What are Board-Certified Plastic Surgeons Posting on Instagram?

• Published in: Aesthetic plastic surgery Vol. 48; no. 19; pp. 4051 - 4058
• Main Authors: Lin, Elaine, Schroeder, Brooke E., Tran, Melissa M., Brush, Erin S., Tian, William M., Stepien, David M., Patel, Ashit
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York Springer US 01-10-2024; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Medicine; Medicine & Public Health; Original Articles; Otorhinolaryngology; Plastic Surgery; Social networks; Surgeons; United States > US; Instagram; Board-certified; Aesthetics; Body; Social media; Influencer
• ISSN: 0364-216X; 1432-5241; 1432-5241
• DOI: 10.1007/s00266-024-04144-5

Background
Plastic surgeons increasingly use social media to market their practices and educate prospective patients. Previous studies have investigated plastic surgery content on Instagram from the angle of hashtags and most popular plastic surgeons. However, very little is understood about what plastic surgeons themselves post on Instagram and what plastic surgery content average users engage with.
Objectives
The aim of this study was to analyze Instagram posts from accounts related to plastic surgeons in the USA to establish suggestions for growing one’s practice with this powerful platform to reach patients.
Methods
Board-certified plastic surgeons from all US regions that were active from February 1, 2023 to April 12, 2023 were randomly chosen. Their Instagram accounts were accessed for post analysis. For procedural posts, engagement statistics and multiple variables were collected. Dixon’s outlier test was used to determine outliers in the data. ANCOVA and Tukey analysis was used to determine whether procedure type influenced engagement.
Results
120 surgeon accounts were identified with 2157 posts analyzed, yielding notable differences in posts among regions. Most posts were aesthetic procedures (94.4%) and of female patients (90.3%). Surgical procedures were also predominant (86.1%). In addition, Reels had higher engagement than photograph posts. Users engaged with Body procedures at the highest rate.
Conclusions
This cross-sectional analysis shows plastic surgeons tend to overwhelmingly post female patients, aesthetic procedures, and surgical content. These insights may be used to guide social media content and improve the effectiveness of Instagram as a tool for marketing or education.
Level of Evidence IV
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www.springer.com/00266