Reading and reviewing corporate blogs from other companies is a great way to learn a little bit more about your own blog. Microsoft has a large community of blogs, and a wide variety of bloggers writing in numerous blogs within this community. There are a number of employee blogs in the Microsoft blog community, which is insightful and interesting, but many of the community blogs are rich in technical jargon which is useful to those who are more tech savvy but not necessarily useful to those who are not used to the lingo.

There are a lot of blogs that are from Microsoft or about Microsoft, and many focus on technical advances relating to the Microsoft software. However, there is also a higher education blog that is part of the Microsoft community which relates to programs that are being integrated into universities for students. For example, I read about a software program called Business Intelligence and how Microsoft Performance Point is going to bring benefits to universities and the students who attend them, which was a pleasant subject to read about.

Because so many of the Microsoft blogs are technical in nature, they do not get many comments from readers despite being updated rather frequently. Most of the blogs in this network do not encourage dialog and do not appear to be very engaging. Let’s break down some of the details of these blogs in a purely number way.

Ease of Finding – 9 out of 10.

Once I typed “Microsoft” into Google’s search engine, a bunch of different Microsoft blogs came up. Blogs can also be found through the Microsoft website as well.

Frequency – 6 out of 10 –

These blogs are updated pretty frequently, but not on any real schedule that I can discern. I was finding some blogs with entries that were a few days old, and nothing new or fresh despite plenty to say.

Engaging Writing – 5 out of 10 –

The writing in many of these blogs is really only going to relate to tech savvy readers, or people who are really serious about finding out more information about Microsoft. This writing may be somewhat engaging, but it caters to heavily to a specific audience and leaves out a lot of potential readers in the process.

Relevance – 6 out of 10 –

Blogs in this network are highly catered to people who are seriously into technology, and as a result, they really are not relevant to the general public as a whole.

Focus – 8 out of 10 –

Perhaps too focused, but the focus here is good.

Honesty – 7 out of 10 –

The technology and software blogs appear honest, but I am less sure about the employee run blogs, giving these guys a solid 7.

Interactivity – 3 out of 10 –

These blogs are not very interactive, as they spend no time facilitating conversation or answering questions for readers.

Responsiveness – 3 out of 10 –

These blogs are not very responsive, as it does not seem like anyone is creating conversation in the comments, or even responding to those which are posted.

Grand total score for the Microsoft blog network is 48 out of 80.

Originally posted 2009-02-11 05:03:48. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

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