Optometry Social Media
Social Media is like an Eye Consultation. They are a two-way discussion.
Picture explaining cataracts to a patient. You know that patients may respond with emotion or questions.
They might say “I think it’s time I did something about this” or “I haven’t noticed a problem- I can still drive fine”. Perhaps a patient may ask “Do they use a laser to take cataracts out?” or “Can I have a general anaesthetic?”.
Perhaps you may explain to patients how their multifocals work. Patients may say: “my friend tried bifocals and couldn’t get used to them” or “do I have to wear them all the time?”.
Social is what we do everyday in Optometry Practice. It’s a discussion that is two-way.
For Social Media, you can measure things such as your Likes, Comments, Shares, Retweets, Mentions, Pins or Saves.
But, how do you know which of these that you need to aim for?
Taking one step back for a moment. Firstly, identify useful things (a.k.a metrics) that align with your Practice Goals. These goals may be different depending on whether:
- You might own a New or Existing Practice
- You might plan to add a second Consultation Room
- You might like to try a new field (e.g. Ortho-K, Dry Eye or Behavioural Optometry)
Simply Measured identified 5 Essential Social Media Metrics. From an Optometry Perspective, here are some of the things to watch:
1) Increased Practice Awareness and Loyalty
Practice Audience Growth– how many patients are “Liking” your Facebook Page or “Following” your Twitter or Instagram Pages? Have you paid to promote your Facebook Page or do you rely on promoting it instore?
Mentions– Have patients mentioned your Practice on Social Media? For social media mentions, you can use a free tool like Social Mention or the paid tool like Mention. Currently on Facebook, you can’t ‘tag’ a Page. Therefore you need to use tools such as the above to ‘listen’ for mentions of your Practice on Social Media.
Perhaps local the local newspaper has mentioned you in an article. You can set up free alerts from Google Alerts for this. For example, I use an alert about “sports glasses”. Each time a new article is posted about this topic, Google sends me an email to let me know. You could set up an alert for your Practice.
Conversation Share– Locally, what proportion of the conversation in eyecare is about your Practice?
Sentiment on these Mentions– Do patients review your Practice positively or negatively?
2) Become an Industry Thought Leader
Perhaps you want to become a ‘go-to’ eyecare professional in a niche area (e.g. OrthoK). It becomes important to monitor:
Content Shares– How many local GP’s or other Optometrists share your posts with their friends? What is the best type of content that gets shared?
3) Increased Lead Generation
(These are people who know a little about what you do on Social Media, and are interested to know more.)
Site Traffic from Social– How many patients are clicking through to your Practice Website from Facebook and Twitter?
Visits by Social Channel– Which social network is boosting your website traffic the best?
4) Increase Community Engagement
Engagement as a Percentage of Audience– How often to your patients engage with you, compared to the total number of ‘Likes’ that your Practice has?
Influencer Engagement– How many community and health leaders are engaged with your social media efforts?
5) Demonstrate Excellent Customer Service
Response time– How long does it take you to reply to posts by a potential patient on your Page?
Percentage of Fan Wall Posts with Your Practice Replies– Do you interact and reply to patient messages in a timely manner?
So, How do I apply this to my Practice?
Think of some of the best complements that you’ve received from your Patients. They love you and are happy to tell their friends.
If you are a new Practice, take your best Patient so far. If you have an existing Practice, you can choose from more happy Patients.
Maybe you think of one Patient who admitted that they didn’t like wearing glasses. They thought that dispensing would be painful. They were sure that they’d never find any they liked.
Then hear them say “I actually don’t mind these” and later “I haven’t taken them off since I got them”.
On Social Media, this patient would likely tell her friends, driving Practice Page Growth and Mentions.
Your percentage of Conversation Share in your area would increase, as would Positive Sentiment.
Her friends may share her picture and story, increasing Content Shares.
These people may click through to your website, increasing Site Traffic from Social. This may drive appointments or phone calls to your Practice.
Your other followers may share their own similar experiences, resulting in greater Engagement as a Percentage of Audience.
You contribute to the discussion, thanking other commenters and demonstrating fast Practice Replies.
Great experiences happen every day in your Practice. They need to be shared on Social Media.
If ever the social networks were to change, you can be confident that your ideal strategy would still be the same. Help Patients and Engage Your Community.
Question:
Over to you. What has delighted your patients the most this week?
