10 Steps to Start Your Blood Center’s Blog on WordPress

(This post was created by the Social Media Department iCME training class: Brian Dodson, Melissa Lee, Stephanie Stanley, Darrin Wood, Meredith Morckel, Nate Riggs, Cheryl Harrison and Tim Johnson.)

Incept iCMEs in Blog Training Class

At Incept, we use our blog not only to communicate with members of our own company, but also with our clients. Blogging is a great tool to engage our audience.

We think a blog can work for your blood center, too. Here are ten steps we’ve used to successfully start our blog at Incept:

1. Go to WordPress.com and follow the setup instructions. We’ve had a lot of success with this content management system (CMS).
2. Select a theme for your blog. WordPress has hundreds of themes available for free.
3. Decide what widgets you would like to put on your blog. A widget is something you can use in your sidebar to invite your readers to participate in the conversation.
4. Figure out who you want to read your blog. For most blood centers, this is going to be your local donor base. This is your target audience.
5. Decide what your categories will be and create them on your blog. Examples are Become a Blood Donor, Donation Events, Donor Experiences, Eligibility, etc.
6. Setup specific tags that fit into the categories. Examples are Reasons to Donate, How to Donate, Locations, Donor Coach, Promotions, etc.
7. Create an About our Blood Center page, where visitors can get more information about your blog.
8. Create a How to Donate page that includes information about the process, locations, eligibility requirements and hours of operation, as well as the center’s phone number, email address or contact form, etc.
9. Write your first post. Introduce the purpose of the blog and link to your blood center’s site.
10. Make a commitment to writing a blog post at least once a week.

Are these helpful? What steps should we add?