Looking at Social And Digital Tools With A Fresh Eye

Connecting with patients and potential customers can be a lively experience. Eye care professionals are bringing a fresh eye towards their presence on Facebook, Twitter and other social media sites. And there is a range of new tools available to help change up the communication and education experience with patients.

CLICK, Vision Monday's e-newsletter, continues to be an essential resource in its twice-monthly briefings to ECPs about web technology and Internet developments.

Past articles, featuring specific examples, programs and tips that you can use today, are available in our CLICK Archive. Also in the CLICK Arhive are dozens of Cool Tools and important Sites to See which offer content and resource ideas for your sites and your social media activities. The easy-to-access Archives are located under the CLICK button at www.visionmonday.com.

Have you tried something new on your website or launched a special social media campaign? Tell us about it and we'll consider it for an upcoming feature in CLICK.

—The Editors

Through Animation And Video, Hoya Vision’s “Professor Murray” Teaches Lens Options

LEWISVILLE, Tex. — A new character’s in town. It’s “Professor Murray,” a unique kind of animated character video series, developed by Hoya Vision.

The just-launched series, “is very creative and we’ve put it in a format that doctors can use with a patient in a high-tech environment, to explain Hoya technology,” said Ron Barnes, director of project marketing for The Hoya Free-Form Company.

Hoya is taking video technology to a new medium in the internet optical space by introducing Professor Murray, an online electronic personality and spokesperson sure to educate and entertain eye care professionals and consumers alike. Professor Murray demonstrates Hoya’s lens and treatment advancements in a 3D environment, incorporating animation and messaging that demonstrates the best technology on the market in a fun, yet understandable format.

“Eye care professionals are looking for ways to present Hoya’s Free-Form design technology to prospective patients – not only the superiority in Hoya lens design and manufacturing, but also the results or benefits a patient will achieve through the investment in their vision. Patients already get the ‘WOW’ when their Hoya lenses are dispensed, now we’ll achieve the ‘AHA’ during the purchasing decision. I think we have a winner in Professor Murray by relating high-tech products through a high-tech, fun presentation,” Barnes said.

The Professor Murray animation will be supported by actual video demonstrations patients will easily relate to and understand. Subsequent videos will also introduce a 3D professional female OD to complement the Murray character.

There will be a large social media component for Professor Murray, Barnes told CLICK. Professor Murray and colleague will dominate all electronic media through dedicated Facebook pages and YouTube Channel, blogs, waiting room videos -- and, the ability to embed the videos on ECP sites.

“This is truly just the beginning, ”said Barnes, “by taking advantage of the recently released HOYA Lens Selector and now the ongoing series of Professor Murray videos, patients will experience the need for premium technology, premium options and multiple pairs in an exciting production….and the opportunity to provide our loyal Hoya accounts’ websites a breathe of fresh air. Again, our goal is to use electronic media to drive patients to ECP offices versus the likelihood of patients getting lost forever in some cyberspace online shop.”

A CLICK Reader Sees The Power of Facebook

CALGARY, Alberta, Canada —

Tom Wilk, OD, who operates Mountain View Optometry in Calgary and Cochrane, in Alberta, Canada, wrote in to CLICK at the end of February, to share his recent success starting the company’s Facebook presence.

“As per your request for social media campaign feedback, to kick off our new company Facebook page (just two weeks ago), we sent an email blast to all our patients announcing it. To encourage them to sign up, we did a glasses giveaway promo. We announced that we are aiming to get to 1,000 fans this year, so for every 100 fans that sign up, we give away a free pair of prescription eyeglasses, up to 1,000 fans in total.

“By the second day after the email went out,” Wilk writes, “we had 240 fans sign up and had given away two pairs of glasses. We have steadily been gaining fans since then and should have 300 fans by next week. The power of this medium is astounding - we had 12,000 post views before the first week was up!”

The Mountain View Optometry homepage features a range of practice and eyecare information, including a signup for an email newsletter, visible posts of user reviews and a request to review the practice on Yelp.com.

Of the practice’s Facebook debut, Wilk told CLICK, “This is cheap advertising. For the number of ‘exposures’ to existing patient and potential new patients, it's a tremendous value for the money. It's all about Permission Marketing, to use Seth Godin's terminology, regular marketing communication with your patient base to keep your business front of mind.

“Mind you, we have been collecting emails for years and communicating with our patients regularly this way, so we have over 7,000 email addresses representing maybe 10,000 patients. However, anyone who has an email database should definitely do this to get their social media campaign going.

“Thanks for the great newsletter.”

Tom Wilk O.D.
Mountain View Optometry
Calgary, Alberta
CANADA