Penguins and Figleaves
As the corporate world sits up more and more and takes notice of the revolution in web publishing, they change there way they use the web. No longer tied into big, formal websites that take ages to build and longer to update (if not done right) companies are increasingly using blogs to extend their web presence, to communicate with customer and build a relevant relationship, or just to market. I currently categorise corporate blogs into 4 types:
- Corporate blogs. Done by the company, a brand team, the PR team or someone who is formally speaking on behalf of the company.
- Employee blogs. Often sanctioned by the company they are still personal blogs, from the CEO to the receptionist. They help build up a picture of the company as a set of individuals - look at Microsoft, IBM or Sun.
- Marketing blogs. Can be in the form of a character presented as part of the entertainment/engagement model or tied directly into a single campaign
- Flogs. Let’s pretend and lie to our customers. Use the tools to for advertising. Different to marketing blogs as the former are obvious in their pretence.
Figleaves (a lingerie company) and Penguin (a book company) both have forms of corporate blogs. Both up for less than 6 months, they are talking about their company and products in a way you’ll never get from the formal Press Releases.
Blogleaves, the offering from Figleaves focuses on lingerie in the news and on their products. It’s written by one person, the editor of their main siteI’m wondering if it is a character of the British press but they seem to have no problem finding news articles that mention underwear in all its forms. A nice selection of gossip and products keeps you up to date with the space. (via Adam)
Penguin Books’ Blog has multiple authors and multiple voices. Longer posts than figleaves, there’s more behind the scenes stuff. If you are interested in the publishing world, a must read. Penguin are also responsible for one of the nicest user-generated content ideas I’ve seen, their My Penguin series. They’ve published books with plain white covers and invited you to do your own cover. Looking at the gallery there are some excellent illustrators out there. ; they are also using Flickr to showcase their favourites - and as the easiest way to get them onto their blog. (via Russell)
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POSTED IN: User Generated Content
1 opinion for Penguins and Figleaves
Loving Penguin Books
Mar 19, 2008 at 12:01 pm
[…] blog. I first noticed this back in Dec 2006. They’ve used it to promote books to talk about office happenings, to tell us what else they […]
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