Dr. Kimberly Friedman, a partner in Moorestown Eye Associates knows the value of an online presence. “For years we’ve had a website, online appointments, etc.,” Dr. Friedman points out. “As president of the New Jersey Society of Optometric Physicians, I had the opportunity to appear in TV news segments in the Philadelphia and South Jersey. Doug Griswold of Llamawerx made sure the segments were available online. And being online definitely has value.”
While many businesses see the value of a website, Moorestown Eye Associates took it one step further. Dr. Friedman continues, “We realized that Facebook is the new frontier. Last year we created a Facebook fan page and asked our patients to join. At first we weren’t thinking of attracting new patients, but wanted a easy way to communicate with our existing one. As you know, this winter’s snow has been brutal in New Jersey and Facebook gave a quick and easy way to let patients know we’re open for business.”
Doug Griswold, CEO of Llamawerx saw more opportunities, “With over 500 million users, Facebook is ‘HOT.’ Movies, magazine articles, IPO speculation and oh yes, Farmville. A growing segment of the population spends a huge amount of time inside Facebook. In most cases you trust your Facebook friends to share advice… shouldn’t that extend to recommendations and referrals too?”
Last year, Doug added a “mini-website” to the Llamawerx Facebook page. “I decided to create a one page mini-site in Facebook explaining what Llamawerx is about and linking into our website. After seeing Kim’s status update during the recent snowstorms, I thought a Facebook mini-site could help her practice. I fired off an Facebook message offering to create one and immediately got the go-ahead. Now Moorestown Eye Associates has another 24/7 channel welcoming new visitors while keeping in contact with existing patients.”