Examining the Role of Social Media Usage in Plastic Surgery Residency Recruitment during the COVID-19 Pandemic.

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic created challenges for medical students applying in the 2021 match cycle. The Association of American Medical Colleges recommended that visiting student rotations be discouraged on May 11, 2020. These rotations are the most important criteria in resident selection by program directors.1 As a result, applicants and programs were forced to find alternative ways to learn about one another, including social media. Nearly four-fifths of the U.S. population uses social media, and more than half of practicing plastic surgeons are using these digital networks to connect directly with the public.2 Are plastic surgery residency programs using these tools to connect with prospective candidates? We examine the utilization of three social media platforms (Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook) by plastic surgery residency programs. We obtained a list of accredited integrated or independent programs from Doximity and separated programs into four tiers based on their Doximity reputation ranking (25 programs each in tiers 1 through 3 and 23 programs in tier 4). For each social media platform, we assessed whether a program had a profile, total number of posts, total number of followers and likes, total number of followed accounts, and date of creation. A total of 80.6% of programs (79 of 98) had Instagram profiles dedicated to plastic surgery residency, with an average of 1619.37 followers and following an average of 360.17 accounts. On average, programs had 127.26 posts. Tier 1 programs (programs 1 through 25) had the largest proportion of programs participating on Instagram compared with other tiers [23 of 25 (92%)]. This was followed by tier 3 [22 of 25 (88%)], tier 2 [20 of 25 (80%)], and tier 4 [14 of 25 (56%)] (Fig. 1).Fig. 1.: Number of dedicated plastic surgery residency Instagram accounts sorted by tier.A total of 22.44% of programs (22 of 98) had Twitter profiles dedicated to residency, with an average of 493.45 followers and following an average of 347.39 accounts. On average, programs had 212.06 posts (ie, tweets). A total of 32.65% of programs (32 of 98) had Facebook profiles dedicated to residency, with an average of 368.25 likes and 498.65 followers. A similar analysis of general surgery residency social media found that 43.7% of residency programs had an Instagram account and 44.0% were on Twitter, with 55.3% of residency programs having at least one account on social media, illustrating the increasing importance of maintaining a presence on social media.3 Other specialties have also adopted social media use.4,5 Instagram allows plastic surgery residency programs to reach a larger audience than Facebook and Twitter combined and the top tier of programs had the largest number of followers on Instagram (Fig. 2). Applicants should consider following all tiers of programs across social media platforms to maximize chances to connect. Lower tier programs may consider creating an Instagram account as they were least represented by the total number of accounts.Fig. 2.: Average followers per plastic surgery residency account sorted by tier.Other specialties hosted virtual interviews for the 2022 match. We recommend that programs that have not adopted Instagram as a recruitment tool do so. Social media represents a viable platform for residency accounts to communicate with prospective residents. Because of the ongoing nature of the COVID-19 pandemic and the popularity of social media, social media represents a powerful recruitment tool that we expect to continue to grow. DISCLOSURE The authors did not receive any funding for this study. They have no financial disclosures to declare and report no conflicts of interest.