10 Reasons To Why Students Should Blog
Yesterday, I got the question “why do you blog?” of course I had around a million answers to respond with. Then I realized that the reason the person asked was not to find out why I blogged but to see if there was any reason to why he should blog.
This got me thinking about what blogging has done to me, and why I continue to blog. Thus I wanted to create a list to why I think that students should blog to complement their studies and choice their own professional path. Because I honestly believe that when I want to apply for a job or make decisions for my career this blog will matter.
Blogs give individuals an opportunity to express their opinions and make them count in a world of millions of others. Years ago, you needed to be a journalist or a politician to get your opinion heard; today, blogs offer anyone the opportunity to express oneself.
Now this list is written on the presumptions that writing is a way of studying; When you have put something in your own words you know it a lot better than if you only read it. Also, I talk about blogging about subjects, interest etc. and not a personal blog about what I did today.
1. Gain a deeper knowledge for the subject you are studying – or show people that you know about another subject.
When it comes to University classes I many times feel that even though I’m taking classes in subjects that interests me and the classes are really good, I do not really learn what had expected to learn. By blogging you can assign yourself any subject you want to analyze and write about and then learn about it yourself.
2. Improve your creativity by finding new subject to write about.
Initially blogging might be very easy and the subject may come to you by the second, but sometimes you will lose your flow or you might not find and interesting angle. Then creativity will be essential to keep your blogging up, and of course there will be other ways to improve your creativity like with the blog design etc.
3. Develop your analytical thinking though writing insightful posts.
It is one thing to republish the news or the facts that you read about, but adding value to them and figure out new angles is what will improve your analytical thinking. After all, for most subjects people already have a source for the news, so from you they will be looking for something a bit more insightful.
4. Create pieces for discussion and debate subjects that interest you through comments on your blog.
I bet that you many times wonder about what other people think about a subject. A blog could be the ideal way to find the answers. Many bloggers write about subjects that interest them and ask questions or do other things to make people comment. Then they learn from others by reading and participating in the discussion that can come out from that.
5. Improve your language skills, writing will give you a wider vocabulary and better grammar and if you prefer your could practice your professional writing.
As I write in my second language I broaden my vocabulary by having to find words representing what I am trying to say. But if you blog in your first language this same thing will probably work with synonyms and finding more precise definitions on what you are trying to say. Thus both will give you a wider vocabulary. Along with this you will improve your grammar by writing on a regular basis. Here I also want to point out that a blog, if you want it to, could be great way to learn to write professionally so that you are always ready to present yourself well.
6. Show that you are trustworthy by keeping the promise to your readers – blog on a regular basis.
All bloggers know that the traffic to their site decrease if they do not update regularly. Now what regularly means defers between bloggers, some updates a few times daily, while I update two or three times a week. This is what my readers expect from me and that is what I give you.
7. Improve your skills to express yourself, practice to write in a way that influences people.
It is one thing to use well thought out words and proper grammar, but expressing yourself in a way that influences people takes quite some talent. Some might have I naturally, while others have to work on it, and might never reach the same level. A blog could be a great place to practice.
8. Show that the interest that you have for your future profession is a passion.
Now, when most students who come home from school might be tired of the subject they study and want to do something else. Which is why showing a real interest for the subject you study could give you a great advantage in the future. When it comes to hiring, who will an employer choice – the blogger or the student watching tv?
9. Build a name for yourself, a personal brand, share your ideas and thoughts with the world and let them get to know you.
A blog is a great way to take control of your personal brand, to show people who you are. Now, you might not be an expert in a subject, and be honest about that. But you still can contribute you can still teach people who now less than you about the subject something. Or perhaps you can give a person who knows more a few great ideas. Let people get to know you and what you think, and one day you will probably be an expert.
10. Create a written portfolio showing that you are knowledgeable in the subject that you want to work in and you are very likely to get a head when you want to apply of a job.
What all comes down to, it being prepared for your future profession. Surely a diploma and a degree will do that, but your fellow student will have that to and compete for the same jobs. A blog will give you a differentiator, a lead, something that proves that you know what you are talking about. It is a written portfolio of your thoughts and ideas, or perhaps pictures, which make you, stand out.
