Eye Care Social Media Marketing Ideas to Boost Engagement

10/14/20 | by Terrnekia Collier | Social Media

In the era of social media, engagement from your followers has a big impact on your ability to be able to build meaningful connections. For businesses in today’s world, having a social media presence helps to increase your brand on and offline while also attracting more potential patients and keeping them updated on all things relating to your practice.

Do you want to get started on prompting your followers to engage with your content online more? Follow along as we list 4 eye care social media marketing ideas to boost your engagement and reach your target audience.

Idea #1: Join in on Real Conversations With Your Followers

No one wants to feel like they’re screaming into the void when they attempt to talk to someone, and that’s online and in reality. Your patients want to know that you hear them and acknowledge everything they’re saying, whether it’s a concern they have or a general eye care-related question.

Jump right into the conversation and don’t overthink your response. You should display professionalism just as you would in person because you are representing your business online but also remember to be personable.

You can be professional while also being fun and charming! Don’t send the same cookie-cutter automated response to every follower that mentions you. Communication is key with your followers and tailoring your response to the question will let your audience know that you are not just copying and pasting the same information to everyone who asks a question. Avoid this problem by creating a template of responses for a variety of customer service or appointment related questions.

Here are a few more DON’TS when it comes to managing your social comments and messages:

Don’t – Respond harshly or rude to negative comments. These can sometimes feel like personal attacks, but patients are voicing their opinion. So take into account what they’re saying and come to a resolution that makes everyone happy.

Don’t – Constantly have grammar or spelling mistakes on the content you post online. Double-check your copy or have someone review it with fresh eyes to catch any errors.

Don’t – Ignore messages or comments. They interacted with one of your social media posts with the intent of conversing with you, so give them what they came for. Even if you may not have the time to respond, liking their comment is a great second option.

Idea #2: Reach a Wider Audience by Producing Industry Video Content

For social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, video has largely become one of the most popular types of media that help to increase likes, shares, comments, and retweets.

6 Video Ideas for Your Eye Care Practice’s Social Media Strategy:

Introduce your eye care team to your followers online. This helps them to become familiar with the people who work in your office. Share what your staff’s favorite fact about the human eye is, what they like to do in their spare time, and what got them interested in the eye care profession.

Give your audience a look behind the scenes in your office. What does your day-to-day schedule look like for everyone in the office? Let your followers have a sneak peek and give them insight into your job as an eye care professional.

Explain the services that you offer to patients. Although your services may be listed on your practice’s website, people are more likely to be engaged with a video versus reading text. From routine eye exams to LASIK surgery or frame selection, give them more information on what you can provide for them.

General eye health videos are always a plus because they can be fun and informative! Tell your followers what they can do to keep their eyes healthy, prevent eye infections, care for their contact lenses, and more. This is a simple way to increase your views because patients are interested in what they can do to maintain optimal eye health.

Are you hosting or attending an event in your local area? Post about it! Get your audience involved and amplify your voice online. Community involvement is great to show that although eye care is important to you, so are your friends and neighbors.

Share a patient testimonial. People want to hear about the experiences that others have had with businesses before they decide to visit. A testimonial is just an in-depth review of your practice from a loyal patient that you trust. Get them talking about what they love about your practice and why they decide to keep coming back.

Idea #3: Listen, Learn, and Reflect

Do you know what users are saying about your business online? Social media is a free tool that you have at your disposal to utilize for receiving feedback on what patients love and things that you can possibly improve on.

This feedback can be about anything you want it to be. Do you want to know how patients feel about the content you post? The services you provide, or their experience at your practice? Ask about it online.

A few ways that you can listen and learn from your followers include:

Conducting Polls or Surveys – many of the social platforms now have this feature that allows your followers to vote on different options.

Evaluating Social Analytics – your analytics gives you extensive information on how well each of your social posts is performing with your audience. You can see how many views, likes, shares, retweets, comments, mentions, or use of any personal hashtags are happening.

Managing Your Comments and Messages – this last one is fairly obvious. If you want to know how your followers feel about your social content, just read what they have to say, take it into account, and use this information to either more content that is similar or maybe try something else.

Idea #4: Create Social Posts That are Applicable to Timely Trends

Addressing trending and relevant topics are one of the easiest ways to increase your engagement. Users are already discussing these topics, so jump on in and contribute to the conversation with engaging posts. You can use:

Seasonal or Celebratory Posts – these posts are timely or relevant for your following and help to keep your page fresh and engaged with updates. Some examples include Healthy Vision Month, Diabetic Eye Disease Awareness Month, and Glaucoma Awareness Month.

Client Education – these posts can be used to inform your clients on a wide variety of eye care topics ranging from general health to more in-depth surgical procedures.

Preventative Care – these posts raise awareness while also encouraging patients to schedule appointments or follow-ups for comprehensive eye exams.

For a little extra fun, try these ideas out as well.

*Bonus Ideas:

Play a game of trivia with your followers
Hold social media contests
Offer discounts on promotions on your social channel

Read On: How to Boost Online Engagement

Get Active on Social Now! Download Our Free Social Media Kit

So many of your patients are most likely already active online, so all it takes is one click to follow you. Hang signs around your office with your social media channels and include links to your profiles in your emails to increase follower growth.

Begin implementing these social media marketing ideas at your practice and get more positive changes in your online engagement. To make it easy for you, we have created a social media kit with ready-to-use posts that you can publish on your social media channels. The kit includes a variety of educational and seasonal eye care posts you can use to engage with your social followers.