Are All Posts Created Equal? A Review of Academic Plastic Surgery Residency Programs' Social Media Engagement Statistics.

Abstract

The use of social media is a growing trend among plastic and reconstructive surgery residency programs. Given the visual focus, compared to other social media apps, it is no surprise that Instagram is the dominant social media platform for plastic and reconstructive surgery residency programs. Currently, over 85 percent of plastic and reconstructive surgery residency programs maintain Instagram accounts, underscoring increased interest in using social media to promote their programs and educate the public.1 Now, in the coronavirus disease of 2019 era, social media presence is even more vital, as most communication, subinternships, and interviews will be virtual for the 2021 Match. Plastic and reconstructive surgery residency applicants have shown high levels of engagement with various social media platforms; Instagram is the most heavily used.2 However, there are no studies that investigate plastic and reconstructive surgery residency program Instagram engagement data and correlate post characteristics to the degree of engagement from the general social media community. Engagement analytics are commonly used by businesses, including plastic surgeons, to gauge how well they connect with their target audience.3,4 These data include information on impressions (number of times a post was viewed), interactions (number of actions taken directly from a post, including website clicks, e-mails, profile visits, and hyperlink clicks), reach (number of unique accounts that viewed a single post), and follows (number of new followers received from a post).3 Impressions and reach tell a user how many times a post has been viewed in total and how many unique accounts have viewed the post regardless of whether the post was “liked.”3 Therefore, a post may not receive a large number of likes but may have high viewership, which can still mean valuable face time with the target audience for name recognition, recruitment, and branding. We searched Instagram in April of 2020 for all accounts associated with United States Plastic Surgery Residency programs. Four accounts—@harvard_plastic_surgery, @hopkinsplasticsurgery, @umichplasticsurgery, and @stanfordplastic—all had greater than 2500 followers. This was a higher number of followers compared to all other plastic and reconstructive surgery program accounts; the fifth most followed account had 2050 followers. Insight data, provided by Instagram for all “business” accounts, from each selected account were collected for posts between July of 2017 and May of 2020. Data from 832 posts were organized by type of media, number of images/videos, post content (Fig. 1), and tags, and then analyzed for correlations to different engagement fields.Fig. 1.: Number of posts including a category of content. Top categories included national conferences and resident life.Our study showed that certain post content helps drive higher engagement statistics, including operative cases, resident life, outdoor scenery, and awards/accolades. The most significant relative increase in engagement statistics occurs with posts regarding operative cases and resident life (inside/outside the hospital) (Fig. 2).Fig. 2.: Analysis of percentage change in likes relative to post content. *Statistically significant (p < 0.05). Operative cases and awards/accolades had the highest significant relative increase. National conference content was the only category to show a significant relative decrease of likes.Based on the data collected in this study, the ideal social media posts contain two facets: (1) posts with content showing residents and attending physicians operating, receiving awards/accolades, and enjoying life outside the hospital; and (2) posts where individuals and organizations are tagged. The general public, along with medical/plastic surgery professionals, appears to desire a glimpse into the operating room, a previous black box for many, and peek behind the scrub cap and mask of the surgeons.4 Interestingly, we found that national conferences were the most common content on the four accounts, but demonstrated significantly worse engagement data across all categories. This highlights a disconnect between what surgeons and surgical residents may think is interesting (research, presenting at conferences) and what the general public views as stimulating. This information can be important to programs looking to increase social media engagement and expand their social media followers in a short period. Of course, this information must be confined within the ethical and moral standards of the field. Studies within plastic and reconstructive surgery show more social media use among private practice surgeons compared to reconstructive/academic surgeons.4 However, most hospitals have a Web-based social media presence and use it for hospital promotion, education, community partnership, and fundraising purposes.5 Being “social media literate” and being able to cultivate an online presence and community will likely be increasingly vital in the academic setting. Plastic and reconstructive surgery residency social media accounts are important not only for branding, social network cultivation, and resident recruitment, but also as a tool to teach the next generation of plastic surgeons proper and ethical social media use. Plastic and reconstructive surgery residents have been found to have a much higher use of social media compared to practicing plastic surgeons.4 This trend will most likely continue as residents grow into young surgeons. Further prospective investigation into other plastic and reconstructive surgery residency Instagram accounts would further identify well-received and popular content. Programs can use these data to optimize engagement of their target audience and capitalize on this social media opportunity. DISCLOSURE Dr. Eberlin is a consultant for AxoGen, Integra, Checkpoint, and Tissium. Dr. Leto Barone is the founder and chief medical officer of ReconstratA, LLC. The remaining authors have no financial disclosures to report.