Social media can also serve as an education or mentorship tool, said Shiayin F. Yang, MD, associate professor of facial plastic and reconstructive surgery in the department of otolaryngology–head and neck surgery at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville (Instagram @shiyangmd).
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September 2024“In terms of patient education, my account is an additional source of information for patients to learn about facial plastic surgery. It has been helpful for patients to see what they can expect from surgery in terms of before and after photos, but also during the recovery period,” Dr. Yang said. Photos are a powerful tool “to understand what to expect and the types of results that can be achieved. For example, a photo of a forehead flap is much more effective in setting expectations compared to trying to explain the procedure in layman’s terms,” Dr. Yang said. She added that she uses her professional Instagram account during consultations to show examples to her cosmetic and reconstructive surgery patients.
As for mentorship, Dr. Yang explained, “I work at an academic teaching hospital, and one of my missions is educating the next generation of surgeons. Social media has allowed me to extend my reach beyond the medical students, residents, and fellows at my hospital to trainees across the country.” Dr. Yang added that she uses the platform to share her “experience as a surgeon, researcher, and mother with the aim of helping other trainees achieve their goals.”
Peter Vila, MD, MSPH, a facial plastic surgeon at The Vila Institute for Plastic Surgery in Portland, Ore., embraces a well-developed patient-oriented social media presence on Instagram (@drpetervila), TikTok (@drpetervila), and YouTube (Dr. Peter Vila).
In the facial plastic surgery and aesthetic medicine space, a large amount of content is delivered by influencers and “experts” who are untrained or illegitimate, Dr. Vila explained. With no repercussions for stating inaccurate information, “some content creators are chasing the follows and likes by saying things to get attention, but these are sometimes completely false. As a fellowship-trained and double board-certified facial plastic surgeon, I feel that it is my duty to put out accurate content to provide a source of qualified information.”
Dr. Vila noted that YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok differ in content and how people interact with each platform. “In terms of sheer numbers, TikTok has the highest potential reach because videos can go viral and be shown to hundreds of thousands of people. This is much harder to do on Instagram or YouTube.” The shelf life on YouTube is longer, however, with videos made several years ago still attracting views. Instagram has become very local, so the people seeing your content are primarily the ones who “would be of most interest to a surgeon or injector because they are geographically close to you.” Dr. Vila added that TikTok and YouTube are global in their reach, which is great for spreading information but not necessarily for reaching future patients.
Advice for New Users
Physicians who are new users of social media should “just start” producing content, according to Drs. Vila, Yang, and Morse.
Dr. Vila suggested new users accept that their posts will not be good initially, but “by sticking with it over time, you will continuously improve.” He recommended setting a goal to post a certain number of times each week and sticking to that goal for at least several months. “Know that you will have times when you’re sick of generating content and feel like nobody is seeing your stuff. This is common among creators. Stick with it.”
New users should avoid “following trends for the sake of following trends,” Dr. Vila said. “Decide from the outset what you want your channel or page to be, whether it’s educational, humor, lifestyle, or a little bit of everything. Put some thought into this in the beginning, so your content is not all over the place. You can evolve over time, but try to be focused and consistent,” Dr. Vila said. He advised that politics is a topic to avoid. “It might feel good to you to get your opinion out there, but this is a very fast way to potentially alienate a lot of people. If you are incredibly passionate about something and are prepared to potentially lose followers for expressing strong opinions, do so at your own risk.”
According to Dr. Morse, new social media users will not have a lot of engagement to start with, but by engaging with other accounts—in other words, by commenting and following—“you will be able to build a following. The biggest pitfall is publishing content that is unprofessional or at risk of violating HIPAA. If you’re not sure or it’s borderline, it’s not worth it,” Dr. Morse said.
For Dr. Yang, the most significant obstacles when starting to use social media professionally were the desire to be perfect and the fear of what others would think. “I realized that my posts could never be perfect if I didn’t post anything. Additionally, I can never make everyone happy, and the benefit of helping others outweighs this,” she said.
Your professional account is an extension of your professional persona, so be professional. If it is something you wouldn’t discuss openly at work, you probably shouldn’t be discussing it on social media.” — Shiayin F. Yang, MD