Facebook has taken the initiative to those that give blood, and those that hope to another easy way to make a donation without the stress of finding a location.
In a blog posted to Facebook Newsroom by Hema Budaraju, Product Director, Health; the social media platform talks about how they will roll out this new way to help boost blood banks with that life-saving serum.
“To help raise awareness and make it easier for people to find opportunities to donate, we’re launching our Blood Donations feature in the US today,” Budaraju wrote in the post, “we’ll start in Chicago, New York City, San Francisco Bay Area, Baltimore and Washington, DC, and will roll out nationwide over the coming months. To start, we’re working with partners including America’s Blood Centers, the American Red Cross, Inova, New York Blood Center, Rock River Valley Blood Center, Stanford Blood Center, Versiti, and Vitalant.”
Every two seconds, someone in the US is in need of blood, and one donation has the ability to save up to three lives. With that being said, blood banks in the US are seeing a decline in blood donors.
“Tens of thousands of blood donors are needed each day across the US to transform the lives of patients requiring blood transfusions,” said Mitzy Edgecomb, vice president of marketing and communications at Vitalant, “summer and winter are notoriously difficult times for collecting enough blood donations, but the need does not stop and can even rise due to increased travel, activity, adverse weather events and cold and flu season among other factors.”
Blood Donations on Facebook
The blog stated that utilizing the already successful nature of the social media reach; Facebook partnering with blood donation centers around the world has the ability to truly help increase the number of donations.
Since 2017 more than 35 million people have signed up to be blood donors on Facebook in Bangladesh, Brazil, India and Pakistan where this feature is available.
According to Budaraju’s blog, blood donation centers in India and Brazil found that 20 percent of people said that Facebook influenced their decision to donate blood, according to in-person surveys conducted at partner blood banks.
“Through our partnership with Facebook, individuals will be able to conveniently find and connect with their local blood center to help meet the ongoing need for a diverse pool of blood donors in the US and share their experiences and the importance of blood donation,” said Kate Fry, chief executive officer at America’s Blood Centers, “by encouraging blood donation as a way of life, each of us can assure that the more than 30,000 pints of blood used daily throughout the country is available.”
So this is how it works, as of June 14, people can sign up to be a blood donor on Facebook by going to Blood Donations in the About section of their profile.
“When blood donation centers need donors, they can request donations and send notifications to those nearby who have signed up. People will be able to see requests and opportunities to donate on Blood Donations on Facebook,” Budaraju explained in the post.
