What are Board-Certified Plastic Surgeons Posting on Instagram?

Area of Science:

• Plastic Surgery
• Social Media Marketing
• Digital Health Communication

Background:

• Social media platforms like Instagram are increasingly utilized by plastic surgeons for practice marketing and patient education.
• Existing research has focused on hashtags and popular surgeons, leaving a gap in understanding surgeon-generated content and user engagement.
• This study addresses the need to understand plastic surgeon content on Instagram and its impact on patient engagement.

Purpose of the Study:

• To analyze Instagram posts from US-based plastic surgeons to provide recommendations for practice growth.
• To identify effective strategies for leveraging Instagram for patient outreach and education in plastic surgery.

Main Methods:

• Random selection of board-certified plastic surgeons across US regions active between February 1 and April 12, 2023.
• Analysis of Instagram posts, collecting engagement statistics and procedural variables.
• Statistical analysis including Dixon's outlier test, ANCOVA, and Tukey analysis to assess the influence of procedure type on engagement.

Main Results:

• Analysis of 2157 posts from 120 surgeon accounts revealed regional variations in content.
• Predominantly, posts featured aesthetic procedures (94.4%), female patients (90.3%), and surgical content (86.1%).
• Instagram Reels demonstrated higher engagement than static posts, with body procedures receiving the most user interaction.

Conclusions:

• Plastic surgeons' Instagram content heavily emphasizes aesthetic, surgical procedures, and female patients.
• Findings provide actionable insights for tailoring social media content to enhance marketing effectiveness.
• The study suggests optimizing Instagram strategies for better patient engagement and practice growth.