Now, already when writing this I can think of more ideas, but I am going to stop here for now. I have given your some of reasons and explanations and left some things unsaid. Do you blog? Why do you blog? Why do you recommend others to blog? It is your turn to contribute to the list..
Why the “Profile Watcher” and “Dislike Button” Groups aren’t Legit
Lately, I see more and more of my friends joining groups on Facebook, which promise them that they will get a “dislike button” or that they will be able to see who visited their Facebook profile. So the message I 
want to send with this blog post is:
Why groups for “A dislike button” or a “Profile watcher” are not legit.
The Profile Watcher
Now, if you want to know why the” Profile watcher” does not work, I’m going to do my best to explain it to you:
- It is groups not applications. First of all this is groups and not applications that we are talking about. To be able to create this type of service they would have to create an application which can control who visits your profile page. An application that you would have to get and approve.
- You control what information applications get from you. In the Facebook Privacy Policy you can read that “You can control how you share information with those third-party applications and websites through your application settings.” This means that even if there were an application that was working, you would have to allow that application to show people that you had visited their profile.
Basically this means that to get this application to work both you and the people that are visiting your profile page would need to get this application, and then approve that the application can get this kind of information from your activity on Facebook.
I have read a lot about “visitor counts on Facebook profiles” on various forums and on the applications discussion board, where the general comments are “bullshit” or “Facebook privacy does not allow visitor count.” Ironically, I have to say that the first one of these are more correct from what I have read, as I have not been able to find any kind of statement about this particular issue in the privacy policy. Even though it is technically correct that “Facebook privacy does not allow visitor count” I am still waiting to find out where this is written.
The Dislike Button
First of all: There is a “dislike button” add-on available to Firefox users. Thus, all Firefox users which have installed this add-on can see what others dislike, which means that for them this is not an issue. Read more about this on Lifehacker.com.
Basically the first problem with the numerous “Dislike button” groups is the same as with profile watcher. It is groups not applications. Although this time, there are not any privacy issue that is the reason, it is common sense. Basically, the dislike button won’t appear just because you invite your friends to join the group, the groups are just created to market the person who created the account. There is an example of how on: Kramer’s blog.
Also, I do not know why Facebook have decided on not having a dislike button, because clearly people are interested in one, if you look at the petition group. However, if they did want to create one, it is not that difficult for them. They did the “like” button, right?
Some people still claim that they have heard that it has worked for other people, but I do not know anyone who have said so. Now, I cannot promise that there wont be a “Profile Watcher” or a “Dislike Button” for everyone in the future. But for now, please, think twice before you join one of these groups.
Friendly Reminder: Google or Bing the things that you cannot understand, or are not sure about. That is how I found these results.
FB vs Twitter vs Bing vs Google: An Analzyis of 2009′s Trending Topics
As always around Christmas, people, blogs and newspapers evaluate the last year, and of course publish the predictions of the upcoming year. One of the topics discussed has been the most used words on the different networks and I thought that I would take a closer look at this, and see what parallels that we can draw from this.
Do we discuss and research the same topics equally on the different networks? Or is it very different? How come there are these similarities or differences?
Google, Bing, Facebook and Twitter have all published statistic of different kind that shows what has been trending on each network. Thought the statistics is presented and research differently I still think that we can compare them at some level.
The Search Engines: Google & Bing
Here is the list that Google and Bing presented:
| Google* | Bing | |
| 1 | Michael Jackson | Michael Jackson |
| 2 | ||
| 3 | Tuenti | Swine Flu |
| 4 | Stock Market | |
| 5 | Sanalika | Farrah Fawcett |
| 6 | New moon | Patrick Swayze |
| 7 | Lady Gaga | Cash for Clunckers |
| 8 | Windows 7 | Jon and Kate Gosselin |
| 9 | Dantri.com.vn | Billy Mays |
| 10 | Torpedo Gratis | Jaycee Dugard |
*Google published different lists of trending search terms this list is the one the named “Fastest Rising (Global)”
Google and Bing are two of the biggest search engines out there. Despite that the most search words are not that similar. The obvious one is Michael Jackson that has been trending on all networks. Other than that Twitter is the only other word that trends on both. Interestingly enough Facebook is not even on the top 10 on Bing, which makes me wonder, who are the people who use Bing and doesn’t use facebook? Or, perhaps, is it more common to type “facebook.com” wrong when using Google as a search engine versus useing Bing?
