Archive for September, 2010

This is a guest post from Rae Catanese. I first met her at the American Optometrist Association meeting in Orlando. She was doing an excellent job providing social media exposure for an optical equipment supplier. Since then I have seen her several times at Tampa social media events, including BarCamp Tampa Bay.  When she offered to write a guest post about BarCamp, I jumped at the chance! Enjoy! – Dr. Nate

What is Barcamp?

Barcamp Tampa started 3 years ago and has evolved into a community in itself. Barcamp isn’t what it sounds like. No beer, at least not until after the conference. Barcamp is a grass roots movement created to change the way the world interacts with people. It’s a like-minded community of social media, savvy internet marketing professionals and geeks, coming together to share information. This isn’t your typical conference, it’s an “unconference,” which means that there are presentations throughout the day but they are done by willing attendees instead of invited speakers.

How one idea spread throughout the World using Foursquare…

What is Foursquare? Foursquare is a location based application used as a check-in tool at businesses utilizing GPS technology on your cell phone.

One of most recognized Optometrists in Tampa Bay, Nathan Bonilla-Warford, or just “Dr. Nate” as we call him, founded Foursquare Day. Dr. Nate was joined by several other savvy internet marketing colleagues, who didn’t know when they started the effort that it would have such an explosive impact viral marketing effect..

Foursquare Day was an idea to encourage the use of the application and to also promote local businesses. What happened in Tampa Bay didn’t stay in Tampa Bay. The grass roots effort spread virally throughout the world to 35 countries using social media tools like Facebook and twitter. McDonald’s caught on and joined the effort; the company reported that the Foursquare Day Campaign brought in 33% more foot traffic.

Dr. Nate is truly a pioneer in the eye care industry for strategic social media marketing and branding. He uses the technology in his own practice to increase awareness and promote sales events. If you don’t know what Foursquare is you can check out the application here http://foursquare.com/. It’s a great viral word of mouth marketing tool for restaurants and retail establishments.

Read more about how Foursquare Day got started http://blog.4sqday.com/about/. You can also follow Nate on his Facebook Page if you’d like.

By Rae Catanese
Social Media Marketing Strategist

http://Twitter.com/realtyrae
http://facebook.com/tamparealestateinsider

We love guest posts that are relevant to our audience. If you are interested, please let us know!

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

If you wear contact lenses, you must keep your contacts clean to keep your eyes healthy. This short video shows you how.

If you are not able to maintain this regimen, do not use them or ask your eye doctor for single use (daily disposable) contacts.

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

We haven’t had a patient spotlight in awhile, so I am excited about this. After Joe Bergeron’s recent eye exam, he and I were chatting and he mentioned an iPhone app that he had worked on: Solipskier. It has been very successful and wanted to ask him a little more about it. – Dr. Nate

Dr. Nate: What is solipskier?

Justin and Sandy showing off their new Starbucks gift cards

One of the most common complements I get from patients at Bright Eyes is about our fantastic staff. This makes me happy because although we strive to provide excellent care in every way, having highly qualified, dedicated, and just plain fun employees is extremely important to me. And, honestly, we do have a great staff. They work very hard and get along very well. And it is worth noting that we’ve had some members of the staff, Justin and Jamie, for over five years.

This week is the American Optometric Association’s Paraoptometric Recognition Week – a week to let the people who do the majority of the work at an optometrist’s office have the limelight. We celebrated by bringing in some healthy snacks (carrots, celery, hummus, and guacamole) and giving Starbucks gift cards to each staff member. The design of each one selected to match the personality of the staff member.

Of course, it isn’t Paraoptometric Recognition Week every week. But next time you stop in to Bright Eyes, you can still give the staff a kind word and let them know that you appreciate them. It means a lot to them!

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

With American workers now spending over 858 million hours a day using digital devices and kids consuming electronic media up to 7.5 hours a day, health problems caused by computers aren’t going away any time soon.

In fact, vision problems related to computer and hand-held device are so common, they collectively have a name: Computer Vision Syndrome (CVS). I talk about CVS literally every single day with patients.

That is why I am so excited that VSP Vision Care, the largest eye care benefits provider in the US, is hosting a live ‘Ask an Eye Doctor’ web event next Tuesday. It will feature me discussing and answering questions about CVS.  I’ll talk about what it is and how you can keep your eyes comfortable when using digital devices.

