'Social Climbing'—The First-Ever CLICK Conference

Join us as we explore the important new realm of social media from a special group of experts from outside and within the optical field at the first-ever CLICK Conference!

The Conference, sponsored exclusively by Hoya Vision Care, will be held Oct. 7 in Las Vegas, 8 a.m. to 10 a.m., just prior to the opening of International Vision Expo West.

The CLICK Conference keynoter is John Garnin of YELP.com, certainly one of the most influential forces in the area of customer recommendations and consumer reviews. Also featured are: Brad Childs, executive vice president and COO of Eyetique, the 7-unit Pittsburgh optical boutique; Nathan Bonilla-Warford, OD, FAAO, of Bright Eyes Family Vision Care, Tampa, Fla., a social media evangelist and chair of the social media committee of the College of Optometrists in Vision Development, and Kelly Kerksick, OD, Director of Professional Services, Vision Source.

The CLICK Conference program is geared to ECPs and optical retailers. Space is very limited, so check out the details and register now.

Vision Monday’s CLICK offers a one-of-a-kind perspective and useful info about how optical ECPs and retailers can better develop a strong online presence and connect to patients. You can catch up on CLICK and learn from dozens of stories, tips from ECPs and interesting ideas in the easy-to-access archives of CLICK 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

Social Media Use by Adults 50+ Is Expanding Fast

NEW YORK —As eyecare professionals look to assess their online presence as a way to connect with patients, new data shows that social media is not just the province of millenials and younger users. Today, one in five adults 50 to 64 years old are using social media networks regularly.

So says one of the latest reports out of the Pew Internet & American Life organization, which regularly monitors developments in the digital media world.

While social media use has grown dramatically across all age groups, older users have been especially enthusiastic over the past year about embracing new networking tools. Social networking use among internet users ages 50 and older nearly doubled—from 22 percent in April 2009 to 42 percent in May 2010, according to Pew's latest report on Older Americans and Social Media.

• Between April 2009 and May 2010, social networking use among internet users ages 50 to 64 grew by 88 percent—from 25 percent to 47 percent.
• During the same period, use among those ages 65 and older grew 100 percent—from 13 percent to 26 percent.
• By comparison, social networking use among users ages 18 to 29 grew by 13 percent—from 76 percent to 86 percent.

“Young adults continue to be the heaviest users of social media, but their growth pales in comparison with recent gains made by older users,” explained Mary Madden, senior research specialist and author of the report. “Email is still the primary way that older users maintain contact with friends, families and colleagues, but many older users now rely on social network platforms to help manage their daily communications.”

• One in five (20 percent) online adults ages 50 to 64 say they use social networking sites on a typical day, up from 10 percent one year ago.
• Among adults ages 65 and older, 13 percent log on to social networking sites on a typical day, compared with just 4 percent who did so in 2009.

At the same time, the use of status update services like Twitter has also grown—particularly among those ages 50 to 64. One in ten internet users ages 50 and older now say they use Twitter or another service to share updates about themselves or see updates about others.

This report is based on the findings of a daily tracking survey on Americans' use of the internet. The results in this report are primarily based on data from telephone interviews conducted by Princeton Survey Research Associates International between April 29 and May 30, 2010, among a sample of 2,252 adults, age 18 and old.

Finding Groups With Like Interests on Meetup.com

By Alan Glazier, OD, FAAO

ROCKVILLE, Md.— Meetup.com describes itself as the “world's largest network of local groups.” Meetup makes it easy for anyone to organize a local group or find one of the thousands already meeting up face-to-face.

Meetup.com is helpful in finding meetings, attending meetings or setting up meetings. It helps connect people with like interests and brings them together to discuss. You type in your “topic of interest” and your zip code and groups in your area pop up that are meeting over the topics you search for. You can also create your own meetings and manage meetings of groups with like interests that meet regularly to discuss specific topics.

With meetup, it is possible to create groups of interest surrounding your business interests. For example, if you are an ophthalmologist or optometrist, you can set up and lead a meetup with the subject Lasik and use it as a platform to market yourself as the expert in your area. You can set up a meetup of local business owners, creating your own “leads” group. You can also use the search function in meetup to find pre-existing groups that you might benefit from by attending their meetings, such as a group of parents who discuss child health issues or a macular degeneration meetup group.

Meetup.com is an incredibly useful tool for patient education and can be even more effective than Facebook events. Meetup’s reach is much farther as it is on the internet and anyone interested in your topic can find it, whereas your Facebook event goes out only to your contacts. You can find almost any type of group you can imagine on meetup.

I created a meetup for people who would like to discuss refractive surgery options in our city. We plan on having a doctor at each meetup on the third Wednesday or Thursday of every month. We hope not only to gain Lasik patients from the meetup, but to gain patients who have had undesired results and need our help and advice, which is a great practice builder.

Alan N. Glazier, OD, FAAO is the founder/CEO of Shady Grove Eye and Vision Care in Rockville, Md. A search and social optimization consultant, he is now a regular contributor to CLICK and also writes a regular blog for SightNation.com. Glazier is at aglazier@youreyesite.com and his regular posts can be found via his Twitter handle: @EyeInfo, his blog: eyeinfo.wordpress.com and his website: YourEyeSite.com.