Reflections on Blogging

This past semester has been a great way to explore social media, get more experience with the tools, and practice blogging! Undoubtedly it has helped me with my work, as I compile an e-newsletter and help manage an online site.

Part of why I took social media was to practice blogging. A few years ago I had started a diary blog of sorts. While it was a great way to record some of the travel and life experiences I’ve had, I found I did not post very regularly. Lesson learned #1: Blogs should focus on 1 – 2 specific topics you are passionate about. Through this course, I learned it’s often too vague to do the diary sorts of blogs.

What my favorite part of blogging has been, both through my earlier diary blog and DC Walks, is writing again. Writing was a passion of mine in high school and college; blogging has allowed me to reconnect with that passion and to do so in an informal way.

Lesson Learned #2 is simply that blogging is hard work. Even though it is fun work, it is hard work. There were so many more ideas I had for my blog, like doing interviews with local restaurateurs (some of whom I know), talking with local nonprofits (again, some of whom I know), and more to showcase Columbia Heights.

But these things take time and diligence because you want to be authentic about the people and organizations you’re writing about. My favorite blogs, Prince of Petworth and Young House Love, do this very well. Each post is a labor of well-researched and documented love.

Which leads me to Lesson Learned #3:  I personally can not blog as well as I want to unless I have time to commit to it. My biggest challenge this semester was the number of ideas I had was greater than my ability to execute. A second challenge was that I could have done a better job connecting with other bloggers and people in my neighborhood online and offline. The best blogs I’ve seen do that piece – engagement – so well.

For these reasons, I will not continue DC Walks after the semester is done.

However I’ve already started seeking out opportunities to post on other blogs. One of the nonprofits I work with has a blog and I’m writing a guest post for it. At work, I’ve adapted some of the shorter writing style of blogging to some of the things I post online. And I would really love to take up blogging again – when I have the time and subject to give it justice. It’s been a great experience to practice blogging on DC Walks!