Blogging for business can be tricky if your company has a definitive style and unique language. It takes precision and experience to get blogs to have the same feel and flavor as the rest of your branding. This week, we take a look at Target’s Pulse blog to see how to make our blogs look and sound as awesome as the rest of our branding.
Target’s bulls-eye and its pop art style commercials and print ads are immediately recognizable. Fans of the superstore are enthusiastic, protective and hyper critical the minute they sense something is out of place. As a company, Target has tried to become more transparent after a series of controversial political affiliations became public a couple of years ago. Today, Target is back to being the stylish, conscious store consumers love while promoting a more self-aware and open image.
And what better way to get to know Target, inside and out, than from the people who work there? We’ve talked about the benefits of having employee bloggers before in these pages and Target’s blog takes this idea and runs with it. The Target Pulse Blog is, according to its tagline, boldly “following the daily beat of daily life at Target.” The blog’s look matches the rest of Target’s branding: modern, chic and peppered with the brand’s signature colors of red and white. Much like a traditional newspaper, readers can see the most recent posts from employees on the front page without having to scroll their fingers off. Also, the blog is cleverly organized by contributor. Blogs written by interns, blogs written by a Target apparel buyer, blogs from a store logistics leader and so on are all grouped to give visitors to the blog a variety of Target employee perspectives. Pulse looks great, but the content is what really shines.
There’s a variety of things small business bloggers can swipe from Target. From on-trend layout ideas to using blogging as a way to give your enthusiastic employees the chance to talk about the company, Pulse is chock full of great ideas. Yet the main thing we think businesses should take away from Target is the idea that a fabulous looking blog can also be a great read. Once you’ve picked a chic blog theme, the real work begins in terms of making the content as memorable and compelling as the design elements of your blog. In short, don’t spend a bunch of time or money on making your company blog look terrific if you’re not going to fill it with all kinds interesting posts, great photos and the latest company news.
