Archive for July, 2010

Many of our patients have VSP as their primary vision plan. VSP is the largest and most influential of the vision plans and for the last several years they have embraced social media to help educate their millions of member on eye and vision heath issues.

Recently, VSP contacted me to see if I would be interested in writing a guest post for their blog on vision at the workplace. Since Computer Vision Syndrome is a specialty of mine, I was happy to contribute. The result is this blog post. You can also watch a very cool video, download an eye health guide for the workplace, and enter to win an IPad at VSP Facebook page here.

Nathan Bonilla-Warford, OD
Bright Eyes Family Vision Care
Located in the Westchase area of Tampa.

This is a new video that the folks at VSP produced about the massive amount of time we spend on computers and electronic devices how how it can affect our vision. It is very well done and has some great stats. You can find out more about computer vision syndrome here.

(Click here to open video at Youtube.)

See Well!

Nathan Bonilla-Warford, OD
Bright Eyes Family Vision Care
Located in the Westchase area of Tampa.

Donna, the winner of the summer sunglass contest, came in and picked out some fabulous, FREE Linea Roma sunglasses today!

She was also our 100th foursquare check-in! And she won a gift certificate last year from the Tiffany & Co. contest.  What a big winner she is! And it couldn’t happen to a nicer person! She’s been one of our biggest fans for a long time!

Stay tuned for your chance to win our next big contest! And in the meantime, don’t forget the sunglass sale we have going on: 20% to 40% on all sunglasses!

Nathan Bonilla-Warford, OD
Bright Eyes Family Vision Care
Located in the Westchase area of Tampa.

We at Bright Eyes Family Vision Care are thankful and humbled to have been nominated for the 2010 LocalShops1.com Best at grassroots marketing category. It is very cool to see that our efforts are noticed by the local independent business community. There are many wonderful businesses nominated and all should be congratulated:

As part of the selection process, there are five questions that nominees must answer. Below are the questions and my answers. We will find out the winners at the LS1 Birthday Bash. Come out with us and have a ball!

Give us your 30 second “Elevator Pitch”

At Bright Eyes Family Vision Care, we provide comprehensive eye care and quality eyewear for the whole family. Dr. Nathan Bonilla-Warford gets to know his patients, and makes sure each patient understands their visual conditions and what can be done to improve their eyesight or eye health. He also specializes in pediatrics, vision therapy, and specialty contact lenses, offering services not found at most optometry offices.

We have excellent staff who focus on patient care and customer service, whether helping a patient put on contacts for the first time, selecting glasses that look good on each person’s face, or working with children to help them improve visual skills for reading. Our best compliment is when patients refer other patients for exams, eyewear, or specialty care. Call our office to make an appointment, or stop by to check out our great selection of eyewear for the whole family.

What have been some of your best marketing campaigns?

When we have a campaign, we want it to be memorable and have people see that we do more than what you might expect from an eye doctor. There are two campaigns that exemplify this: Intensity Academy Hotsauce Giveaway and the Coach Social Media Contest.

At Bright Eyes we love to give away stuff and we love to support local businesses. For the last year we have been giving out free bottles of Intensity Academy Hotsauce to patients who pose for a picture with their bottle. The picture is then posted on Facebook and Twitter. It is a win all the way around. The patients get awesome sauce, Intensity Academy gets exposure, and we get noteworthy content to post online.

Bright Eyes also tries to encourage creativity whenever possible. Recently when we were giving away three pairs of Coach glasses/sunglasses, we encouraged people to tweet, blog, or text interesting things. The results were awesome! Patients were writing haiku about sunglasses, blogs about the contest, and song lyrics about Bright Eyes. It was awesome to receive the support of the community and to see how much fun people had!

What is the longest you’ve gone without checking Facebook?

Probably about a week. Although I am a big social media fan, I didn’t appreciate Facebook until much more recently. For a long time I put my time and energy into networks like Twitter, foursquare, Yelp, and eyecare specific networks.  I would use Facebook for big campaigns but would routinely forget to update it a lot. This may have something to do with the fact that I didn’t have a reliable Facebook app for my Blackberry.

I am now discovering how useful Facebook can be. I am trying new things to promote Bright Eyes, like the recent sunglass picture-tagging contest. I am using Facebook to help organize a group to teach others in my profession the benefits of social media. And, yes, I am using Facebook to reconnect with highschool friends.

What is the most rewarding part of having your own business?

I think this is a funny question because I had never even considered owning my own business until Optometry school. It seemed like a lot of work and responsibility. Then I realized that if I wanted to pursue the specialty that I was most interested in (children’s vision), I had to own my own business because only then would I be able to provide that type of care in the way I thought was best.

Now that I have owned Bright Eyes for four years I have learned this: it is a lot of work and is an enormous responsibility. But it is worth it because not only do I have the flexibility to take time off to be with my kids, I can also make decisions quickly, without having to ask anyone. When I found out that my YMCA spin class was holding a “Spin-a-thon” Fundraiser, I asked the staff if they were interested and we did it. It turned out to be a lot of fun and we helped raise $7,000 for the Building Strong Kids program. It is wonderful knowing that Bright Eyes is a strong part of the local community.

