An Evaluation of the Public’s Preferences: What Plastic Surgery Social Media Content Is Most Effective?

Abstract

PURPOSE: The effectiveness of utilizing social media platforms to promote clinical practices, educate the public, and attract patients has been well established. Accordingly, this study aimed to extensively evaluate public preferences regarding plastic surgery social media content and educational material in order to provide guidance for plastic surgeons seeking to enhance their social media presence. METHODS: Survey participants were recruited during February 2021 using Amazon’s Mechanical Turk (mTurk) crowdsourcing service and REDCap’s survey manager. An anonymous 25-question survey was distributed to ascertain demographic information, levels of interest in plastic surgery, patterns of social media use, and plastic surgery social media content preferences. Statistical analysis was performed using the chi-Square test and multivariate regression. RESULTS: Of the 401 total participants, the typical respondent was a woman, aged between 25 and 34 years, married, with a Bachelor’s degree, earning an annual income between $50,000 to $99,999, and on social media daily. Of the 273 (68.1%) respondents who considered having plastic surgery or cosmetic procedures in the last 5 years, most were interested in non-surgical procedures (39.9%) and face and neck surgery (37.5%). Almost half of respondents (48.4%) had viewed plastic surgery content on social media, of whom 44.3% reported doing with the intention of learning more about a specific procedure they are interested in having. Additionally, 42.8% of respondents who had viewed plastic surgery content on social media follow a plastic surgeon on at least one platform, with the most popular being Instagram (71.1%) and Facebook (55.4%). Respondents who had viewed plastic surgery content on social media were 5.6 times more likely to had underwent or considered plastic surgery than those who did not (95% CI: 3.3–9.6, P < 0.001). Women were 2.0 times more likely to had viewed plastic surgery content (95% CI: 1.3–2.9, P = 0.001) than men, and those between the ages of 18 and 34 years were 2.0 times more likely to follow a plastic surgeon on social media compared with those 35 and older. On a five-point Likert scale (one: dislike, five: very interested), the three plastic surgery social media content categories with highest interest were before and after results (mean Likert weight 4.00 ± 1.10), patient testimonials (3.73 ± 1.15), and recovery process or follow-up visits (3.67 ± 1.14). Three content categories had a negative interest on average: celebrity plastic surgery (2.89 ± 1.17), comedic videos (2.79 ± 1.19), and content about surgeons’ private lives (2.51 ± 1.08). Overall, photo posts (51.4%) were most preferred, followed by video posts (27.2%), links to external content (12.5%), and text-only posts (9.0%). When asked what aspect of a social media account plays the most influential role in selecting a plastic surgeon, the overwhelming majority selected before and after results (45.9%), followed by links to reviews (16.2%), number of posts and followers (14.2%), and links to professional practice websites (12.7%). CONCLUSIONS: The relevance and importance of social media for plastic surgeons today to be able to interact with patients are at unprecedented highs. Understanding patterns of the public’s plastic surgery social media content preferences will help plastic surgeons optimize their social media reach and influence on their target audience.