Blogs as a resource for career guidance in web 2.0

Abstract

Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) are an important tool for career guidance professionals. These tools, and blogs as one of the most important, can favor communication, collaborative work, and interaction with users, among many other elements. Blogs are a privileged tool in this sense because they facilitate the construction of meaningful social connections around any topic. This research aims to improve knowledge about the career guidance blogosphere, the publication activity in it, the visibility of blogs on the web, the community generated around them and the interactions that occur in relation to the published content. To do this, information from 136 career guidance blogs and 4516 publications (posts) was collected and analyzed, including different variables such as content type and interaction around them. The results show an important heterogeneity in the blogs, their authors, contents, visibility, as well as the relation to the community and interactions that are generated. Visibility, always low, depends largely on the type of content published. We conclude that there seems not to be a unique way of understanding and working on career guidance in the blogosphere, which shows the breadth of its possibilities as a resource. It is emphasized that a one-way connection is not enough, highlighting some key elements of career guidance, such as interaction, bonding, or trust.