With more and more Fortune 500 companies tossing their hat into the blogging and social media ring, I thought I would do a quick tour of the Big Boy Blogosphere and see who's getting it right and who needs to turn off the lights. Let's start with the ones that have figured out an angle and are actually using social media to communicate effectively with thier market or a segment of it.  The following Fortune 500 blogs are best of breed:

Want to see a list of Fortune 500's that are blogging?  Check out the Fortune 500 Blogging Wiki and The Fortune 500 Blog Project. A special thanks to Easton Ellsworth for keeping such a great list of corporate bloggers.

*This list only includes corporate sponsored blogs and doesn't include personal blogs of executives or employees. Also, I intentionally left out Google, Yahoo and Microsoft's blogs because it is completely unfair to compare many of the other Fortune 500 blogs to these. 

1. Walmart's Check Out Blog

Multiple author blog about gadgets and gaming

No matter how you feel about Walmart itself. This is a great looking blog, easy to navigate, full of useful information, written by knowledgeable, personable people you can relate to. But what do you expect, it's Walmart. The blog is clearly geared to the consumer and brings the latest in gadgets, green, gaming, etc. It is also written by a group of expert Wal-Mart Associates. It's more than clear these people love their jobs, the company and the topics they are writing about. This is the poster child for good Fortune 500 blogging.

How to Improve this Blog: They might want to consider an RSS to email subscription offer because they are dealing with general consumers. But other than that, I love it.

Read also: 10 features of successful blogs

2. Coca-Cola Conversations

Single author blog about the history of the company

Phil Mooney, a 30 year veteran and Historian/Archivist of the Coca Cola Company shares information on a wide variety of topics, ranging from brand history to the value of collectibles in this unique blog. I looked a ton of blogs for this post and this one stood out because it was fascinating. There's no pitch here- it's all about the very rich history of one of the most well known brands out there. I'm a big fan of corporate histories - I read a lot of executive biographies and business profile books and even browse biz histories on Hoovers in my spare time, so when I ran across this blog it sparked my interest right away. It's perfect for the average consumer or memorabilia aficionado because the posts are bite sized slices of the company's history that range from entertaining to educational. I have to say- for all the money these Fortune 500's can throw at blogging- very few of them are interesting to the average consumer, and this one manages it. But then, again, Coke knows marketing!

How to Improve this Blog: I would probably move the search up under the about information and add an RSS to email subscription option like Feedburner, but other than that the site is perfect.

Read also: Top 5 secrets of successful blogs

3. Southwest's Nuts About Southwest Blog

Multiple author blog about Southwest corporate culture, developments, services and offers.

There is a reason this blog won a Platinum PR Award! This blog makes you feel like you are on a Southwest flight. The writing is quirky, witty and informative. But the kicker about this one is - it has a call to action. In the right sidebar there is a graphic that you can click to get exclusive Southwest offers. Another example of a great corporate blog.

How to Improve this Blog: Offering an RSS to email subscription option would improve readership and moving the call to action closer to the top of the page would help conversion. But overall, this site is perfect.

4. GM's Fast Lane Blog

This one it a total pitch for the company, but somehow it works. Jim Bunnell's writing is down to earth and informative. It's clear he has a passion for the product line. I like that he says stuff like "And if there's anything better than introducing three new products, it's introducing three new products that show Pontiac's getting its mojo back." Pitchy, but re-assuring to the consumer that thought Pontiac's product line just got soft, which it totally did. This isn't a die-hard car blog, but it is a great way for GM to update consumers on new products, events, relationships, etc.

How to Improve this Blog: A few things that would greatly improve readership on this blog is to allow RSS subscriptions by email (we're dealing with average consumers here...) and penning some tutorial posts for new drivers and maybe targeting the die-hard car fanatics with some tutorials on vehicle customization or antique restoration. They also need a viral post like "Top 10 Most Expensive GM Cars Ever Sold."

5. Marriott On the Move

Single author executive blog that covers hotel amenities, personal thoughts on the economy and even personal growth.

