Sathi Maiti has been a practicing OD for about four years now. A graduate of the University of California, Berkeley, School of Optometry, she currently subleases inside SEE Eyewear, an optical boutique in Seattle. In Sept. 2017, Maiti created Dr. Maitis Eyeballs and Stuff, a fun Instagram page that shares optometry-related content that interests her, and she thinks will be interesting to others.

Dr. Maitis Eyeballs and Stuff features a range of posts—from her sketches to eye-decorated cookies, colorful frames, as well as her day as an optometrist. “The page really grew out of what I used to post on my personal social media,” she told VMail Weekend. “I generally like to share and post about things that are interesting to me, which started including a lot of optometry related stuff as I went through optometry school and began practicing. I got quite a bit of positive feedback from classmates and friends, and was often encouraged to start an optometry blog, but I thought Instagram would be a little bit easier and less time consuming than a long format blog.”

For Maiti, Instagram is the perfect platform for her content because it does not take time out of her already busy day, and it also nurtures a supportive community within the industry. “What I really love about Instagram is how positive the community is. Everyone is really friendly and we all try to build each other up rather than tear each other down with negative comments,” Maiti stated. “It’s a nice community to share a topic I personally find interesting, and since quite a lot of what I want to post is visually related, using a photo-based platform makes sense.”

   


When it comes to curating content for the page, Maiti gets inspired anytime, anywhere. In addition to using optometry hashtags, Pinterest and Etsy, Maiti gets content from her day-to-day life. “Once you start looking for eye or glasses related stuff you really do start to see it everywhere,” she explained. “I’m lucky to work and live in a vibrant urban area, so honestly, I find content just walking and shopping around Seattle or anywhere I’m travelling. I’m also the ‘eyeball lady’ to my friends and family and a lot of people will send me pictures about eyes that they see online or in real life.”

Because Dr. Maitis Eyeballs and Stuff isn’t too time consuming, Maiti tries to update it at least once a day either during lunchtime or after work. In the year that she’s had the page, she’s learned that it’s more important to publish content that people enjoy and love, than be caught up in trying to make an aesthetically perfect page. “I specifically don’t try to curate my page perfectly or spend a ton of time editing and planning photos because I don’t want each post to take more than a few minutes of my time,” Maiti explained.

   

“It’s easy to look at the beautifully curated pages with huge followings and think that I should start using Canva, a graphic design software, and planning posts to make my page more aesthetically appealing or start color coordinating posts to get more followers, but I’d rather get out content that people enjoy more often than spending too much time making it perfect.”

The most rewarding aspect for Maiti has been getting to connect with other ECPs from across the nation and around the world. “It’s really cool to see that we’re all dealing with the same stuff every day at work and are into the same specific topic,” she stated. “As a solo practitioner it can be easy to feel alone. I don’t have colleagues I’m talking to every day in clinic, so social media is a great way to stay in touch and learn from other doctors.”

As for the future of Dr. Maitis Eyeballs and Stuff, she hopes that it remains a fun hobby that continues to lighten up someone’s day. “My general philosophy with social media is to try to only post things that are funny, interesting or particularly relevant to current events. I hope that followers are able to gain a little bit of knowledge or see something that brightens their day.”