10 Worst Fortune 500 Blogs
| posted by Mary McKnightBad Corporate Blogs
OK, you know I wouldn’t have put up the 10 best Fortune 500
blogs if I wasn’t willing to put up the 10 worst. And let me tell you, the following blogs need
to turn off the lights and say “Goodnight, John Boy.” When it comes to blogging mistakes, these
blogs know how to bang them out- from truly boring content, to lack of
expertise of the blogger, to missing blog features, to bad design, to… well,
you name it, at least one of these blogs have got it! So, if you think I’ve been harsh on real
estate blogs, just wait till you see what I have to say about the Big Boy
blogs…
Check out Search
Marketing’s Review of Fortune 500 Blogs and Business
Blog Wire’s Review
Multiple author blog
about photography and company products (tutorials)
OK, I’ll give the authors mildly educational. But come on, you are a company built on
images and graphically your blog looks terrible. The pictures used as examples look completely
amateurish (and not in the Flickr good way). If the purpose of the blog is to educate
people on how to take better pictures or use the Kodak products, couldn’t you
have actually taken some good pictures, stylized the blog design, made me say
“wow?” Because I am a developer, I read
tutorials all day long and these ones need serious work. Send these bloggers back to remedial
copyrighting school as well as a few photography classes.
How to Improve this
Blog: Note to Kodak – go back to the drawing board on this one- you have
great, useful products, don’t let bad bloggers kill this project – get your
design team to stylize the blog and replace your bloggers with some passionate
photographers, graphics designers and
copyrighters. Stick with the tutorial strategy (use more video too)- that will
work, but you need better experts and a more graphically intense site design to
represent your brand.
Read also: How
to write successful tutorial posts
2.
McDonald’s: Open for
Discussion
Multiple author blog
about corporate responsibility
I expected so much better.
Visually it looks like my son made this in craft class. Let’s just get the obvious out of the way -
they need to run on a real blogging platform like Diachronics, B2 or WordPress. Currently this blog runs on something called
“Awareness.” Awareness’ corporate site
is Flash. ‘Nuf said. On the bright side, Bob Langert’s concept is great- I love
the idea of the corporate responsibility blog.
There is a lot they could have done with this blog; unfortunately it
fell flat as a soufflé in cupboard with way too much boring content. It feels like each of the authors is being
forced to write chained to a desk in a basement.
How to Improve this
Blog: The bloggers have some great
topics, but they need to learn the basics of copyrighting- # 1: write killer
post titles- the current ones put me to sleep. #2 break-up the text into scanable sections
with bulleted/numbered lists and images.
While I am sure that these guys are excited about what they do- it
doesn’t come across that way. Overall
the writing is alright (if you are writing a term paper), it just has to loosen
up and be more interesting and personable.
Read also: Killing
me softly with your blog
3.
Johnson and
Johnson’s JNJ BTW Blog
Multiple
author blog about the company, advice and random musings by employees
When I hit the site I thought, “wow, this
looks good.” But looks are
deceiving. The content is very
disjointed. It feels macro-psychotic
because so many people are blogging about so many different topics that when
strung together don’t make a lick of sense.
One person is posting about how to be a good patient, the next about
Jury Duty and some program J&J runs called baby Camp and the next about
drug development. This blog never really
identified what its readership should be so it is blogging to everybody but
engaging nobody. Couple that with the
fact it has all its subscription info completely hidden below the fold – I
can’t see how this blog has any readership.
Basically – the marketing/tech guy that did this should be shot from a
cannon into outer space so he can’t pollute the web anymore with his user
unfriendly sites and the company needs to pick an angle for the blog so it can
identify with readers. Remember – the
first lesson of sociology is: people like people who are like them- so use
relatable authors blogging on relatable topics.
How to
Improve this Blog: Seriously, they
need a redesign and a marketing plan. If
you want a conversation with the consumer- you need to identify what your
consumer needs first. So, start with a
fresh group of bloggers – each taken from a single product line of the
company. Let then talk about the
products, the happenings in the company the interests of the kinds of people
that buy the products. Now that you have
a plan- teach your bloggers basic copywriting techniques so you don’t get a
bunch of drivel and random stuff. Oh
yeah- hire a new web designer- tell them to put the call to action (RSS
subscription) towards the top of the page in the right column under the about
information. While you are at it move
the search there too. AND FOR HEAVEN’S
SAKE REMOVE THE BLOGROLL. It is killing
the site. Why do you think this site
only has a PageRank 3 after almost a year of blogging? Blogroll anyone?
Read also: Avoiding
the bi-polar blog
I don’t even know why they call this a
“weblog.” The framed in content that makes you scroll is anything but user
friendly or search engine friendly.
Actually, nothing about this “blog” is user friendly. Scrolling categories, scrolling blogroll,
scrolling everything is just bad form from a web design and SEO
standpoint. Yeah, it has a cute idea,
yeah the graphics aren’t bad, but who cares if no one can find the site on
Google or if user’s don’t find it an intuitive experience. On the
bright side, the writing is good and helpful, so at least there’s that.
How to
Improve this Blog: Toss the design,
keep the content. Build the site without
frames. You could really use the same
design elements but just build it without those ridiculous scrollers. Use an
RSS to email feature instead of having consumers subscribe to raw feeds. Also, move the RSS subscription and search
feature towards the top of the page. Oh
yeah- get rid of the blogroll. One more
thing- you might want to identify Dr. Laundry with a real person- people like
to interact with real people on blogs not cartoons.