On Facebook’s blog they choose to share the most trending topics, thus not individual words or term that was mentioned. This means that the deaths of both Michael Jackson and Patrick Swayze goes under the topic “Celebrity Deaths.”
Here are the 15 most mentioned subjects on Facebook 2009:
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Twitter has so far not published a post about the most mentioned words in general. Instead they a published a blog post called “Top Twitter Trends of 2009” about the most mentioned words in the following categories: News event, People, Movies, TV Shows, Technology, Sports and Hashtags.
I’m going to show you the results of only 4 of them, those that tend to be more discussed on the other networks; News events, People, Technology and Hashtags.
| News events | People | Technology | #Hashtags | |
| 1 | #Iranelection | Michael Jackson | Google Wave | #musicmonday |
| 2 | Swine Flu | Susan Boyle | Snow Leopard | #iranelection |
| 3 | Gaza | Adam Lambert | Tweetdeck | #sxsw |
| 4 | Iran | Kobe (Bryant) | Windows 7 | #swineflu |
| 5 | Tehran | Chris Brown | CES | #nevertrust |
| 6 | #Swineflu | Chuck Norris | Palm Pre | #mm |
| 7 | AIG | Joe Wilson | Google Latitude | #rememberwhen |
| 8 | #uksnow | Tiger Woods | #E3 | #3drunkwords |
| 9 | Earth hour | Christian Bale | #Amazonfail | #unaccetable |
| 10 | #inaug09 | A-Rod (Alex Rodriquez) | Macworld | #iwish |
A closer look at some of the words
It is interesting to see that Facebook seem to be discussed on Google but not on Bing. On Facebook itself it seems to be talked about as “fb” and on Twitter it does not top in Technology. Is this because it does not fall under the category technology, or simply because other technologies were more popular?
Google Wave & Windows 7
Another interesting thing was that Window 7 made the top list on Google and Twitter. But the Google product Google Wave did only make the list on Twitter. Although there is came in first. The same thing goes for Google Latitude which came in 7 on Twitter. Perhaps this has to do with the face that they sorted them in topics and thus it might not have reached the general top 10?
Swine Flu
The flu that has been in talked about around the whole worlds kitchen tables did not reach the top then on either Bing or Google, though it was highly ranked on both Facebook and Twitter. How come? Does this show a lot of talk and no facts? As you would Google for news etc. But talk about “rumors?”
People
No one can have missed the death of Michael Jackson, as this even tops the Swine flu discussions. But other than that people on the different networks seems to value talking about different people. Lady Gaga who even made her own spot in the Facebook top 15, compared to “celebrity deaths,” and got in 7th on Google. She did not even reach the people topic on Twitter. Where Susan Boyle, and I assume the link the video was mentioned a lot. On bing Farrah Fawcett is the second most Googled individual, probably due to her death this year aswell. Why did difference in people? Has it to do with the “crowds” on the different networks?
Tiger Woods
Looking through this words the name Tiger Woods caught my attention, since he was not a person that I considered to be that “discussed” up until a few weeks ago. Thus, I wonder if the constant growth of twitter-users help to get trending topics in the end of the year a bigger chance to get mentioned here, compared to the other networks. Or perhaps the Tiger Woods drama was just something that everyone could talk about. What do you think? Am I on to something? Or do you think that he as been mentioned all year around.
Your conclusions
What do you think? Can you compare the results like this, or is it too many other factors that has to be considered? Do you see any other parallels?
3 suggestions to Facebook that would help people connect
Track answers and clicks on notifications
When you get a notification on Facebook and check it, it automatically says to be “read”, even if you do not click on the link that is provided in the notification. You can always see the latest notifications in the box in the down right corner of the Facebook webpage, and if you press a list of “view all” you can see a long list of your latest notifications. Here you can also choice what notifications you want to receive.
Though I like these feature, I could see ways that it could be improved. Most of all I would like to see a “tracking system” like you have on your email. In this tracking system it could show which links you actually pressed on, and which wall posts that you responded to, or “liked.”
