Social Media Impact on a Plastic Surgery Clinic During Shutdown due to COVID-19 in China.

Abstract

Facial Plastic Surgery & Aesthetic MedicineVol. 22, No. 3 Viewpoints: COVID-19Free AccessSocial Media Impact on a Plastic Surgery Clinic During Shutdown due to COVID-19 in ChinaLu Wang, Ruicheng Gong, Sa Yu, and Huan QianLu WangStarbody Plastic Surgery Clinic, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, PR China.†These authors contributed equally to this work.Search for more papers by this author, Ruicheng GongStarbody Plastic Surgery Clinic, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, PR China.†These authors contributed equally to this work.Search for more papers by this author, Sa YuStarbody Plastic Surgery Clinic, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, PR China.Search for more papers by this author, and Huan Qian*Address correspondence to: Huan Qian, MD, Department of Plastic Surgery, Zhejiang University School of Medicine Second Affiliated Hospital, 88 Jiefang Road, 310009, Hangzhou, PR China, E-mail Address: huanqian@zju.edu.cnDepartment of Plastic Surgery, The Second Affiliated Hospital, School of Medicine, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, PR China.Search for more papers by this authorPublished Online:15 May 2020https://doi.org/10.1089/fpsam.2020.0173AboutSectionsPDF/EPUB ToolsAdd to favoritesDownload CitationsTrack CitationsPermissions Back To Publication ShareShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditEmail A growing number of plastic surgeons have started to realize that social media can exert a positive impact on their clinic marketing, and they have been gradually integrating social media into their many ways to reach patients.12 However, the clinic operation is by no means entirely dependent on social media.3 Our plastic surgery clinic is located at Hangzhou in the southeast of China, where many Internet companies, such as Alibaba and NetEase, are based. Statistically, our clinic paid less than 20% of its time and staff resource on social-media management, with direct online consultations accounting for only 10%.However, when Wuhan City announced its shutdown on January 23 due to the outbreak of COVID-19, with increasingly more diagnosed cases across the country, our Spring Festival holiday, which was originally stipulated from January 22 to February 2, was extended to an unknown date. Thus, new social media strategies were taken into consideration immediately, making us pay fully attention to online social media–based consultation, targeting nonprofit education to raise public credibility and identify potential customers. We have started an inclusive response to different social media platforms since January 23 (see Fig. 1).Fig. 1. New social media strategies during the COVID-19 outbreak.Thus, during the shutdown, we have developed new ways to communicate with beauty seekers using social media, gaining growing feedback online (Table 1). Our official reopening was on March 1 when the COVID-19 outbreak in our city had been brought under control. We began with strict health screening processes, which remain in place now, including declining treatment of patients whose health is uncertain or patients who live further away. Based on previous social media–based influence, we have gained more public credibility and more patients online. Despite the 6-week shutdown, the clinic's profit from March 1 to March 30 is 22.8% more than over the same period last year after the Spring Festival holiday (from February 14 to March 16, 2019), along with 30.7% more operations. Among these, those operations that were decided based on online consultation accounted for 58.8% of all surgery. The number of online consultations has reduced by 32.8%, but the total number of consultations, including the online consultation, has increased by 20.7%. The online consultations make up 44.3% of all consultation. Our analysis indicates that post-epidemic transformation in social media and retaliatory spending are mainly responsible for this increase.Table 1. Data from Weibo (Chinese Twitter) and Live Broadcast on Soyoung and WeChat 2020.1.23–2020.3.30Same time last yearData from Weibo (Chinese Twitter)The highest numbers of one post being read50,0005092The lowest numbers of one post being read2,125764Numbers of increasing followers70052Numbers of people asking for consultation (with assistant)2125 2020.2.17–2020.3.30Same time last yearLive broadcast on Soyoung (Chinese online plastic surgery platform)Cumulative time of live broadcast (hours)460Total numbers of people who watched46,6810Numbers of increasing followers4140Numbers of people asking for consultation (with assistant)600 2020.2.1–2020.3.30Same time last yearUsing WeChat for online consultation with doctorsNumbers of online consultation with doctor from Weibo460Numbers of online consultation with doctor from Soyoung150Total610During the COVID-19 epidemic, people all over the country had to stay at home or in medical isolation. More beauty seekers had to shift to online resources to meet their requirements, including shopping, education, consultation, and so on. This trend will likely continue due to the newly recognized benefits, and social media will be highly incorporated into our daily clinic operation. Furthermore, we have established a new staff structure to adapt better to this work, and more data will be collected and analyzed in the future.In conclusion, we have shared the entire process of how social media helped to address the shutdown crisis in a Chinese plastic surgery clinic, along with the subsequent benefits. It is hoped that this will help more clinics overcome the COVID-19 pandemic together.Author Disclosure StatementNo competing financial interests exist.Funding InformationNo funding was received for this article.