Business Blog Wire

Got an email from Liz Murray at Intelius the other day telling me that Intelius had recently launched their new corporate blog, titled Intelius Blog.  Having promised you a corporate blog review here every Monday (as part of making this blog HOT in April '07), I found Liz's timing impeccable.

Here's my review of the Intelius corporate blog.

First Impression: Clean-looking - I always enjoy that.  A little bare perhaps, but that's fine with any new company blog.  Little or no clutter anywhere - an excellent sign.  About and contact info a bit hard to find.  Very meaty posts.  Wanna see more of who's writing this.  Comments allowed and a few have already been published.  Overall, looks like a fine start.

What's the Intelius blog about?  Quoting the About page:

"Developments in the information commerce industry in general to topics including people search, public information, security, privacy, social networking, technology, and applications of Intelius' products and services. It is intended to facilitate and encourage dialogue between Intelius and consumers, experts and fellow bloggers."

Author(s): CTO Kevin Marcus (3 posts), Executive VP Edward Petersen (3 posts), Intelius Staff (2 posts) - It's great to see a mix of authors here.  Would be even greater to see some photos and short bios as well!

Conversation: 9 comments published so far - a good sign (it's greater than the number of published blog entries).  I'm glad comments are enabled and hope that trackbacks are, too - couldn't tell.  This blog has the potential to blossom into an excellent conversation vehicle for Intelius.

Design: Simple is good, and it's definitely simple.  I think a few things could be adjusted to maximize traffic and link appeal - for example, get rid of the calendar, put one (only one) big RSS button at top right, and some About/Contact info just above or below that, oh and maybe add a tagline just below thhe current masthead that encapsualtes what the blog and company are all about - but I also think there's some time before blog readers will really make a fuss about that.  The important thing is functionality right now, and Intelius has a working blog in place.

Content: Post frequency is about 2-4 posts per week so far (8 posts total in about 2 weeks).  I would love to see at least one post each weekday from the Intelius crew, and for them to continue to provide a mixture of post topics and angles from a variety of post authors within the company.  The options are virtually endless here - they could pull in a well-known blogger in their niche to do a guest post, for example; they could explain their company elevator pitch for the non-tech-savvy who are just getting acquainted with Intelius; they could even post a list of what each Intelius employee's favorite food is and why (just to make people feel more personally connected to the company).

Suggestions: More images, maybe some videos.  That would break up the text and make it a bit more appealing, I think.

Other thoughts: The blog's About page explains in clear terms what the blog is about, offers basic contact information and sets forth the blog's ground rules.  You'd be surprised how many blogs don't have that.

One other thing: I do hope Intelius places a link to their new official blog on the Intelius home page.

Good job so far, Intelius - keep it up and don't stop feeding and improving your new corporate blog!

Stay tuned for another corporate blog review next Monday here at Business Blog Wire!

Any thoughts or recommendations for the blogging team at Intelius? 

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