work. Thanks again!
Jim
Debbie Weil said on April 30, 2007 at 09:19 PM
Jim,
Great to hear from you and thanks for the additional info.
Fashion Marketing Blog said on May 3, 2007 at 11:30 AM
Debbie Weil on LinkedIns Blog
Debbie Weil wrote a nice post commenting on LinkedIns blog. Its just basic, general things but still good. Check the article out here.
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ricky said on May 14, 2007 at 04:13 AM
Hi Debbie. Iam webdesigner and your infos is for me very interesting for my new design job. Rgds Richard
Des Walsh said on May 24, 2007 at 05:41 AM
Good to see LinkedIn finally having a blog and also to have your critique. I’m not clear on the comment about Flickr and labelling: you mean the individual pics should each have a label explaining what/who they are, I assume.
