Twitter

→ Use hashtags to connect with patients online.

#CrisisMode

AS MANY FLOCK to Twitter for their #coronavirus pandemic news — the hashtag is the second most used one of 2020 with a COVD-19-related tweet sent every 45 milliseconds, according to the company — let’s take a moment and discuss how it can be utilized in times of crisis to communicate with patients.

1. Provide business news. Millennials and other age groups look to social media to provide information about your business. Hop on to either reassure your patients that you are open and available or to make them aware of any changes to normal business.
2. Provide pertinent information. In the case of the #coronavirus, this could include steps for contact lens hygiene; how to order/reorder contact lenses, ocular nutritional supplements, glaucoma medications, or other products provided by your office; and how to reach the office in the case of an ocular emergency.
3. Engage with your patients. Take a look at what hashtags are trending and, perhaps, see it as an opportunity to engage with your consumers as time and severity allows. For example, at the time of this writing, #2020inoneword is trending locally. Optometrists may use this to engage and positively reinforce that they are there for their patients, perhaps by saying “teamwork” and posting a photo of their staff members.

Twitter offers a “Pin post” feature in a drop down to the top righthand corner of the Tweet. Pin important information tweets, such as any changes in schedule. Twitter also offers more on how to communicate in a crisis on its blog https://bit.ly/3daPOiW .

Instagram Corner

WHAT HASHTAGS SHOULD I USE?

Last month, we discussed “Should I be on Instagram?” (bit.ly/3cATKcH .) This month: how to identify and use hashtags. To recap, we have discussed using #optometry, #optometrist, #optometrists and #eyecare.

To identify others, search terms on Instagram relevant to your practice. Note the number of posts that use the hashtag, found within the search results. Ideally, the hashtags you use will have a large enough number of posts to be relevant, but not so many that your content will get lost. For example, #sportsvision has six posts but #sports has 34.8 million posts. However, #sportstraining has 173,000.

You likely will use a combination of hashtags, some more specific than others. Following the above, perhaps the post portrays #baseballpractice, with six-figures of posts, but also #baseball with 17.1 million posts.

Eye Awareness Month: Women & Sports

APRIL IS WOMEN’S EYE HEALTH AND SAFETY MONTH, according to Prevent Blindness. The nonprofit provides five images that can highlight eye care challenges for women. Download them at preventblindness.org/infographics-archive . Utilize them in conjunction with facts about female eye health and the need for annual comprehensive exams. Be sure to provide your contact information.

Another way to observe Women's Eye Health month is for your female staffers to discuss, perhaps in a brief video, their eye health issues and/or a specific eye health issues facing women, such as dry eye disease.

• April is also sports eye safety month, according to the American Academy of Ophthalmology. Consider using images of pick-up games, via stock images or gifs from popular movies, such as "Sandlot" to both provide nostalgia that your audience may be craving and to raise awareness of ocular injuries on your social media accounts. Provide information about the services you offer, specifically emergent eye care, as children and adults playing at home may run into these things during times of social distancing.

The AAO reports an estimated 100,000 people are hurt by sports-related eye injuries, with about 13,500 of these injuries resulting in permanent vision loss. The provided infographic illustrating this is available for download and use on your social media.

→ IMAGE DOWNLOAD LINK
bit.ly/OMtoolkit
All corresponding images are available to download and use for free.