Digital Audit of Visual

Rehabilitation Services of Georgia

Alyx Roseman, David Schloegel, Jeff Hatfield, Joe Delvalle

Vision Rehabilitation Services

• Founded by Sarah Sentell Scott in 1983• Clients

o Macular degenerationo Diabetic retinopathyo Cataractso Glaucomao Birth Defects

• Services Offered:o Comprehensive low-vision evaluationso Instruction in a variety of daily living skillso Safe travelo Access technology training in magnification and speech software

programso Transition to vision loss counseling

Current Social Media Presence

• Primary Audienceo Visually impairedo Friends, family, supporters

• Secondary Audienceo Private donorso Corporate donors

http://www.facebook.com/VRSGA

Spooktacular Chase• http://www.spooktacularchase.com/• Race to See

o 100 runners 1st yearo 150 runners 2nd year

• Spooktacular Chase 2011o About 500 runners

• Spooktacular Chase 2012o $30,000 goalo Silent Auction

http://www.facebook.com/spooktacularchase

Objectives1. Develop a more lucrative and larger number of

donorso Bring VRSGA to the forefront of the vision impaired conversationso Appeal on a more personal and empathic levelo Tailor social media to both donors and clients

2. Increase participation in fundraising eventso Reach out to existing participants through Twitter and Facebooko Encourage a a stronger link between the event and VRSGAo Reach out to current newsletter recipients (575)

Increase social media following on existing sites: Twitter and Facebook

Competitor: CVI• Center for the Visually Impaired• Founded 50 years ago• Competitor and sister organization• Largest rehabilitation facility in the state• Differences between CVI and VRS

• Twitter• Facebook

VRS vs. CVI@VRSGA @CVIGA @Spooktacula

rRun

Tweets 3 434 53

Twitter Followers

9 165 23

Following on Twitter

8 93 25

Facebook Likes 17 540 126

“Talking about this” on Facebook

12

Site visits on Facebook

106

Competitor: NEI• National Eye Institute under the National Institute

of Health• Government entity: government funded• Largest vision rehabilitation center in the nation• Site receives 200,000 unique visits per month

(Quantcast)• Unique visitor count is 84,000 users (Quantcast)

VRS vs. NEI@VRSGA @NEHEP

(NEI)@SpooktacularRun

Tweets 3 293 53

Twitter Followers

9 323 23

Following on Twitter

8 81 25

Facebook Likes 17 257 126

“Talking about this” on Facebook

6

Digital Audit of Competitors

• Statistics of users on nei.nih.govo 63% of them are womeno Age range 35-65+ with 21% being between 35-44o 66% of them have no children living at home.o 54% of the average income is 100k-150ko 84,000 unique visitor users.

• The reasons they have high traffic is because:o Integration of social media websites on front page. (Facebook, Twitter,

RSS feed)o Easy to navigate website.

Digital Audit of Competitors (continue)

• Functionality of the website (nei.nih.gov)o High integration of Social media channels (in front, click through links)o Adjustable font size (for visually impaired) o Headlines with news and information about eye healtho Search bar with in site searching.

o All of these things should be implemented on the Vrsga.org website for more traffic and more click through

Search Engine Optimization

• Maximize user traffic

• Keywords

• Keep everything up-to-date

• Facebook

• Twitter

• Spooktacular Chase

ispionage.com semrush.com

Organic Online Competitors Through Shared Keywords

nih.gov virtua.org emorymedicine.org marltonrehab.org cviga.org

lighthouse.org unityrehab.org nih.gov virtua.org cviga.org

Top Organic Keywords

blind and low vision vision rehabilitation services blind low vision low vision services low vision blind

vision rehabilitation blind and low vision visual rehabilitation rehab visual low vision services

VRS Search Analytics

VRS Site Visitor Demographics

Vision Rehabilitation Services of Georgia

VRS Websit

e

Twitter

Facebook

Spooktacular Twitter

Spooktacular

Facebook

Email

Search

Engines

360 Cobb

(geolocal)

Hub and Spoke Model

VRS Social Media: Current State

• VRS has a weak position in both Facebook and Twitter

• The Spooktacular Chase has a stronger holdo Focuses on race trainingo Few references to VRS or vision rehabilitation

• 550 contacts on e-mailer list

Looking Forward• Encourage current clients to engage with VRS on

Twitter and Facebook

• Include links to VRS Facebook and Twitter in every email

• Tweet and post on each site daily, encouraging followers to engage in the posts

• Target the tweets and posts to donors and friends/family rather than clients

Looking Forward (cont.)

• Begin to edit Twitter and Facebook with current news reports, events, thoughts, etc. about vision impairment

• Reference the VRS Twitter/Facebook in every Spooktacular post

• Edit the Spooktacular Twitter as though Seemore the mascot is the author

Looking Forward (cont.)

• Include vision-specific benefits on the VRSGA website such as different color text and larger font

• Include headlines of recent events and news stories on the VRSGA homepage

• Expand the VRSGA website to include a search bar for quicker navigation