Social Media: What Do You Need To Know?
Listen to the Experts, Sign Up for The CLICK Conference

There are still just a few seats left for The 2nd Annual CLICK Conference. A great set of speakers is set for the program which will be held on Thursday, Sept. 22, 2011, just prior to the start of International Vision Expo West in Las Vegas. Sponsored by The Hoya Free-Form Company, the 2011 CLICK Conference will be held at the Sands/Venetian Convention Center, from 7:30 a.m. to 9:30 a.m

This year's CLICK Conference theme is "Social Circles," which will feature leading web experts and colleagues from the eyecare professional community who are going to examine how social influence is changing brands' and businesses' profiles on the web and what's working best for them.

"Social Circles" Speakers include: Nathan Bonilla-Warford, OD. of Bright Eyes Tampa and Suzanne Berardi-Gould of Doctors Vision Center.

Plus...A Digital Media Expert Panel:

• Tony Hessburg, president and Richard Mueller technology director, ELEVEN
• Daniel Feldman, CEO, DBA Communications
• Tim Welch, managing partner, eMarketing|PrizeLogic
• Panel Moderator: VM/CLICK editorial director Marge Axelrad

Make your plans now! Registration is still open!

—The Editors

A New Opportunity for ECPs:
Brand Pages on Foursquare

By Nathan Bonilla-Warford, OD, FAAO

TAMPA, Fla.—While Google+ continues to capture headlines, most recently with the rollout of Google's games, Foursquare has quietly announced a change that more directly benefits ECPs. Businesses have the option of creating and maintaining brand pages now on the location-based mobile platform. By "checking in" via a smartphone app or SMS, users share their location with friends while collecting points and virtual badges.

Foursquare brand pages are similar to Facebook Pages for the location based service. This is an important change and it reflects that now that Foursquare has over 10 million users, the time is right for Foursquare to spend more time and effort developing relationships with businesses of all sizes.

Until now, optometrists and opticians previously had the option of marketing with Foursquare only as a physical location, known a venue. Patients "check in" the practice and share this information with friends on other social networks. As an example, you can see my practice venue and some of the ways we use the venue to market the practice.

But there are limitations to a venue account. They aren't mobile. Practice venues can't check in at other locations and cannot leave comments, called tips, for other businesses. In turn some businesses created a personal account to use professionally, which caused confusion. To solve this problem, Foursquare created brand accounts to provide some of the personal account features for businesses.

Originally, only very large companies like Intel, Starbucks, and CNN had brand accounts. Unfortunately, there was a complicated application process and long delays for official foursquare approval. However, the new self-service process is easy to use and opens it up to any small business. While businesses do not have to have a Foursquare venue, it does require a practice, not personal, Twitter account.

Setting up a Foursquare brand account allows your practice brand to get noticed in new ways:

• Use tips at your practice location to showcase specific elements you wish to promote such as specialty areas of care, featured brands, and Foursquare specials.
• Use tips at the locations of business partners to highlight your relationship with them and the excellent service they provide.
• Support neighborhood businesses with local tips. They'll recognize this and reciprocate.
• If your practice sponsors or participates in local events, use your brand page to check in to the event early so people that participants will notice your involvement.
• Be sure to allow your page to be featured in Foursquare's brand page gallery!

If Foursquare is popular in your area, it makes sense to take advantage of this free marketing opportunity. To get started read this setup guide from Foursquare. Cnet's step-by-step guide is also helpful. And feel free to ask me any questions at Doc@BrightEyesTampa.com.

Nathan Bonilla-Warford, OD, FAAO, Bright Eyes Family Vision Care, Tampa, Fla., is an optometrist specializing in the vision of infants and children. A social media evangelist, he helped create "Peripheral Vision" which educates eyecare professionals about social media. Dr. Warford was a speaker at the first CLICK Conference last year and is ALSO on the program for this year's Sept. 22 event. He is the chair of the social media committee of the College of Optometrists in Vision Development and is chair of the Florida Optometric Association's Children's Vision Committee. He founded Foursquare Day in March 2010.

