Optical Express now on Twitter

18 May 2010

Optical Express has entered the world of social media, with the company recently launching its new Twitter accounts. Designed to better communicate with patients, customers and potential employees about the group’s current happenings and opportunities, four separate accounts have been created, each to fill a unique niche.

Optical Express Marketing Manager Lindsay Taylor commented on the significance of this move.

"With the amount of people currently using tools like Twitter to communicate with one another, this was something that we couldn’t afford to miss out on," she said.

According to Taylor, joining Twitter is not so much about being a part of a trend as it is about capitalising on a new communication tool that can benefit Optical Express patients, customers, and staff members.

"There is such a huge amount of information floating around on the internet related to both laser eye surgery and general eye care, and we want to be able provide a quality source of information, through our website, of course, but also through other mediums as well," she said. "By reaching out, we hope that we can dispel any rumours, and help foster a constructive dialogue."

The group's corporate account can be found @OpticalExpress. This is the account that announces news updates, promotions, and competitions as they occur. As opposed to functioning as an extension of an advertisement for the organisation, it provides a stream of other news that may interest followers, including links to new articles uploaded to the "Eye Expert" informational segment of the Optical Express site, and announcements regarding the release of new designer lines of frames, for example.

@JoannaAtOEuk is designed as a point of contact for customer service enquiries, responding to Optical Express-related posts, and answering any questions. This includes everything from providing links to eye clinic locations, to connecting users with the relevant individual in the organisation to answer more clinical questions. Finally, @oeCareersUK announces job openings as they arise, enabling interested individuals to receive instant notifications when positions open up.

The multiple accounts are designed to appeal to different audiences, according to Taylor.

"We thought about using just one account, but we realised that it’s a few very different groups of individuals that will be engaging with each of the accounts," she said. "We designed the accounts to reflect that."

On the German front, @oeDeutschland oversees Optical Express activity in Germany. Along the same lines, there are plans to open Dutch, French and Croatian accounts in the near future.

About Optical Express:
The Optical Express Group was founded in 1991 and is now a global leader of selected healthcare services, specialising in opticians services. The group covers optical stores, refractive laser eye surgery, cataract surgery, glasses, contact lenses as well as dental clinics.

Optical Express provides trained specialists to help patients determine which laser eye surgery treatment is best suited to their unique needs and offers the most advanced eye surgery treatments such as LASEK and LASIK eye surgery as well as Advanced CustomVue Wavefront and Intralase.

Optical Express is the leading provider of laser eye surgery in the UK and Europe, with over 100 laser eye clinics including Optical Express in Germany and Optic