Instagram Corner

CAPTION LENGTH

If you’ve done your due diligence and have been scrolling and interacting with other social content on your platforms, then you may have noticed a trend toward longer captions. Longer captions do give you more room to explain yourself, however you may also lose the reader’s attention with them. Let’s look at the numbers:

From SproutSocial: Instagram’s caption limit is 2,200 characters; the preview of the caption is limited to 125 characters.

A study from Quintly (which can be found, with a wealth of additional information, at bit.ly/QuintlyStudy ) demonstrates that posts with 1 to 50 characters tend to receive more interactions.

So, what’s the answer? Experiment with different lengths, and track your analytics. Or, keep captions between 1 to 50 words, preferably on content that is a video, but that’s a separate Instagram Corner.

Observances

■ HEALTHY AGING MONTH

IN CONJUNCTION WITH HEALTHY AGING MAGAZINE, the American Optometric Association encourages celebrating healthy aging month.

Top-of-mind for this observance should be a call to action to schedule one’s comprehensive eye exam. Annual check-ups, as you know, both preserve one’s health and can prevent issues in the future. This is a great place to employ memes or jokes. For example, Jerry Seinfeld rocking some Coke-bottle glasses in this gif (bit.ly/GiphySeinfeldGlasses ) or poor Velma from the Scooby-Doo crew who can’t see without her glasses (bit.ly/GiphyVelmaGlasses ) would be great to share. Example text to consider: “Little makes you feel older than not being able to see properly. In honor of Healthy Aging Month, be sure that you have your comprehensive eye exam scheduled, so that we can help you to preserve your vision and work to prevent future vision problems.”

Additionally, the NEI provides a great resource to help connect the dots between good systemic health and healthy aging eyes: bit.ly/NEIHealthyAging . It includes a link to resources like the one pictured here. NEI-medialibrary-4120483

■ PARAOPTOMETRIC RECOGNITION MONTH?

THE AOA also celebrates September as Paraoptometric Recognition Month. Take a few moments to celebrate your allied health professionals. Here are ways to do so on social media:

• Individual posts. Create individual posts for your staff members describing who they are and what they do at your office. Include a photo and, perhaps, a fun fact your patients can use to connect with them.
• Group post. Take a staff photo, and shout them out for their hard work. If you have a large staff, do it in groupings, such as technicians.

Find resources for your paraoptometric staff via the AOA Paraoptometric Resource Center at bit.ly/AOAParaResource .

Use Twitter Hashtags to Connect 0nline

Sept. 6: #ReadABookDay

Sept. 12: #NationalVideoGamesDay

Sept. 19: #TalkLikeAPirateDay “Aye, matey, let me see your eyes.”

Sept. 29: #InternationalCoffeeDay