Are you struggling with keeping up with your practice social media accounts?
If so, you are not alone.
Most of us have accepted social media as a necessary marketing tool, but few have the time to do a good job maintaining it. Evan Kestenbaum, owner of Optix Family Eyecare Center in Long Island, gives tips on delegating social media to a staff member.
Define Your Social Media Goal
Before passing social media on to a staff member, the business owner must take time to define the end goal of each social media outlet. List each area of social media interaction you will use and describe how your company branding will be promoted. Determine your expected social media ROI along with how you will measure outcomes.
Create Social Media Guidelines
An unambiguous written policy that aligns with your company culture and clearly defines what can and what cannot be said on social media sites will avoid embarrassment. Other questions to answer in your social media guidelines include:
How much time will be spent on social media per day?
- How many posts will be shared?
- Whose posts will I share?
- How much original content will be shared per week?
- How will unpleasant comments from readers be managed?
Read “Social Media Recommendations”, published by the American Optometric Association (AOA) Ethics and Values Committee for ideas to use in creating office guidelines.
Select the Right Person for “Chief Creative Officer”
There are many considerations when selecting your Chief Creative Officer (CCO):
- Personality type. Your CCO should be someone who likes to socially interact with others. This person most likely uses social media personally and will relish the opportunity to incorporate something they enjoy doing into their job responsibilities.
- Writing ability. The CCO needs to have the ability to write fluently without typos and spelling errors.
- Time. Make sure that this person has the time, or that you can rearrange the schedule to provide the time required to complete this additional task.
Read “An Interview With Optix Family Vision Chief Creative Officer”.
Training and Support
Providing the CCO proper training and support is important to their success. There are several online sites to get training, including a free site, GCF LearnFree.org which offers tutorials on Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, YouTube, Twitter and blogs. In addition, carving out specific times that are dedicated to social media, will keep your employee from feeling stressed and defeated. Make sure that other team members understand the role of this employee along with the amount of time needed to complete the social media tasks.
Monitor Postings
Remember that everything that is posted online about your business reflects directly on you. Never assign an employee the task of managing social media and walk away. If you decide to have an online presence, you must be prepared to oversee the content.
Social media is here to stay. How you manage it is crucial to the success of your online presence.
An Interview with Optix Family Eyecare Center Chief Creative Officer: Gilma Mejia
Gima Mejia was selected as Optix Family Eyecare Center Chief Creative Officer because of her ability to interact with others and create a fun environment.
She has not only created great content for the Optix Facebook page, but she also arranges for after-hour activities for the employees and makes posts that show the team having fun. We interviewed Gilma about her role as Optix Family Vision CCO:
What do you enjoy about taking the lead in your office with the social media?
“I took over social media (Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest and Twitter) about a year ago without any idea of where to start. Optix owner, Evan Kestenbaum, provided me with the direction I needed and encouraged me to let my imagination run wild, which I did! Our goal was to get everyone in the office excited about and involved in our social media efforts. So, in addition to the regular posts, I have planned team activities that would make us a stronger team and show our patients that we are a fun group-a family.”
Describe a few of the team activities.
“We have had many special event days such as Super Heroes Day, Crazy Socks Day, Ugly Sweater Day, and French Day to promote new Lafont frames. We also did Denim Day to raise awareness for Sexual Violence. Every month I try to come up with new and exciting ideas and try to pick a theme that goes with the season or something that is trending on social media .The most memorable activity was Paint Night where the entire team came out, with some of us dressed as famous artists. The response we got on Facebook was amazing as our patients got to see us in a different environment, and some even commented that they loved our paintings.”
How much time do you spend on social media?
“Once all the pictures and themes are set, I would say it takes about thirty minutes to post, hashtag, and make the twitter posts.”
What advice do you have for other CCO’s?
“The main thing is to not be afraid of letting your creative side run wild, while remembering to maintain the professionalism, culture and branding of your practice.”