This feature would make it easier for you to check what you have responded to what you have not acted on. Similar to the function that Facebook email provides. So it becomes easier to remember to follow up on you Facebook correspondence. Because I think many like me many times just “check” their Facebook, and don’t respond to anything. This means that notifications are opened and many times forgotten about.
Suggestion: Add the features that are currently in the Facebook inbox, where you can see which mails you have responded to, and if what emails you have not read. The inbox also offers the opportunity to mark emails an unread which I think could work nicely with the Facebook notifications. The only difference would be that as long as you had seen the notification the red flag would go away, which the digits (which show the amount of unread email you have) do not.
This could look something like this:
Give a reason to the suggestions
When you log in to your Facebook and get on the home page, you have messages on the top the right column which suggests that you connect with people that you have a friend in common with or perhaps became a fan of a page that your friends are fans of. Lately this “message box”* also gives you suggestions on whom of your friends to connect with.
This was a feature I really saw potential in when it came and also used. Until I realized that it is not suggesting that you should connect with people you have not connected with in awhile, it suggests that you contact people that have not had much “action” on Facebook, for example; no one has written on their wall in a while, or people who have not completed their Facebook profile yet. Basically it is programmed to suggest that you connect with inactive users.
Example:
This probably benefits Facebook more than you, as they end up with more active users, if people help others to become more active. Sure, this might be nice, however; I think more people would use it, if it helped them as well. How about adding features that show when and how you last connected with the person that the box* suggests that you should connect with?
Suggestion: Give people more reasons to connect with friends they haven’t talked to in a while, by showing the date of the last correspondence. Or say “Lisa has wrote on your wall three times without getting a respond from you, maybe you should contact her.” This way, people would feel more of a need to connect to the suggested people, and perhaps even be thankful for reminding them, at least I would. If they the box does want you to connect with an inactive person says so “No one has written on Joey’s wall in three weeks, maybe you should change that?”
*With message box or box, I mean the automated suggestion generator.
Allow comments on event wall posts
On Facebook you are able to comment on statuses, pictures, albums, links, wallposts etc. Honestly, you can comment on almost everything. However, one the things I would like to comment on, you cannot. I’m talking about other people wall posts in events. Sure you could post on the same wall and hope that the person whose post you wanted to comment on checks the wall again soon. Or you can send an email to the person who posted the comment. However, neither of these alternatives seem very social to me.
Suggestion: Add the possibility to comment on the wall posts in events from people who you may or may not be friends with on Facebook. In that way it will be easier to comment and the person in question will receive a notification of you comment and your answer will be available to all the other people who will visit the event site.
Listed: The pros and cons of online studies
Studying online? Have you ever thought about doing it? Do you know how it works, what the pros and cons are? And most important is it something for you? Hopefully this review about online studies will help you get a better picture. I will not go in to details about everything, but mainly focus on the pros and cons and what the differences are between studying at the university vs. studying online.
If you have read the short bio to the left, you know that I am a business student who takes online classes. I have not only studied online, I have taken classes at the university too, and I have even done a study abroad program. Therefore, I hope to give you a wide picture about what is takes to study online and I will try my best to stay objective.
As the post ended up very long, I wrote a short list and a long list, choice the one that is good for you.
The short version:
Pros
- Freedom
- Place independence
- Better opportunities to combine work & study
- Everyone gets heard in an online discussion
- More individual contact with the teachers
- More time for discussions
- You learn self-discipline
- Convenient for researching
Cons
- No one in the seat to answer your questions
- Less contact with class-mates
- More difficult to get to know new people
- Might not be viewed as an advantage for future employers
- You cannot write in the margin on online material
The long version:
Pros
Freedom
One of the main benefits with online studies is the incredible freedom it gives you. You can study at home, in a coffee shop or in an airplane. It does matter what time you want to study or what time zone you are in classes and material are always available. You can combine your studies with your work or passions etc, without having to spend hours on making your schedules fit. In general how much freedom you want to have is up to you.
BUT: The only issue with this is that it can become too much freedom. Thus you end up getting nothing done, and fail classes because of bad planning.
Place independence
It goes a bit hand in hand with freedom, but I cannot point out enough. If you study online, you can live anywhere. Because you do not have to come to the classes, the classes come comes to you. Thus, if you live in one particular city you can apply of online classes all over the country or the world and just study where you live. While if you study were you live the amount of classes and opportunities are limited to the city you live in. Also, if you end up moving or travelling you do not have to cancel the classes, they come with you.
