Corporate blogging. It’s probably the single most difficult social media tactic to pull off successfully from the corporate perspective.

Why? Because it requires significant investments in time and resources and usually needs some kind of commitment from management.

Fact is, many corporate blogs (and personal blogs for that matter) die on the vine.

But, in my view, this makes the opportunity even larger for those companies that DO commit and put the time and resources behind corporate blogging. Most committed usually wins, right?

Ask Southwest Air if corporate blogging has made a difference. Or, Mayo Clinic. or, Indium. Blogging for business does work when done right and aligned with strategic priorities for your organization.

But we’ve heard all about the Southwests and Mayo’s of the world–what are some other companies that are really committing to blogging, and succeeding?

Here are a few organizations that are making big strides in the blogosphere and seem to have a lot of momentum in blogging as a company:

Patagonia (The Cleanest Line): What I love about this blog is how Patagonia focuses on the experience around their brand–not the products they sell in their retail outlets and online. Sure, you see a few product pushes (usually in the form of catalogs), but by and large its the stories that captivate you here. Also, great use of multimedia. Patagonia does a great job of telling its story through fantastic photography and video, too.

Dairy Queen (Dairy Queen Blog). DQ does a great job of including its fans in the blog and providing great offers and coupons (driving business to their stores). But, they also do a nice job of mixing in interesting and random information as a way to build trust and goodwill with their audiences. Just check out this post on “LOLA”–what does this have to do with selling ice cream? More proof that you need to focus on your customers–not you–when blogging from a corporate perspective.

Fandango. (Fandango Movie blog) There’s certainly no shortage of movie review and celebrity sites nowadays. So, Fandago has a lot of company here, but this site is truly all about movies. What I think works best about this site is the “insider” content Fandago delivers. Exclusive access to pre-release movie posters. Insider scoops on casting and actors. And talk of industry news, like the re-release of the Star Wars trilogy in 3D in 2012. And, I love the 100 Days of Summer blog they started this summer where one guy (Chuck Walton) was asked to watch 100 movies in 100 days this summer in search of the ultimate summer movie experience.

Bigelow Tea. (Tea Talk blog) It’s all about the tea. That’s why this blog works. But, more specifically, what works best is the wide range of content Bigelow provides around the topic of tea. Looks at different ways to think about “afternoon tea.” A look back at the history of tea in Great Britain. And, a post about what The Kinks and tea have in common. In addition to providing interesting content to their audiences, they also make it very easy for these audiences to share this content via the Facebook Like feature–and discover other content through the Link Within widget (i.e., You Might Also Like…).

What lessons can we learn from these blogs?

* Focus on content that’s important to your customers–not you.

* Give your audience exclusive content they can’t get anywhere else.

* Talk about the experiences and topics that revolve around your product or service. Remember, you don’t have to talk about your product or service to sell your product or service.

Note: Nuts about Southwest photo courtesy of hyku via FlickR Creative Commons.