So, you finally got that shiny new blog site for your hospital…or perhaps you’ve had a blog that has gotten a bit stale. Either way, we often hear about the challenge many hospitals face with finding things to write about for their blog.

Frustrated or have writer’s block with your blog? Don’t worry…there’s always something to write about!

Although most advice for blogs usually suggest that you write copy that will attract visitors and be useful for them, there still remains the looming question: what exactly is that for hospitals?

1. Commentary from hospital leadership and physicians. At best, hospital administrators are attributed to sterile, predictable quotes in news releases. But with a blog, they express themselves in more of a personal manner.

Additionally, if your blog is enabled for comments (which it should be), it encourages the “social” nature of a blog’s designation as a kind of social media.

2. Your hospital’s service lines and centers of excellence. Use your main Website’s list of services and centers as your index for top-level subjects, and then use your blog as a bridge between them and readers that might not be finding you through SEO, PPC or other means of attracting traffic.

3. Local and regional healthcare advice. If you are in Minnesota in January, a blog about preventing sunburns might not work…but a blog about ways to properly prepare and nourish your children’s bodies for harsh winters might. Or, if there’s a spike in a particular illness or infection, use your blog to provide tips for prevention, treatment, etc.

4. Volunteerism and special events. Although you are probably also covering these topics in your Website’s news section, there’s no reason that you can’t give additional nods and announcements in your blog. Even a collection of photos and a few captions can go a long way with showing appreciation and connecting your community.

5. Top “x” lists. These types of blogs are always extremely popular, and here’s your chance to quiz your hospital’s experts to get qualified information. For instance, what are the top five things that somebody preparing for heart surgery would want to know?

Bonus tip: Along with integrating SEO best practices into your metadata and blog copy, be sure to localize your content with your city and state whenever applicable or appropriate.

This is hardly an exhaustive list of topics for hospital blog content. What others do you use or suggest?

AVID Design offers hospital and healthcare Website content creation, optimization and consultation.

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 10th, 2010 at 3:19 pm and is filed under Blogs + Blogging, Web 2.0. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.