Fortune 500 Corporate Blog Review: Eastman Kodak #155 (EK)

George Eastman, the founder of Eastman Kodak, back in 1888 started with the company's slogan "You Press The Button, And We'll Do the Rest."  Even today that slogan still speaks to Kodak, and how it wants to make taking pictures easy for consumers.  It may not be the glass plates, roll film and photographic paper it once was, but Kodak has always been a company that is a forward thinking enough to adjust and meet its customers' needs.

Official Kodak Blog
Although not a "corporate" style blog, Kodak does have an official blog with posts contributed by employees of the company.  This blog was launched back in September of this year (2006) and is regularly updated with tips, ideas and stories of how the audience can integrate Kodak products into their lives.

Appropriately named, "A Thousand Words", this blog is something that really speaks to the audience and shares experiences the writers have.  The very first post on Kodak's blog was from Thomas Hoehn, Director of Marketing and Customer Experience at Kodak.com.  Mr. Hoehn gave a brief introduction of the blog and also listed it's goals:

• Tips and techniques from Kodak experts
• Inspirational stories brought to life through photography - a.k.a. Kodak Moments
• Behind the scenes tales. Insider perspectives from passionate people.
• "Gee, I didn't know Kodak did that!" stories from Mars to Montana of our imaging technology in use
• Off the wall stuff that most likely will be a surprise to us too!

This is a great way to communicate with customers about what Kodak does best. 

Kodak does have a great press section and also a decent investor section where visitors to the site can find just about everything they need.  It would be great to see the CEO Antonio M. Perez blogging, especially in light of his recent comments that Kodak needs to reinvent itself and focus on a different business model.  However, Kodak's got a great thing going with this 1000 Words blog, adding another blog written by Perez, or Perez and his senior management team would just set them above the rest of the industry even further.