Looking back at my blogging experience

When Dr. Waters first assigned us to set up a blog, I didn’t know what to expect. I have not used this type of medium before and frankly I didn’t feel very intrigued to read about other people’s experiences online, it just seemed very impersonal. I felt like people that use a blog, give themselves a lot of importance. Finding my blog theme, on the other hand, was fairly simple. It seemed natural that I would write about my experiences here since this is my first year in an American college. I did not make a plan about which topics in particular I want to write, I rather went week by week looking back at what I have done and what I have experienced. Although I sometimes had difficulties finding a topic ahead of time, I never had problems writing once I actually sat in front of the computer. Ideas just came to my mind and I knew what this week’s blog would be about. I have not shared the blog link with any of my friends at home and my parents would not know what to do with a blog, they prefer handwriting, something they can keep.
Looking back at what I wrote, I wish I would have provided more information for students here that would like to go abroad for a while. It is not always easy to make that decision but there are many resources online that can help students. I mostly wrote about issues that concerned me at that time and not all of them contain much information for outsiders, other than what I felt at that time.
If done right, blogging can contribute to a company’s PR effort; both profit oriented and also non-profit organizations. A non-profit company that I think of in particular is Youth for Understanding, a non-profit youth exchange organization. Students can talk about their experiences, like I was, and help to take some of the fears that other students might have. It will help their operations since much research of students is now done online anyways.
In a blog, information does not come only from one direction. People can ask questions, agree or disagree with what is written. People can engage in a blog, although they did not initiate the topic. This gives organizations the opportunity to talk about issues that concern the stakeholders as well as the organization. Immediate reaction is possible and it is not limited to a certain group of people. It will identify problems and tell an organization what they are doing well.
A blog can also work against a company’s PR efforts if it goes unnoticed. It needs a lot of people to search the internet to know what is being said about the internet but still some things might go unnoticed. A blog is a chance and a threat at the same time. Setting up a blog is most of the time free, but taking care of it is time consuming. In today’s business environment there is almost no way for a company to not participate in blogs, it would make them blind sighted on some issues and they would miss out on a great way to get in touch with their stakeholders.