BUSINESS

  SOCIAL MEDIA

SHARE INDUSTRY CONTENT

WORK AROUND YOUR CREATIVE CONUNDRUM

CREATING CONTENT to engage an audience on social media can be challenging. This struggle does not have to be evident on your profile. The optometric companies you buy from, the industry groups you are a member of and other optometrists are excellent places to mine for content. All you have to do is share it.

Here, I discuss a few easy steps to do so. Remember, when it’s on social media, it’s spreading love — not stealing!

GATHER YOUR SOURCES

Create a list. Break it up into three parts to organize your brainstorming. First, list all the optometric companies from which you purchase goods. Break this first part into four basic areas from which to consider: frame, contact lens, ophthalmic lens and equipment. Second, list all the groups of which you are a member. Include local, state and national optometric associations and special interest groups. Finally, make a list of all-star doctors; chances are they are also probably on top of their social media game.

SEARCH FOR SITES

Make your way down the list, and find the profiles of each group or person on it. Instead of a Google search, head right to the social media site. Most of the sites commonly used by O.D.s, have a search function.

For individual doctors, use their practice’s profile. I usually have a hard time remembering the names of practices. In this case, look up their personal Facebook profiles, and see whether they list their practices in the “About me” section. If they do not, search on Google for their names, and be sure to include “optometrist.” This search often nets their business info.

While searching, also look for other industry-related profiles and groups that garner discussion and fresh content. You can do this by searching for keywords, such as “optometry,” “optical” or “OD.” Don’t forget the king: “ODs on Facebook.” You might at first think that group does not have content your fans would like. To the contrary, there are many posts that they surely would. For example, a recent photo of a man yawning with the text “Your eyes water when you yawn because you miss your bed and it makes you sad…” is a posting I promptly downloaded and shared.

POST THE CONTENT

Look for the content that has the most engagement on the originating page. If it’s doing well on that page, it should do well on yours too!

On Facebook, this is done by clicking “Share,” after which the content will be posted to your page. Remember to make sure you are posting to your practice’s Facebook page vs. your personal profile. (For tips on how to avoid this, check out August’s “Social Media” column “Put Your Best Face Forward.”)

In closed groups, it can be a challenge to get the content out. What has worked for me is to click on the image, download it and re-post it on my page with my own commentary. I will often ask for permission to share the picture by commenting in the original thread or sending a message to the original poster.

On Twitter, shared content will be in the form of a “retweet.” When clicking the retweet symbol, two arrows that make a square and appear below each individual tweet, Twitter will put a label on it to indicate it’s a retweet. If you repurpose a tweet without using the button, you can include an “RT” or an “MT,” for modified tweet, in front of the text, and tag the originator to credit him or her.

Park Slope Eye re-posted this content from “ODs on Facebook.”

ENGAGING FANS

Facebook and Twitter both provide functions that allow you to create a list of profiles or pages. Create a list, or multiple lists, for the sources you have gathered. Doing so will make it easier to pull information from multiple sources.

Content creation is a challenge for some. However, there is no need to stress or avoid using social media. Simply work with what’s available to keep your profile active and fresh. OM

JUSTIN BAZAN, O.D., is the founder of Park Slope Eye, in Brooklyn, N.Y. He is a member of the AOA, NYSOA and the AAOMC. In 2014, he received financial compensation for services from Allergan, Bausch + Lomb, Vision Service Plan, Luxottica, The Vision Council and Foster Grant. Visit tinyurl.com/OMcomment to comment on this article.