Useful Ideas, Great Resources and Important Info on Web and Social Media for Your Practice

There's been a crescendo of interest in CLICK, Vision Monday's twice-a-month e-newsletter that helps brief ECPs about web technology and internet trends. And our first CLICK Conference, “Social Climbing,” sponsored by Hoya Vision Care, generated tremendous response, Facebook posts and Tweets as our keynote speaker from YELP and ECP experts shared their social media strategies. Want to see what happened at the Conference? Check out the special re-cap in our last edition of CLICK.

And take a brief tour through the easy-to-access archives of CLICK, where you can catch up and learn from dozens of stories, tips and interesting ideas. It's located 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

Dallas OD Launches iPhone ‘iSight’ Frame Finder App for Patients

DALLAS —Insight Complete Eye Care, a North-Dallas eyecare practice which prides itself on its advanced eye exam technology for patients and its high-end, designer eyewear dispensary, is now offering a way for patients to find the perfect glasses for their face from its new Insight Frame Finder, a new iPhone app available for free from the iTunes store

To get a mirror-image in a new pair of glasses, users can download the free Insight Frame Finder app on their iPhone, snap a quick headshot of themselves, and then choose from 150 stylish frames for men, women and children, from collections featured at the practice, using the Insight Frame Finder.

Users can select frames from a fashion eyewear library of optical frames and sunglasses, mark favorites, and then “try them on” the picture of their face by scrolling left or right with a quick touch of their hand to the screen. Frames can be “sized” to fit their picture with another fast, easy flick. When a user finds the right frames, they can save their selections in their phone, call Insight Complete Eye Care to have them immediately shipped, or visit the location for a personalized fitting.

“Our goal is to make finding new frames as easy and tech-savvy as a visit to Insight Complete Eye Care,” said Ivan Bank, OD, FAAO. “We combine fashion with state-of-the-art technology to offer our patients the best in care for their eyes.”

Insight Complete Eye Care emphasizes advanced eyecare technology, such as Optomap, an advanced imaging device that tracks the health of the eye by producing a digital image of the back of the eye, and the Zeiss iTerminal, a new technology for measuring and dispensing glasses. Insight’s 3,000-square foot. facility features a sophisticated, modern design environment.

Bank, who’s been in practice for 25 years, told CLICK that the Insight Frame Finder, which launched Sept. 1, has had 1,000 downloads to date. The practice has posted about it on its web site, promoted on its Facebook and Twitter pages, has talked about it with local businesses and schools to draw attention to it. People have come into the practice with choices made on the app, which in turn has led to increased sales and new exam bookings, he noted. The office keeps it posted on an iPad at the front desk, which generates interest and lively discussion and ‘demos.’

Said Bank, “We collaborated with an outside developer to create the App and really did it to be innovative and draw attention to this new upscale office and to the collections we carry. We are already working to update it and, based on the response we’ve received, we are now firming up plans to take this outside to others.“

Creating Your Own Internal Practice Social Network With Yammer.com

By Alan Glazier, OD, FAAO

ROCKVILLE, Md.—There are new tools that are changing the way companies communicate internally, referred to as “Enterprise Social Networks.” Enterprise social networks offer private and secure social network you can set up for sharing within your company.

We are using Yammer.com in our practice. Yammer is designed for functionality like other popular social networks such as Facebook and Twitter, but its backbone is enterprise-grade software structured to meet and drive business objectives.

Yammer enables users to communicate, collaborate, and share more easily and efficiently. Yammer reduces the need for meetings, increases communication across silos, highlights pockets of expertise and connects remote workers.

With Yammer you can microblog privately within your organization, holding conversations, collaborating in real-time with co-workers on site and around the globe. You can direct message (DM) individual or a select group of co-workers, hiding the conversation from the rest of the network. Yammer enables you to share documents throughout the company or join teams that are set up on Yammer in order to collaborate. You can even set up your yammer account to collaborate with partners outside of your network, with settings that enable you to control what part of your network they can participate in and what they can’t. Yammer even has iPhone, BlackBerry, Android and Windows Mobile applications, so you can take your office conversations with you to wherever you are working.

Some of Yammer’s other features include:

• Company Directory—Use Yammer to connect with employees in other departments.
• Knowledge Base—Search your organized knowledge base, each conversation is archived and fully searchable.
• Administrative Tools—Keep your Yammer network running smoothly with a suite of admin features built to increase control.
• Security—Message privately and securely in the cloud.
• Topics—Tag content and messages in your network to make content easy to organize and discover.
• Applications—Install Yammer and third-party applications to increase the functionality of your network.

In our office, Yammer is quickly replacing email as a means of internal communications. My young staff loves its Facebook-like qualities, and I love the fact that I can check in on the conversations at my office when I am out.

For example, let's say the office manager gets a call regarding a patient issue that the ophthalmic tech needs to address. They will Yam it to them, a conversation will ensue, the solution to the issue will come to light and the tech will communicate to the office manager via Yammer on implemenation of the issue and report patient satisfaction. Also, the front desk communicates with the back office rather than buzzing them and requiring someone to pick up the phone, specifically on issues that don't require immediate attention.

It is also helpful to have a rolling record of action items that my office manager can request, review and ensure the appropriate actions were taken in a timely and efficient manner. I really appreciate the low cost. BasicbYammer functions are available for free, and more sophisticated options cost $5 per employee per month—very affordable for a small to midsized business in our industry.

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.