BUT: It is still not perfect way to take advantage of this opportunity, at least not worldwide because there is not any place where you can search for all online classes yet. Thus, you have to do a lot of searching to find the best classes.
Better opportunities to combine work & study
As a student you usually want an extra income, that extra job that lets you worry a little less about money than you normally do. Money is an issue for people who study online as well, as we still spend a lot of time in the books. However, since you do not have a school schedule to plan work around you have a lot more possibilities to find extra jobs. Most of which can offer you more hours and thus more money.
BUT: It is easy to start prioritizing a day job above school, since it is from the job you get your income. Thus, you have to be careful with taking on too many hours so that the job becomes the main priority.
Everyone is heard in an online discussion
In the normal classroom, there is often little time left for discussions. But the main is not that it is not enough time for discussions, but that there are usually only a few people who participates in the discussion, leaving no room for those who are less forwards. In an online class everyone gets heard trough forum discussions. Many discussions are obligatory and even though a few people usually gets heard more even in these discussion, everyone gets to say what is on their mind, which makes online discussions so much richer.
BUT: As the practice is only done online, people might not become better at being heard in offline discussions.
More individual contact with the teachers
While studying at the university I found that the times spent talking to a teacher was 10 minutes before, after class, or via email, because they have so many lectures and seminars to take care of. When studying online on the other hand I have felt that I get better and personal answers, they do not only answer my question, but have time to explain why, and if possible how I got it wrong. I guess this is because they have less time to perform lectures and more time for individual support, even though there are more students per teacher.
BUT: As you never actually meet your teacher when you study online, it is sometimes difficult to show and explain what you are having trouble with.
More time for discussions
+ As I mentioned before I think the timed spared for discussions at the university are a bit to sparse. Therefore online study forums provide the added benefit of being available 24-hours a day and for the whole course. That really gives time for discussions.
BUT: When you have all the time in the world people seem to lose the ability keep it short, and the discussions might become too long.
You learn self-discipline
If you did not have a lot of self-discipline when you began studying online, you definitely will after you have done it for a while. Since there is no classmates or teachers to push you to turn in a paper or sometimes even a reading schedule it is sometimes difficult to stay disciplined. But if you do not it is only your loss, so eventually you will have to learn.
BUT: Sometimes it takes a failed exam or even a failed course to learn, it is up to you if you can afford that.
Convenient for researching
University studies always mean that you need to do research, for papers, for explanations and even for words. When you study online you practically have your classroom in your computer or on the course website, therefore it is usually easier do combine your research with your other works, as half of it is not in print.
BUT: Many use copy and paste when they research which can be dangerous because you can forget where you took it and therefore copy past stuff that you have not written, and you do not want to do that!
Cons
No one in the seat to answer your questions
If you have trouble understanding something in a offline lecture or seminar you can always lean over and ask the person next to you, or raise your hand and ask the professor. When you study online to can always email a teacher or another student to ask a question, but since you two are not in the moment and instantly know what the other person is talking about, it might not be obvious what you are wondering about. Thus, it can sometimes be difficult to get your real confusion answered.
BUT: As there is no one there, to instantly answer your question, which mean that most of the time you have to figure out all the answers yourself. The benefit though it that this usually means that you learn more.
Less contact with classmates
Contact with your classmates it usually necessary to understand and discuss class work. When you study online this is sometimes a big problem. Sure, there are many forums and everyone have each other’s emails. However, there are rarely non-obligatory discussions about subjects that we write papers about etc. If the classes had been offline this discussion would have happened between classes, at breaks and in the lunchroom, know there are no natural times for discussions, which usually mean that they do not take place at all.
BUT: This is all up to you, if you want to have a discussion you can always be the one to bring up the subject and most likely people will write a few words with their opinions. It might not be as helpful as an offline discussion but it is always something.
More difficult to get to know new people and expand your network
When you study online you have the tendency to not get to know your classmates very well. Even though you might, do group work it does not necessarily mean that people take the time to get to know you. Many meet a lot of future colleges and business partners at the university and use does contacts when they graduate. People who study online seem to forget about part of studying and thus do not take the time to get to know one another.