I got to be honest, when I came upon this blog, I didn't expect much. I mean, you don't expect Bill Marriott to be hip enough to write a blog. But, he is. He is totally hip and engaging. He talks about golf courses at Marriott's while admitting his clubs are gathering dust. He delves into his personal thoughts and observations on the human condition, the economy, etc. He had a really dry topic - how interesting can you make hotels and amenities? And yet, he did what a professional blogger would do- spiced up the dry content with personality and providing just enough of a bird's eye view into his life that you feel like you know him. The blog looks very corporate and professional - has all the proper tools like RSS to email and site search. Posts have images and even a complimentary podcast. This blog strategy reminds me of what Lee Iococca did for Chrysler in the 80's where the man behind the brand put himself in front of it. Humanization of a brand, especially one that doesn't immediately seem that interesting of a blog topic is a brilliant strategy.
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How to Improve this Blog: Really, the blog is great. Because Bill Marriott is so personable on his blog- it might be fun to have more images of him at the various hotel locations doing the things he talks about.

Read also: Humanizing a blog for intimacy

6. GE's From the Desk of Edison Blog

Multiple author blog about developing technologies and general cool geeky science stuff like liquid crystal and the Coriolis Effect

I feel like this review is almost blasphemy because my husband and I are huge Nikola Tesla aficionados (and he was like totally robbed by Edison), but I have to say this blog is cool.   They cover some super geeky stuff and still make it exciting. The blog also looks cool. They cover and explain tons of high level technologies. They don't post as often as they should but when they do the content is 100% geeky and 100% interesting.  It's like a Discovery Channel special on steroids.

How to Improve this Blog: Add an RSS to email subscription method and add a site search up to the top of the page.  Other than that- they could start doing some technology profiles, histories of the company and even an invention profile of the week. This blog also needs MORE authority, so they need to build some backlinks to it.  This blog really needs community and comments, so they should heavily focus on getting us geeks over there to interact.  Also, linking out in their posts to other resources would be helpful. This is just such a cool and totally geekified blog that I think they should do everything they can to make it even better.

Read also: Ultimate guide to building backlinks

7. Starwood Hotels and Resorts

I L-O-V-E this blog. Beautiful design, user friendly, intuitive and more importantly well written. Basically, this hotel company decided to talk about the places where they have properties, what there is to do while you stay in their ritzy suites, how to explore the city, where to shop, what to see, etc. The writing style is journalistic and feels like a world tour. Perfect for someone planning a vacation.

How to Improve this Blog: Nothing. It is perfect in every way. Although they should consider hiring an SEO company to build more backlinks so it has more readership.

8. Nokia N-Gage Blog

Single author gaming blog

I love that they picked a single topic, stuck to it and totally hit the mark and engaged readers. This blog has tons of comments from gamers across the world. They cover new product launches, give sneak peeks of new games and help for gamers. I also like that they kept the blog light. Most gaming blogs go very dark and can be hard to navigate- this one is clean and airy feeling. It is also incredibly easy to navigate.

How to Improve this Blog: Hard to find how to subscribe to this blog. They should also allow people to subscribe to comments. But other than that- hats off to actually building a blog that engages readers and gets comments.

9.      Wells Fargo Blog

Multiple author blog about the company, services and general banking stuff explained in plain English by people that know what they are talking about and how to write to the common man

This is a very well done bank blog.  They cover a lot of stuff like everything from Student Loans to what's happening at WellsFargo, but the writing is superb and interesting.  A special shout out has to go out the Staci Schiller whose posts are particularly well written and down to earth.  Structurally they are missing a few things, but overall this blog is very well done.

How to Improve this Blog:  As always I am going to push for Feedburner or an RSS to email subscription option.  They should also add a most read widget to the side bar to show the most popular posts- it would help both with user navigation and crawling and they should consider a sitemap, but overall they did a great job.

10.       Starbucks Blog

Multiple author blog about the company, developing product lines, customer appreciation and more.  This is meant to be a dialog with the consumer.

Is it really any wonder that Starbuck's Idea blog is actually pretty good.  They know their market and they know their product.  The blog is set up to open up a direct  line of communication with the consumer.  You are asked to offer your opinions and ideas on the company.  This is a fairly new blog and they have some kinks to work out, but I can see it working.

How to Improve this Blog:  As a very new blog, it really needs to grow readership by covering some more interesting and even controversial topics.   Starbucks consumers are opinionated and generally more educated than other coffee house customers (we have to be to afford daily doses of $5 coffees).  So, engage them with some more interesting content than "how do you feel about the barristers wearing name tags."  Also, they need subscriptions options (RSS to email) and they a good call to action (i.e. register to win a free coffee, etc.) that would grow readership and registrations.  A good viral post or even a custom widget would be great for this blog.

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