The Puget Sound Blood Center in Washington has decided to embrace social media as a way to attract new donors. According to the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, the blood bank recently completed the Tweet-up Blood Drive 2.0, its second blood drive to have been completely organized entirely through social media networks.
Since starting an online campaign earlier this summer, the blood bank already has 400 fans on Facebook and 1,200 followers on Twitter, along with several employees with popular social media sites. People can find out about blood drives on Twitter and sign up for an appointment through Facebook. Puget Sound Blood Center staff says that between 5 to 33 percent of their donors in the past three months have scheduled their appointments through social media sites, a number which should grow as schools starts their fall sessions.
“This is just one more way to reach people,” said Michael Young, the blood center’s communications director. “This is the way people are communicating today, and it’s the way people will be communicating in the future.”