‘It was fantastic to win the Social Media Practice of the Year Award again,’ says Yvette Brown, marketing and business development executive at Urquhart Opticians. Brown, managing director Peter Telfer and clinical director Alistair Duff joined 500 other guests at London’s Grosvenor House hotel last December for the first live ceremony since the pandemic. ‘It was a great opportunity to be at the ceremony as in 2020 it was virtual, and we had a team Zoom to watch it. It’s quite different receiving the award in person. We were surprised to win but felt we had done a lot of work from 2020 to 2021 to merit being a finalist,’ says Brown.
Between 2020 and 2021, the business increased its Facebook audience by 30% to 4.5k and in July it had a combined reach of 63k – almost 25% of the Ayrshire population. It also doubled its Instagram following to almost 950, with a reel tour of one of the practices garnering more than 7.5K views. The judges praised the practice for its ‘clear strategy, great ideas with strong community engagement using a variety of platforms’.
Aiding pandemic communication
Social media is integral to Urquhart Optician’s ethos to provide accessibility, educational and informative content and genuine value to the community. During the pandemic, social media was crucial for the independent to connect with patients across its practices in Ayrshire, Dumfries and Galloway. Brown, who continued working throughout the pandemic, says: ‘Our clinical director made new videos on changing nose pads, caring for glasses and cleaning content lenses. Our Facebook messenger was always on, we replied to enquiries within an hour and we used Google Business to enable people to message us directly.’
‘Care and Community’ is one of the business’s core values and this year it has made ‘community’ a key part of its social media strategy. Business growth is based on four social media channels: Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn. Facebook is the independent’s largest platform, with followers approaching 5,000 and 275 five-star reviews. The independent shares news, stories, blogs, videos and its online shop; posting four times a week. Instagram is the practice’s fastest growing platform with nearly 1,100 followers. The most popular content is brand and style-focused stories and reels, which ‘attract a younger audience’. The independent shares business and industry news on LinkedIn and Twitter, which has 500 followers.
‘We tweet two to three times a week and we have a loyal following, especially in the Kilmarnock area as we are digital partner for Kilmarnock Football Club,’ says Brown.
Brand consistency
The practice has three main categories for social media content: style and brands, community and team, and clinical news. A quarterly campaign serves as a running theme behind the categories, which Brown says keeps the messaging consistent. A previous campaign for the practice’s Premium Eye Exam (optical coherence tomography) included social media posts, videos, paid ads and blogs, along with print ads, leaflet and radio adverts with ‘consistent messaging’ throughout.
‘We prepare our social media content calendar a month in advance and, while the content can be fluid, preparing ahead means we’ll never be posting for the sake of it,’ says Brown. ‘We mostly use the same content across our platforms, but some is practice-specific, for example if we have a brand in certain practices or a new team member joins a practice,’ she says.
The independent uses the software company Pramaze to provide automated patient feedback through its practice management system, typically receiving eight to 10 reviews a week. ‘We now have over 200 five-star reviews for our Kilmarnock practice on Google. We know how important feedback is for our new patient win rate,’ adds Brown.
Reel potential
To further enhance its social media presence, Urquhart Opticians is focusing on video content, developing its YouTube channel and plans to use local influencers to promote its brand and products.
‘We’re currently working on using video content in different ways, as reels are the most popular content on Instagram now. We’ve involved team members in our videos to keep content interesting and give each practice exposure. During a charity cycle for the Ayrshire Hospice earlier this year, our clinical director, Alistair, vlogged at each step of the journey and we uploaded these clips on Stories so everyone could follow along on the day,’ she says.
During the summer, the independent also ran a ‘back to school’ campaign, where a local primary school teacher helped produce a video and promoted the campaign on her primary teaching page, which has over 10,000 followers.
‘The campaign was a real success and we have seen a significant rise in appointments and new patient numbers’, says Brown. ‘I’d say to anyone to give videos a try. Being filmed isn’t something everyone is comfortable with but the more you do it the better you’ll become,’ she adds.