Jennifer Tsai, OD, and Nishan Pressley, OD, or @drjenandjuice and @askdrnish to their Instagram followers, use their profiles to educate a large audience on eye care education. With more than 213,000 and 110,000 followers on the platform, respectively, both doctors say creating content that is relatable and authentic has helped to build their businesses.

Here, they share tips on how they approach Instagram.

BEING AUTHENTIC

Dr. Tsai, founder of LINE OF SIGHT Vision, New York City, began her Instagram account as a travel blogger. She said she was initially concerned the platform would not be appropriate for optometry-related content but grew out of this mindset, inspired to show you can display your whole authentic self on the platform.

“When you are able to integrate your personality and your lifestyle, you become more relatable,” she says.

Dr. Pressley, of DPA Eyecare, in Altamonte Springs, Fla., began her Instagram channel to educate about eye health. She says she sees the value in creating content as a young, Black optometrist, relating a story of an 82-year-old Black man who grew emotional seeing her enter a room in her white coat.

“People truly feel tied to you,” she says. “Be authentic and tell your story, because you never know who you’re going to motivate or how you’re going to help someone.”

POPULAR POSTS

Dr. Pressley says she is motivated to encourage optometry as a career, showcased by one of her most popular posts, with more than 22 million views, about being a woman who can have a career and a family. Other popular posts of hers include one on how to remove contact lenses with fake nails on, and how to safely apply eyelashes.

Dr. Tsai says posts that have done well reflect her commitment to being authentic on the platform. One about blue light technology had more than 650,000 views; one about a patient mistaking chlamydia in their eye for pink eye had more than 2 million views; and her posts during New York Fashion Week averaged between 200,000 and 600,000 views.

ADVICE FOR NEW USERS

Dr. Tsai says her audience is made up of potential patients, students, colleagues, and brands. Before posting, she says she asks herself, “does this make sense for the people who are following me?” It’s OK if a post can’t appeal to the whole audience at once, she adds.

Dr. Tsai recommends working within the Instagram platform, using trending audio to make Instagram Reels videos, coupled with informative, accessible captions.

For those new to Instagram, Dr. Pressley recommends using the “Insights” menu in the mobile version of the app. Using this, she keeps track of what time her users are most active and what posts have the most reach and engagement, and uses this to plan future posts. She suggests keeping a consistent posting schedule of three-to-four times a week, if not every day. OM