1 Get on it
Practices not already using Facebook, Instagram and Twitter were urged to sign up quickly by OptiCommerce digital marketing executive Aashni Shah.
She points out more than 3bn people used social media worldwide.
‘If you’re not already on it then get yourself listed because it is the future,’ Shah says.
Facebook is the most commonly used of these channels, followed by Instagram, Twitter and Linkedin. ‘Social media increases engagement with your clients and can be another way to show how you care for them,’ she adds. ‘Google really loves social media feeds so it is also going to be great for improving your rankings.’
2 High quality posts
Businesses face the task of finding the right tone with their postings, with personalised content working best.
‘Creating and posting relevant, regular and engaging content for your audience is the most important thing you can do,’ says Shah.
In terms of engagement, there is a clear benefit when patients and industry partners ‘like’ posts, leave reviews and share practice content with their friends.
‘Don’t be afraid to ask them to do this, especially if you have a good rapport with them anyway,’ she adds.
3 A picture paints a thousand words
When creating social media content, using strong and high quality images makes all the difference.
‘Images and video is the thing people most engage with in social media pages,’ says Shah.
She estimates posts with images get 2.3 times more engagement, while Facebook Live videos attract six times more engagement.
‘People love real time video and will click just out of curiosity if nothing else,’ she adds. ‘It shows your promises are real and you are credible. When people see all that they will engage more with you.’
4 Stay on trend
Practitioners are encouraged to look out for general news developments that may be of wider interest to their patients and provide new talking points. This might include AMD cures or the use of AI at Moorfields.
‘It shows you are keeping up with your field,’ says Shah. ‘It shows you are informed and keeping your patients up with the news too.’
Flagging up the latest eyewear and accessories also helps build excitement ahead of a practice visit, she adds.
5 Quality over quantity
While adding one link to a posting each week drives healthy traffic, adding too many could have the adverse effect of driving people away from your page. Links to slowly loading pages should also be avoided.
Instead, post regularly and schedule ahead. Don’t worry if you have a relatively low following because Facebook pages with smaller followings often have higher reach and engagement.
Shah says: ‘Remember that consistency is always key and without that you are not going to show up in the feeds of people who you want to see your business.
‘You also need to know which times work best for your posts.’
6 Optimise your content
Practices should aim to optimise their website SEO for organic listings and to get further up the rankings, knowing Google ‘bots and spiders’ scan through the pages and put web pages into a category.
‘It’s all about trying to get your content on there and being relatable to what people are searching for,’ explains OptiCommerce digital development manager Nathan Potts.
Content needs to be updated regularly to maintain rankings, including the look of the page, dates and settings.
7 Use relevant key words
Optical practices can increase their brand identity as a whole by displaying relevant online content.
Using certain key words can effectively double the amount of ‘page real estate’ that is commanded.
By using the right key words, practices can improve their brand perception among current and potential clients.
All this can be done without any adverting spend, and has the knock on effect of making the website more user friendly to generate extra throughput.