Here are the details:
Register here: https://my.dimdim.com/vspvisioncare (Check out the widget on the top right)
When: Tuesday, September 21 at 2:00pm EST 11:00am PST
What: A live Q&A about Computer Vision Syndrome, a common condition that occurs in people who spend extended time in front of a computer screen.
Where: https://my.dimdim.com/vspvisioncare 

If you have questions about CVS that you’d like to submit, email them to me at AskDrNate@brighteyestampa.com.

You can also find more info on CVS here:
http://vspblog.com/2010/07/29/eye-health-for-the-workplace/

See Well!

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

You may have a friend or family member who has had or is currently undergoing treatment for amblyopia. Even if you don’t know anyone with amblyopia, you likely have some idea that sometimes kids have to wear an eyepatch to improve the vision in their other eye. That treatment is indeed the time-honored, effective treatment of “lazy eye.”

But have we learned anything since the first patch was used? How many hours are you supposed to patch? Are there other options? Do they work? How do we know?

Fortunately, visual scientists have been hard at work the last few years, giving us valuable information that can help doctors guide their patients and parents towards the best, most effective, best tolerated treatment. I have selected a few research studies to cover here. If you want more detail, follow the links provided to obtain your own copy of the studies.

Of course, (and this goes without saying, but I must say it)  TALK TO YOUR DOCTOR before acting on anything written here or changing any part of your prescribed treatment. If you have questions about how this research affects your treatment, print out the study and take it with you to the next evaluation.

Now, on to the studies………

Read the rest of this entry »

One morning last year, while working on a post for this blog, my friend Cate Colgan called me and asked if I was going to BarCamp Tampa Bay that day. I told her I didn’t know what it was. She didn’t give a lot of detail, but she told me where it was, that lots of people would be there. So I packed up my laptop and headed to USF.

For those of you who aren’t familiar with BarCamp, it is an un-conference. By that I mean, it is a gathering of people where the content is user-generated. This is how it works: At the beginning of the day, an empty schedule is hung on the wall. It has rooms and presentation times, but no talk titles or names of speakers. When people arrive, some of them sign up to speak. Some come just to listen. Everyone comes to mingle and network. It is fun and exciting.

With this format, you may not hear talks from super-slick international presenters (though you might), but you will definitely see the most dynamic, most involved people in the area. Last year I heard several speakers that I also see on panels that cost hundreds of dollars to attend.

So this year, Bright Eyes is totally supportive of BarCamp Tampa Bay. We are an event sponsor and I have plans to moderate a panel on how Foursquare Day came about and how it benefited the Tampa Bay community.

One more thing: The event is FREE. It is free to attend and free to present. So consider coming to BarCamp Tampa Bay to network, listen, and possibly present. You do need to register, though.  You are welcome to use this internet badge on your website or blog to let people know that you are coming!

I hope to see you at BarCamp Tampa Bay! Be sure to stop me in the halls and say hi!

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

Fun Video!

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

You love Bright Eyes, right? And you may be one of the half a billion (yes, with a “B”) people who have a Facebook account. So now that Facebook Places is up and running, you can combine Bright Eyes and Facebook by checking in at the NEW Bright Eyes Facebook Place Page!

So…. If you are thinking, “What the heck is he talking about?” Here is a quick primer:

In the social media world, location-based services are hot! Location based services (LBSs) are applications that work on your smartphone, like an iPhone, Android, or Blackberry. Because these apps know where you are via GPS, it allows you to interact with other people in specific ways: location friends, see who’s in the area, and other game-like activities.

For the last year, foursquare has been my favorite, because it is the most fun. Gowalla, Yelp and other LBS applications have been competing for interest. All of these apps let you “check in” somewhere. This usually let’s friends know that you are at that location, but also gets you discounts at certain businesses. For example, showing your check in to Bright Eyes on any of the services gets you a discount on purchased items and services.

But the big game changer was that Facebook rolled out is own LBS, totally integrated with all other aspects of Facebook. So now, even if you didn’t have a foursquare or Gowalla account, you can still check in at Bright Eyes for your discount with Facebook. You can check in two ways: the iPhone Facebook app, or using http://touch.facebook.com. (Feel free to use one of the computers if you want to check in!)

So next time you stop by Bright Eyes for an exam, to pick up contacts, or just to say “Hi”, be sure to check in!

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