What are some of your favorite businesses (other than your own)?

There are so many great businesses in the Tampa Bay area that it is hard to narrow it down! But here are just a few of the businesses I love:

Intensity Academy Hot sauce

http://intensityacademy.com/

Because their sauce rocks and they are super great people. They are on fire, growing their business by word of mouth.

Pizza Mania

http://www.mypizzamania.com/

I love this place. The pizza is great and it is run by a close-knit Italian family.

Flying Pig Communications

http://flyingpigcommunications.com/

This is Laura Petrolino’s company and she is a powerhouse. She helped in the early stages of the development of Foursquare Day. She is a multi-talented triathlete with tons of experience.

Papergirl Press

http://www.papergirlpressphoto.com/

I have had the pleasure of being photographed several times by Melanie and it is always fun. She has been to my office to take pictures of myself and the staff. I am so pleased with her work that I have used three of her pictures for profile pictures, as well as have them featured on our Facebook page, website, blogs and magazines.

Nathan Bonilla-Warford, OD
Bright Eyes Family Vision Care
Located in the Westchase area of Tampa.

Although anime  or “Circle Lenses” have been around for a while, thanks to Lady Gaga they are surging in popularity right now. But remember that only FDA approved contact lenses prescribed by an eye doctor are considered safe to wear. By law,  lenses cannot be sold without a valid contact lens prescription.

If you have any questions about the safety of your lenses, please contact us.

Nathan Bonilla-Warford, OD
Bright Eyes Family Vision Care
Located in the Westchase area of Tampa.

The American Optometric Association (AOA) Statement Regarding Circle Contact Lenses

Patient safety and access to adequate eye care is always our concern. With the growing interest in “circle lenses,” colored plano and prescription contact lenses imported primarily from Asia, the AOA is once again working to inform consumers of the risk of these illegal lenses. And, last month, AOA staff led one of the largest meetings of federal officials concerned about the illegal sale of these and other decorative contact lenses, convened by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

“With the FDA’s focus of ‘Protecting and Promoting Health,’ the recent gathering served as an outstanding platform to brainstorm with FDA officials,” states Joe E. Ellis, O.D. President of the American Optometric Association.  “We found that FDA officials were shocked, as well as dismayed, by how easy these lenses can be obtained, and how aggressively adolescents and young adults are targeted.”

The AOA is responding to numerous requests for information and interviews from media outlets across the country.  “We are working with the consumer media to encourage people to visit an eye care professional and get a proper prescription.  A beauty fad is not worth causing problems with your sight,” adds Dr. Ellis.

Consumers should not use any contact lenses, whether they are circle lenses, or otherwise, without a proper examination and prescription by an eye care professional.  Risks associated with the improper use of decorative contact lenses include conjunctivitis, corneal swelling, eye infection, allergic reaction and corneal abrasion due to poor lens fit and/or improper lens care.  Additional problems may result in a reduction of visual acuity, diminished contrast sensitivity, or reduced peripheral vision and other general eye and vision impairments.  Optometrists are encouraged to report any violations of the sale of contact lenses, or any adverse health consequences, to AOA’s Washington office.



Boy, the Social Media Day Meetup last night at Tampa Bay Brewing Company was great. Tampa really rocked it last night like I knew we would. It was fun to see lots of friends and patients there. We were happy to give away two Bright Eyes gift certificates. I don’t know who the lucky winners were, but if it was you, let me know. We’d like to give you a shout out!

If you’ve been a patient of Bright Eyes for a while, you know that we love to give away stuff! We’ve  given away books,  a pair of Tiffany and Co. sunglasses, Prada frames, Nike frames, multiple Coach frames, and more gift certificates than we can count!

And we are at it again starting today! It is summertime and that means it is time to give away some new sunglasses!

Here is how to win:  Just go to the starfish picture on our Facebook page by clicking here. We have picked a pre-determined “winning point” on the picture. Tag yourself anywhere in the photo. That’s it. It is so easy!

On the morning of July 9th, whoever tagged closest to the winning point will be able to choose, in person, from our entire collection of Linea Roma sunglasses! (That’s the kind that I wear.)

But there is one catch: The picture must have 50 tags, or else there will not be a winner. Tag your friends and family or whoever else might want free sunglasses to make sure there are 50 people tagged before July 9th!

But wait, there’s more! Not only are we giving away sunglasses, but during the month of July every pair of shades is on sale. That’s right. Save between 10% and 40% on every line of sunglasses we carry: Linea Roma, Kate Spade, Costa Del Mar, Bulgari, Coach, Tiffany & Co, and more!

So tag the photo and stop by to check out the sale. If you have any questions, let us know. Good luck!

Nathan Bonilla-Warford, OD
Bright Eyes Family Vision Care
Located in the Westchase area of Tampa.