Eyeworld

26 Ophthalmology Business • September 2016 your practice's social media coordi- nator, Mr. Stubenbordt said. A good way to use social media to grow your practice is to post video patient tes- timonials on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. These videos can be shot on a smartphone, often with min- imal editing. You can also post the testimonials to YouTube and embed the links into your website. 10. Make things personal. To leverage the social power of social media, tag specific patients in posts, Mr. Stubenbordt said. One way to do this is to take a photo of a patient with the surgeon, write a post to go with the photo, and tag the patient in the post. For example, if you had a patient named Nolan who just had LASIK, take a photo of Nolan and write "Nolan was seeing 20/400, but now he sees 20/20 thanks to LASIK from Dr. Smith," and then tag Nolan in the photo. Make sure, however, that patients sign a model release form before you post photos of them on social media. These forms can be found online and modified for a specific practice's needs. You can also create posts when new employ- ees join your practice. Patients want to see that you're a likeable person and a likeable practice; making it personal reinforces that message, Mr. Stubenbordt said. OB Contact information Stubenbordt: paul@stubenbordt.com 7. Solicit reviews. Reviews of your Google place page will ensure that your practice not only shows up in a Google Maps listing, but that it's among the top three results, which is all that Google displays on the search engine results page. Reviews are also important because younger patients rely more on peer recommendations than they do on what you say about yourself, Mr. Stubenbordt said. The number one review site is Google, but review sites like Yelp and vitals. com are also important. Reviews will make your practice stand out like a sore thumb, especially in smaller markets, he said. 8. Use Google paid ads. In addi- tion to ensuring you appear in search engine results, you can pay for Goo- gle ads that will drive additional traf- fic to your site. One way of doing this is through Google TrueView. You can create a 30-second ad that will show up in YouTube depending on what a patient searches for. For example, if a patient searches for "cataract sur- gery" and later visits YouTube, your ad will play before the patient can watch the intended video. Ophthal- mologists aren't taking advantage of this, so the cost you pay for sending traffic to your site is relatively low, Mr. Stubenbordt said. 9. Use social media. It's best to appoint someone internally to be 3. Have everything one click away. Everything patients search for needs to be found within one click, according to Mr. Stubenbordt. If patients are looking for LASIK or cataract surgery, links to those proce- dures should be on your homepage, he said. 4. Design your site to be aesthetically pleasing and mobile friendly. Most web search- ers are now coming from mobile de- vices, so focus the design of your site on being incredibly mobile friendly, Mr. Stubenbordt said. In the 'olden days' of websites, the most important information needed to be close to the top of the page, but with mobile devices, websites are getting longer because of the need to scroll, so keep that in mind when designing your site, he said. 5. Include geographical key- words. Your website may be amaz- ing, but that won't matter if patients can't find it, Mr. Stubenbordt said. Add keywords to your site that describe where you're located and page titles that describe what you do to ensure patients can find your site through a search engine. "If you offer premium lens cataract surgery in Aus- tin, your title tag needs to say 'Austin premium lens cataract surgery,'" Mr. Stubenbordt said. 6. Fill out your Google place page. If a patient searches Google for "New York ophthalmologist," a map will show up with three Google Maps listings below it. Filling out a Goo- gle place page ensures your website appears in Google Maps listings. "The majority of searches online are still performed from Google, and you can almost think of Google as a tele- phone book," Mr. Stubenbordt said. "If a telephone book had a section of ophthalmologists, Google will have them, too, and these show up in Google Maps." continued from page 25 " Reviews of your Google place page will ensure that your practice not only shows up in a Google Maps listing, but that it's among the top three results, which is all that Google displays on the search engine results page. "

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