June 2016 heralded the first birthday of the PHE Screening blog and what a fruitful year of blogging it has been.
Back on 24 June 2015, 23 people read our inaugural blog post, Introducing GOV.UK for screening. Since then it has seen a dramatic rise in popularity.
Our most popular blog, New letters and leaflets for cervical screening, has been read by nearly 2,700 people. That’s over 4 times the number of MPs in the House of Commons!
During the year the PHE Screening blog has attracted almost 100,000 page views. Most of these have been from a desktop computer (83%), compared to 12% on a mobile and 5% on a tablet. Our blogs have captured a wide audience, hosting overseas visitors from as far afield as Switzerland, Canada and India. And we now have nearly 2,000 subscribers who receive an email every time we publish a new blog post.
In January we carried out a survey about the blog and 77 people gave us feedback, which is helping us to better tailor the blog to your wants and needs.
The blog is continuing to grow in popularity. We also now have many more colleagues willing to have a go at writing for the blog. This is a testament to the enthusiasm and persistence of our blog co-ordinator, Denise Dixon. Denise has worked incredibly hard to make the PHE Screening blog already one of the most read blogs on GOV.UK. I hear that Denise has sometimes encouraged blog authors with cake!
Over the year the blog has become the voice of PHE Screening, delivering prose, punchlines and poetry while updating you on all the important themes and developments in the NHS screening programmes and UK National Screening Committee.
If reading this article has piqued your interest in writing a screening blog post, then don’t hesitate to let us know through the helpdesk (you never know, there could be some cake in it for you too).
PHE Screening blogs
PHE Screening blogs provide up to date news from all NHS screening programmes – replacing our previously published newsletters.
You can register to receive updates direct to your inbox, so there’s no need to keep checking for new blogs.