Hoya's Animated Professor Murray Hosts a Virtual Lab Tour

LEWISVILLE, Tex.—Patients and eyecare professionals have the opportunity to be educated and entertained by the animated charter, Professor Murray, on a new virtual lab tour entitled The Life of a Hoya Free Form Lens. The new video enables patients to see one of the industry's most advanced lens technologies from their own home or doctor's office.

"At The Hoya Free-Form Company we are continuing our commitment to help ECPs differentiate their practices," said Ron Barnes, director of project marketing. Barnes continued, "The first videos in the Professor Murray series were so popular we had to produce more. Hoya accounts continue to use these videos both for in-office loops and embedding on their websites. The one-of-a-kind Professor Murray concept engages new and existing customers and promotes practice differentiation. When used via social media, patients are driven to independent practices rather than unknown digital store fronts."

Hoya accounts have exclusive access to download eTools, such as the new virtual lab tour, the Professor Murray animated video series, and other social media content designed to promote independent practices on TheHoyaFreeFormCompany.com.

Dr. Matthew Richardson noted, "Not only does Hoya bring to market an unsurpassed combination of technology and high-quality product, they also provide ECPs with amazing educational media for our staff and patients." Richardson attended an exclusive screening of the new animated video at a meeting of 100 of the nation's leading ECPs last month in Chicago. "The use of this type of animation will help our patients have a greater appreciation for what makes their vision possible," he added.

Professor Murray's virtual lab tour, The Life of a Hoya Free Form Lens, is also posted on Hoya's YouTube channel and Facebook page.

Keepstream

If you've ever wished for a way to help you organize Tweets and save them for future use, Keepstream is a new option. It's a social media curation tool that helps organize tweets, Facebook posts, and website bookmarks into shareable, embeddable collection pages. Collections are useful for bloggers, marketers, or just about anyone who wants to curate the chatter from a conference or event, a news headline, or a hashtag chat. Keepstream provides a powerful free tool for finding and archiving the important social content you want to save.

Webbiquity

Webbiquity is a blog written by a marketing consultancy, KC Associates, geared to helping people enhance their company's online presence and success. Tom Pick's award-winning WebMarketCentral blog (now Webbiquity) covers B2B lead generation, social media, interactive PR, SEO and search engine marketing. He's been named one of the 50 most influential B2B marketing thought leaders, written numerous articles on web marketing and social networking for various publications, and presented at blogging and social media conferences. The blog features noteworthy books and recent posts as well as reviews of new content management systems.

Four Eyes Pride Week
Breit Eyes Contest

Essilor's Airwear lenses is declaring this week, Sept. 5 -11, 2011,"Four Eyes Pride Week," to encourage consumers to wear their glasses with pride. For the celebration, Essilor and Airwear have partnered with iconic artist and healthy vision advocate Mary Engelbreit to ask fans to change their Facebook profile picture during the week to one of themselves wearing glasses. During "Four Eyes Pride Week" and throughout the entire month of September, Airwear and Mary Engelbreit are also asking parents to visit Facebook.com/AirwearLenses or LighterSaferGreener.com to enter the "Breit Eyes" contest. By submitting a photo of their child being "lighter, safer or greener" while wearing glasses, parents have a chance to win one-of-a-kind prizes from Mary Engelbreit. One lucky grand prize winner will receive an original sketch by Engelbreit in the likeness of the child in the winning photo, plus a trip to tour Engelbreit's St. Louis studio. One runner up will receive a collection of children's books authored and signed by Engelbreit.

The contest begins on Sept. 1 and ends on Sept. 30 and is open to U.S. residents who are 18 years of age or older.

Superior Vision on Social Media

Superior Vision, a leader in managed vision care benefits, launched its new social media program including a presence on Facebook, Twitter and an enhanced LinkedIn profile and page. The program has been developed to enhance communications with its member and customer audiences, further the understanding of vision benefits, and share eye and vision care information. Superior Vision has also reinvigorated the Vision Care Learning Center on its revamped Superior Vision website to be a dynamic source of eye and vision health, and overall wellness information.

The company Facebook page kicks off with a sweepstakes that runs from Sept. 6th through Oct. 1st. Fans of the Superior Vision Services Facebook page can enter the sweepstakes for a chance to win an iPad2.

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