There is nothing wrong with navel gazing.
After all, every company worth its salt loves to plug its own products and services.
Every good online company has an official blog that is not only the official mouthpiece but also the stomping ground for the community. Blogging is a powerful tool for startups. A company uses a blog for its broader social media strategy. But not all blogs are good or designed for the greater good. Most blogs go one-way with their branding, but some genuinely take it beyond and create interesting content.
Here are seven blogs from well-known online brands that talk about their industry and their product, but also give the community some takeaways – like life lessons in productivity.
Buffer
When we have to talk about a company / startup that gets it just right, Buffer comes to mind. The social media scheduling app from Buffer is popular. Go beyond the service to the blog and you will see posts from the Buffer blog shared all across the Web. The productivity blog posts grab some nice social shares for themselves too.
Joel Gascoigne, Founder & CEO of Buffer is a constant voice on the blog. They started out with social media posts, but quickly put out an umbrella and covered productivity, life hacks, self-improvement, and creativity.
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Evernote
Evernote is all about productivity. Yes, the blog is all about the Evernote ecosystem...but then the note-taking tool touches base with GTD concepts, going paperless for productivity and personal organization at every corner. One of the best sections on Evernote is Evernote Ambassadors. It is the global community of selected Evernote users who volunteer their time and knowledge. They show others how to become experts at using Evernote in various aspects of their daily lives.
There are nearly 72 user stories from a diverse range of professionals. Maybe, someone from your industry too. Also, pore over Tips & Stories to read about some of the best practices followed by Evernote fans.
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The Muse
The Muse is a well-designed career planning and job search website. The site has job listings from more than 100 companies, and it follows it up with detailed company profiles and inside scoop on work cultures at these companies. The Muse may be a hot startup, but its blog too gets a share of the attention. The Daily Muse draws more than a million visits with its expert advice on job search, career planning, and life skills. It's refreshed daily and the articles are crisp and filled with good advice.
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Basecamp
Basecamp is a much-used online tool for project management. Some of you might know it by its earlier name – 37 Signals. Basecamp hosts Signal vs. Noise. Launched in 1999, it has a huge archive of posts on web, design, and programming. Seeded in between are some gems like Forget passion, focus on process or How do you turn inspiration into skill. Check out their popular posts and take your pick.
Basecamp is also coming out with The Distance -- a new online magazine about compelling small businesses that stick it out through the tough times. Each online issue will focus on one privately held business that has been operating for at least 25 years without taking outside investment.
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The official LinkedIn blog is all about...eh, LinkedIn. Some nice posts there, but the real grist of the meat is in the blog postings made by The Influencers. You can find all the top influencers on The Pulse, the online news publishing face of the professional networking site. When you have top minds like Richard Branson, Bill Gates, Deepak Chopra, and Guy Kawasaki spreading their ideas, would you go anywhere else?
The Influencers blog has been gradually opened up and now there are more than 25,000 members publishing content on LinkedIn. LinkedIn says that only the most engaged, prolific and thoughtful contributors will be included in the "hall of fame".
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Quora
Quora is a place for vibrant discussions and Q&A's. A couple of years back, Quora started promoting high-quality writing through individualistic blogs. Quora is a smorgasbord of 300,000 topics and any can become the spark for a blog post. Some of the most followed blogs are on productivity and growth. Some of the popular ones include – Leading a Better Life, Uncommon Sense for 21st Century Living, and one of my favorites – James Clear.
Check out some of the best blogs on this thread. You can also follow top blog posts and discussion threads with tags. Productivity hackers can look for tags on Life Advice, Time Management, Self-Improvement, and Inspiration.
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Mint
Productivity is about creating a surplus – of time or money. Mint is all about your bank balances and investment decisions. The popular financial web application runs a blog called Mint Life and all of its pages are filled with advice on how to stretch the dollar and squeeze the most from life. Blog posts are not necessarily on managing money, but ultimately the strategy does lead to it. For instance, tips to avoid hiring movers does save you lots of money.
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Your Suggestions - What Are You Reading Today?
Generally speaking, we don't part the curtain and look at a startup or Web company's blog. But there's lot of read worthy content there. Some of it is born from the entrepreneurial rumble and tumble, some from pinpointed social media slant, and some comes from the voice of the community.
Which companies have the best blogs? Which ones are in your feed? Did I miss an obvious candidate in this short list – I bet I did, but it's your turn to name names. Go ahead.
Image Credit: Sean MacEntee