What can your spunky, spirited small business learn from about blog writing from a massive, Taiwan-based telecommunications company? Turns out, quite a lot. In this week’s installment of Blog Like the Big Brands, we see how the tech wizards of HTC use blogging and blog marketing to bump up the company’s online marketing. While HTC might seem like a new company here in the United States, the company raked in some $9 billion dollars last year and has been making touchscreen and mobile devices since 1998. The global brand is also the largest supplier of smartphones worldwide. Yet HTC only started blogging in February. The results are a clean, modern blog filled with useful widgets any company can stick on its company blog.
HTC’s branding — whether online, in magazines or its packaging — is a distinctly stylish, minimal look. The logo and the ad campaigns all hammer home the message that this a knowledgeable and cutting-edge company that does it all with a modern and friendly approach. So the six-month-old blog sticks with HTC’s already successful branding recipe. The content here is diverse and informative, but it’s the layout that is really inspiring.
Immediately, visitors to HTC’s blog notice a few clever widgets at the top of the page. Present, of course, is a post slider. Every brander and blog has fallen in love with sliders as a way to preview what’s on the blog and what content to expect. These are super easy to add on to existing blogs as well as to add on new websites in the process of being built. We also love the “Most Popular Posts” section on the right hand side of the page. Again, it’s a fairly simple layout add-on, but the difference it makes is huge. “Most Popular Posts” sections encourage new blog visitors to click around and read older posts. These kind of widgets enhance the reading experience. The small picture gallery is a nice touch to see who HTC’s “Blogging Team” is, too. But the best widget here might be no widget at all. HTC wisely picked its plugins and knew when to say “when.” The company lets the blog breathe and stay modern without bogging it down with zillions of widgets and unnecessary content. Leave it to a communications manufacturer to know the perfect way to get its message across.
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