BUT: Even though you do not expand your network through your schoolwork that does not mean that you will not meet new people. You can become better at networking in other parts of your life and thus continue to expand your network.
Might not be viewed as an advantage for future employers
If this is true or not, I do not know, but some people tend to see an online course as less difficult than an offline course. Why I do not know, but if future employers believe so an online student might have problems to compete in the recruitment process. I surely hope this is not the case, because online studies open up so many possibilities. However, as a prospective student you should consider this, what can you do that will make you more competitive in a fight for a job, in case you have a disadvantage because of your choice of studies?
BUT: Many of those who study online also have good jobs on the side. Hopefully, a future employer will see that the online student has more work experience compared the offline student and consider those when deciding on whom to hire.
You cannot write in the margin on online material
When you study you always have lots to read and never the time to read it more than once. Therefore, I always mark the important things and write small reminders in the margins so I will remember I only have to focus on the important things when it is time to study for a test or choice material for a report. When you study online a lot of the material is digital and even thought there are possibilities to make marks and notes in digital material the schools do not seem to know about these yet.
BUT: As always, there are solutions, even though they might not be what you are used to. For example, you can begin to write a summary of all the important things from each chapter you read or write down page and line of the important things to get back to later. I am sure you can find a solution that works for you.
To study online or not?
There they are, all my pros and cons and the “buts.” I guess this list can become a lot longer and that there are more factors to take into consideration. When I began writing this post, I asked on twitter for thoughts on the subject and a teacher for online classes said this: It requires special engagement. Anyone can choice to study or not study online, but if you do not have the special engagement to do it, it might not be for you.
Thank you @eamcc and @pcambron for your thoughts on twitter.
Please share your comments and experiences on the subject.
IKEA Let The Customers Spread The Word Via Facebook
I am usually impressed by how IKEA manage to keep their advertising and marketing very current so they play on what is actually going on in the world. Like their metro adds in Washington DC, around the 2009 election.
Pictures by buschap
A few days ago I found this new Swedish campaign where they use let people invite their friends to a breakfast at IKEA, via Facebook.
The ad read: “Invite your best Facebook-friend to breakfast. Click here”
then it switch to a picture of two Facebook user and breakfast
and it says “Cris treated Anton to breakfast at IKEA. ten SEK/two people. (Two for the price of one.)”
If you click on the ad you get to a Facebook application that they have built for this. The application allows you to invite your friend to breakfast by posting an invitation to your friends wall as well as an invitation to use the application. And of course you can write a personal message along with the invitation if you want to.
People often talk about building viral marketing campaigns. That means that the message you want to send is spread trough social networks and the internet by the users through word of mouth. I think this IKEA campaign is a great example of a successful viral campaign as people benefit from it.
Ten SEK is a bit more than one dollar, and who would not want to have breakfast for that amount with a friend. Also I think Ikeas is often a place where you go as to with your family, by expanding that to a place where you go shopping with your friends, the number of visits to IKEA will increase per person.
Thus this marketing campaign is not only spread by the customers, the customers are also reminding one another that IKEA, is a place where you could take your friend just because its it pleasant to meet.
Can you see other benefits with the campaign that you want to share? Or can you find a disadvantage to share?
If you want to see more examples of IKEA check out these pictures
Today I applied for a Visa for an upcoming trip to Russia. The trip was decided on pretty short notice and I was already pretty late with my application when I found out that I needed a special paper from my insurance company. So I called them in a hurry and asked them for help and the woman I talked to was very nice and she managed to get me the papers I needed on time.
So today, just a few minutes ago, I decided to send the insurance company a thank you email, endorsing the service from this woman. Only I could not find anywhere to send it.
On the website I found emails for both insurance claims and for technical issues, but not one general email. So now there is no way that I will be able to say thank you to this woman and complement her for her job skills, and I find that very sad.
Everyone deserves to get credit when they do something good, and as an employer how are you supposed to know who to promote if you don’t know who is doing a good job?
Thus, to all of you who read this, make sure that there is some way that your costumers can contact you, because they may want to do that!
Mashable recently post that can help you HOW TO: Gather Feedback with Social Media