5.
Owens
Corning’s Pink Panther Blog
At first glance, this a cute blog, but the
content is actually disengaging. I mean,
how many questions can there possibly be about insulation and energy? That being said, this blog is really only
slightly off the mark. The Q&A’s are
actually pretty good, but you can’t build a blog on Q&A’s alone.
How to
Improve this Blog:
Read also: Google hates your
blogroll
6.
Delta’s Under
the Wing Blog
Multiple author blog that covers everything
from aircraft information to things to do in places you can visit while flying
Delta.
Another macro-psychotic blog. The writer’s aren’t bad (could use a few
copyrighting classes), but they seem to have chosen too many angles for this
blog. They have someone talking about
the company, someone talking about recycling aircrafts (corporate
responsibility), someone else posting about the making of the Delta In Flight
Safety Video and whole bunch of others talking about what to do in the various
places Delta Flies. It just feels kind
of slapped together. Visually, it’s
pretty unimpressive as well.
How to
Improve this Blog: They need to
redesign the site completely to give it more visual interest, add a call to
action in the side bar (special offerings – delta miles signup), move the
search to the top, add an RSS to Email Form and then pick an overall
theme. They could go the corporate
route- talk about the airline, it’s history, new plane purchases, corporate
responsibility, interviews with employees on what it’s like to be a pilot or a
flight attendant, etc. Or they could go
the travel route by covering all the things to do in the various place Delta
flies to. I love the idea of continuing
with actual employees writing this blog- but they should definitely give these
people some training on copywriting.
Read also: Traffic
driving blog titles
7.
Johnson
Controls Your Energy Forum
Multiple
author blog that covers green energies and technologies
I don’t even know where to begin here. This is a disaster. But let’s start with the bright side: they
chose a hot topic – green and sustainable energy. I mean Al Gore won an Academy Award with this
topic – so why can’t an energy company with all it’s collective knowledge and
resources on the topic put together a great blog on that topic? Who knows, but this blog is totally boring
form the posts, to the writing to the look.
Oddly, this blog only displays one post on the home page instead of 5 or
10 and you can’t get to the previous posts without clicking on a category. So, in terms of usability- this blog fails
miserably.
How to
Improve this Blog: Start over! The design should feel fresh and clean – you
know, convey the message of green energy… I rarely give specific design advice
but using earthy tones and a very web 2.0 look with a lot of transparencies
would make this blog feel fresh. Move
the search and RSS subscriptions options to the top of the left column. Use more images in the posts and definitely
make sure at least 5 posts are on the homepage.
They should use “read mores” to break up the text and improve article
views. Also, increase the base font size
(it’s very small on larger resolutions) and tweak the writing slightly so it is
more interesting and packs a better punch.
Titling posts better would also improve readability.
8.
General Mills’
Real Baking with Rosie
Single
author blog that give baking tips and recipes
This is just a weird blog. Not really sure this is hitting the mark for
the market. Rosie Levy basically blogs
about baking, giving tips and recipes.
The site just feels plain and boring.
It feels more like a personal site than a business site. I just don’t “get” it.
How to Improve this Blog: I think the concept might actually work, but
you need more than one author. A couple
of higher profile chefs and bakers might be nice. Clearly they would have to change the name
and branding, but an idea like that would have a better chance at growing a
larger readership.
9.
Cox
Communications Digital Straight Talk
I
can’t really tell how many people author this blog that offers views and news
on the many issues affecting broadband providers and consumers.
Yeah, Cox completely missed the point of a
blog. This blog has no humanization,
covers really dry, boring stuff like products, legislation, research and press
releases. It really isn’t engaging and
feels more like it is meant for investors than consumers. This just feels like old school website marketing
not a blog. They can’t even announce a
new TV show launch with passion… Just totally boring. They had so much to work with and they
completely squandered the opportunity. I
mean, this is a cable provider – how could it have gone so wrong?
How to
Improve this Blog: Conceptually they
need to go back to the drawing boards.
Hey Cox, you are a company built on video and images- put some on our
blog. Hire a blogger or professional
copywriter to spice up the content.
There is no better way to get people talking than start talking about
their favorite shows. Maybe get a real
tech in there to talk about common satellite or Internet troubleshooting. As always, I will say it needs an RSS to
email subscription, but it could also use some sort of call to action for
consumers. Basically, this blog needs a
pulse or a death certificate.
Read also: The
6 signs of blog death
10.
Graco Baby
Blog
Multiple author blog covering all things
baby.
As a new mother, I have read a great many
baby blogs, many of which blow the socks off the Graco Blog. They talk a lot about babies, show pictures
of babies, write letters to babies, post jokes about babies, but what is really
missing is that this is a corporate blog.
They have completely forgotten that new mom’s like myself want reviews
of products, recommendations of what product would best suit my child at this
stage of development. I actually use a
lot of Graco products and would be interested in finding out more about
them.
How to
Improve this Blog: This blog is way
too personal. The bloggers are just
blogging about their kids which are cute- but this is a business blog that
should have a direction and a purpose.
They should get product managers to talk about the products, a
pediatrician to post from time to time and talk about development stages or
even an obstetrician to talk about various stages of pregnancy. There is so much you can do with a baby blog-
all new parents need resources and that is exactly what this should be. You could even do tutorials on how to plan
for trips with a baby, how to orchestrate a 2 year old’s birthday party,
etc. Please do something that has value
to the consumer…
11.
