Social media is an integral part of reaching patients, whether a practice performs the task internally or hires an outside group. Here, two practices discuss their experiences.

Jessilin Quint, OD, MBA, MS, FAAO, owner of Maine’s three Smart Eye Care clinics, began handling her practice’s social media about five years ago when she bought the practice.

“At the time, I was the only company leader that had experience with social media, and we were not in a position financially bring on a third party to tackle our social media platforms,” she says.

Dr. Quint found that handling social media internally allows her to take full control of her brand’s online identity. Her posts revolve around patient education, a product or service, a team/community event, a cheeky eye quote, or a business announcement. “Every piece of content should fall within” those categories, she says.

Social media “isn’t just about posting content, it’s also about engaging with your followers,” she says. “I spend just as much time prepping content as I do responding to followers and showing support for other local businesses."

To create the content for her social media channels, Dr. Quint uses programs such as Canva, Typorama, and Photoshop. She notes that posts containing video content tend to get more responses.

The amount of time per month Dr. Quint spends posting varies. For practices that don’t have time for social media, Dr. Quint says there’s no shame in outsourcing.

“It is important to have and maintain a consistent social media presence regardless of how it is done," she says. "My advice would be to get clear on your brand and make sure every post, caption, and hashtag is in line with that brand. People respond to content that is authentic, so be authentic in who you are as a business and do not chase ‘perfection.’”

Danielle M. Peets, COT, OSA, practice manager of Center for Sight in Carmel, Ind., has employed the services of an outside company for the practice’s social media outreach for the last two years. Center for Sight began as an ophthalmology practice and Megan, the social media specialist assigned by the company, originally spread the word about the practice’s LASIK services. Today, Center for Sight also offers optometric and aesthetic services, which Megan helps promote.

“The practice owner and I meet with Megan quarterly. We make a timeline of big items we want to promote,” Ms. Peets says. Once a month, Megan will ask whether the practice is interested in promoting any services and will post accordingly. Megan has also tailored posts to fit the region — last spring, Megan made promotional social media art for the Indiana clinic that evoked the Indianapolis 500.

Reaching patient demographics ­— dry eye, glaucoma, and LASIK patients, for instance — is where social media and Megan are very helpful, Ms. Peets says. For example, for World Glaucoma Week in March, Megan and her company helped the practice organize a glaucoma Q&A session over Zoom.

Without Megan, Ms. Peets says the practice would post much less frequently; with Megan’s help, they currently post several times a week. For any clinics interested in “outsourcing” their social media, she recommends asking other colleagues in the industry or sales representatives, who pointed the clinic toward their provider. OM