Showcase: Sharpie Markers Blog and Random Creative Awesomeness
We’re launching a new regular column here at Fuel Your Blogging that we’re convinced is going to be highly addictive. We plan on showcasing some purely awesome blogs. The focus won’t be on “A-list bloggers” necessarily, but rather on people who are simply doing highly creative work within their niches and industries.
This week we’re leading off by showcasing the Sharpie Markers blog. For the record, I had already begun taking screenshots and researching this masterpiece even before Lisa’s post about Sharpie was featured at Fuel Your Branding. In other words – Sharpie is just that good that two Fuel Editors took notice simultaneously and unbeknownst to each other.
About the Sharpie Markers Blog
The Sharpie Markers blog could certainly be categorized as a “corporate blog,” but it stands apart as highly unique. In their own words, it is “a dedicated space where we can showcase some of the really fun, cool, creative stuff that gets made using Sharpie markers.” That’s right, it’s a blog about what people do with Sharpies!
The blog, now about a year and a half old, is built on Wordpress and actually uses a modified premium theme released by Elegant Themes. The Editor is Susan Wassel and the chief writer and creative thinker is Whitney Kelly, a public relations and social media maven on the rise. Whitney’s hard work shows through every post.
What Sharpie Markers Gets Right
Bloggers can take some pretty important cues from Sharpie, including…
A Bold Statement About the Sharpie Brand
Everything about this blog speaks of creativity. They feature Sharpie artwork anytime they find something cool to feature. And listen to their welcome statement…
In the beginning, man took paper and pen and put forth ideas and art. Then came Sharpie and the world exploded with a measure of color and vibrancy never seen before. Now, the Sharpie story continues here with inspirations and ideas and infinite possibilities.
A Close Connection With the Sharpie Community
Multiple Communities in fact. Sharpie has made every effort to infiltrate the content cloud where people live and breathe. They’ve covered all the bases to connect with people on Facebook, YouTube, and other channels. They sponsor giveaways, allow comments, and interact with their readers.
If you do cool stuff with Sharpies, join the Flickr group where your work can be featured along with some pretty stellar marker work.
A Person Behind the Blog
When I sent a note through the contact form, Whitney answered and was delighted to help anyway she could. I’ve noticed her personal touch throughout the blog posts under her name and this is one of the strengths of a great corporate blogging strategy. Let someone with a name, a face, and a sweet personality take the reins and really interact with the community. We love Sharpie, but we can’t connect with a company. We connect with people.
My One Suggestion for the Sharpie Blog Masterminds
It’s a little thing, really, but there’s no link back to the blog’s front (home) page. Either a “Home” link among the page navigation or turning the header graphic into a link to home would do wonders for the usability of the site. Aside from this little issue, Sharpie’s doing a lot of things right! Learn from them.
In addition to serving as Editor of Fuel Your Blogging, Brandon is also a Pastor at Saddleback Church and Online Community Coordinator for Pastors.com. He’s also a web designer, blogger, and church communications consultant. Catch him on his own blog or on Twitter.
There’s great content on this blog and this is definitely a different twist on corporate blogging. Though I do see a ‘home’ link in the top right corner.
You’re right Matthew, I do stand corrected. Still wish all header graphics and logos linked to the home page – that’d be a good standard for us all. :)
Truly and inspiring blog. I have a creative side, mostly crafty and the thing I use sharpies for most is drafting patterns for sewing. I guess none of my masterpieces will ever be featured on their blog. But the stuff they showcase is mind blowing. Some people are beyond talented.
You’re right about that – some of it is mind-blowing!
Nice post, Brandon — looking forward to this series for sure!
It’s so common for company blogs to miss the point of blogging and try to create yet another professional statement about the company — I really enjoy that the team doesn’t try to screen Whitney’s voice.
Excellent observation – she does seem to have a lot of freedom and they seem to reward her great work.
Wow! That is pretty amazing and creative – and totally unexpected. They are doing some awesome work. I love it!
Just wait – even more great blogs to cover in future weeks to come.
Thanks for the great feedback! The Sharpie blog is a great outlet to shine the spotlight on the people who have created awesome art and deserve recognition for it.
In terms of screening my voice.. my team knows my style and they know that they can trust me. I try my best to keep it fresh, fun and compelling for the readers and I also try to write about things that I’d want to read about. Chances are, if I find it boring, so will you! I hate when a writer just slaps something together to keep up with a “posting schedule” – that’s just lame.
Thanks again and I can’t wait to keep coming back to see what else you’ve got going on over here!
-oh and I’ll see what I can do about the graphics ;)