As Interactive Investor (ii) geared up to launch a blog platform written by interns and apprentices, the question of how to build and manage the site effectively came into focus. One compelling option was using a content management system (CMS) like WordPress, enhanced by application programming interfaces to provide greater flexibility and integration.

Content management system (CMS): A software application that allows you to build, publish, and managed web content (Jones and Polly-Alida Farrington, 2013).

Application programming interface (API): A set of protocols and tools used to integrate two applications by exchanging data (Messenlehner and Coleman, 2014).

However, before we proceeded with the project, it was important to understand the benefits and drawbacks. Here are some points that were considered:

Customisation

WordPress offers a wealth of editable pre-designed themes to choose from many of which are optimized for viewing on multiple device sizes. This allows for a unique look to the site and the ability to adapt it to ii’s brand and style without having to come up with the designs from scratch.

Embedded APIs can also be used to add more interesting parts to a blog post so that it’s not just a wall of text. While the process of integrating an API can be as easy as copying and pasting embed code into a post (like with YouTube), depending on the API, the integration can be very complex and require a lot of code. Some sites even have limitations for the kind of content you can integrate. For example, according to LinkedIn Help, 2022, LinkedIn will not let you embed multi-photo, re-shared, or storyline posts.

The site can be further customized with installable plugins that have their own editable settings. Examples of this are plugins that count views and those that allow users to react to posts, helping the L&D team to monitor engagement.

Control, collaboration and security

WordPress allows you to manage the entire site from one control centre called WordPress Admin. From here, you can allocate roles and access to the control centre, allowing each member of the team to have their own username and password for security, something ii takes very seriously as a financial business.

Despite this, WordPress is not optimized for the kind collaborative editing you get with software such as google Doc and Figma. Content is “document locked” meaning that you need to take over access to edit a post or page that someone else is editing (Melvær, 2023). This shouldn’t pose as a major issue in our case as posts are unlikely to be co-authored.

Furthermore, WordPress is a popular software. This means WordPress can be susceptible to attacks by hackers, be it due to vulnerabilities in the core software or the plugins or themes (Titterington, 2023). According to Titterington, 2023, we can avoid this by simply:

• Ensuring WordPress core software is always updated to the lates version,
• Updating the themes and plugins,
• Deactivating and avoiding unnecessary plugins.

Ease of use and accessibility

This site will be managed by the L&D team and juniors across the business, most of which will have no background in tech or design, so it is important that the system is easy to use. WordPress has a slightly higher learning curve than some of its website-building competitors, but the popularity means there is a large online community and many tutorials for the team to learn from.

In WordPress block editor, Gutenberg, you can drag and drop images and templates, allowing for users to focus on the visual storytelling and content, rather than coding (although the option is still there to do so), making it easier for new users.

Costs

Most open-source CMSs are free to use and download (Mehta, 2009) and WordPress is no different. Unfortunately, that doesn’t mean that running the whole site will be free. Interactive Investor will still need to pay for hosting for as long as the domain name is used. Additionally, later down the line, the team may choose to use plugins or plug in features that are behind a paywall, incurring additional costs.

Efficiency

The team behind this site are in full-time employment and have their main roles to fulfill at Interactive investor. Thus, the management of the site cannot take too much time. Thankfully, WordPress is dynamic, scalable and efficient (The WordPress.com Team (2018)). As soon as you click save, the updated version of the site is available to view.

APIs can also enable the automation of routine tasks that can help distribute the content across platforms and even schedule social media posts straight from the CMS. This reduces the manual effort that the L&D team would have needed to use to increase engagement.

Conclusion

In conclusion, using a CMS like WordPress alongside APIs offered a simple approach to creating a blog site written by ii interns, apprentices and mentees of differing technical levels. While there are some challenged in terms of maintenance and costs, the benefits in terms of efficiency, ease-of-use, and control make it a good choice for this scenario. Moving forward careful planning and collaboration can ensure that the project succeeds and provides ii’s juniors with a robust platform to share their experiences and insights.

References

Jones, K.M.L. and Polly-Alida Farrington (2013) Learning from libraries that use WordPress : content-management system best practices and case studies. Chicago: American Library Association.

LinkedIn Help (2022) Embed Content from the LinkedIn Feed | LinkedIn Help, Linkedin.com. Available at: https://www.linkedin.com/help/linkedin/answer/a529065/embed-content-from-the-linkedin-feed?lang=en (Accessed: 2 January 2025).

Mehta, N. (2009) Choosing an Open Source CMS. Packt Publishing Ltd.

Melvær, K. (2023) 5 Major Ways WordPress Is Holding You Back | Sanity, Sanity.io. Available at: https://www.sanity.io/blog/wordpress-disadvantages (Accessed: 2 January 2025).

Messenlehner, B. and Coleman, J. (2014) Building Web Apps with WordPress. ‘O’Reilly Media, Inc.’

The WordPress.com Team (2018) What Is a Content Management System and How to Choose the Best CMS for Your Needs, Go WordPress. Available at: https://wordpress.com/go/tutorials/what-is-a-cms/#what-is-a-content-management-system (Accessed: 30 December 2024).

Titterington, A. (2023) WordPress security issues, Kaspersky.co.uk. Kaspersky. Available at: https://www.kaspersky.co.uk/blog/wordpress-security-issues/26987/ (Accessed: 1 January 2025).