Best Social Media Platforms for Plastic Surgeons
Social media plays a key role in many of our social and interpersonal lives, but the ways in which some of the most popular platforms have become integral to our business needs as well can be a little surprising. According to the American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS), major search engines like Google are even promoting searches based on social media presence to a greater degree than other factors, such as training, memberships, or educational background. Educational plastic surgery content has always performed well on social media and generally maintains a high level of engagement on every platform — on TikTok alone, the #PlasticSurgery hashtag receives approximately 9.6 billion views. Not only does social media for plastic surgeons provide limitless opportunities for brand awareness, patient outreach, and cosmetic surgery education, but more and more people are also looking to social media to actually choose their plastic surgeon.
Simply being on social media isn’t enough to make a difference in your marketing metrics. To truly excel in the digital space, you need to skillfully leverage the most popular social platforms according to the online habits and demographic of their users. Keep reading to find out which social media platforms are key players in impacting the plastic surgery marketing space.
Social Platforms By Age Group
Social media apps each have their own niche user base, with younger audiences frequently populating Tik Tok and Instagram while older patients tend to be drawn to more long-form content sharing platforms, such as Facebook and YouTube. In a 2023 review of social media as it relates to plastic surgery marketing published in The Aesthetic Surgery Journal, PubMed* (National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD) generally found that:
- Users aged 17 – 35 are more likely to engage with TikTok, Snapchat, and Instagram, with breast augmentation being the most commonly performed procedure for this age range.
- Those who are 36 – 70 tend to utilize Instagram and Facebook, with liposuction being the most popular surgery among this demographic.
- Potential patients who are 70 and older are most likely to utilize Facebook, and most frequently undergo blepharoplasty when compared to other procedures.
In the aforementioned review, studies found that all users — regardless of demographic — tend to engage more with aesthetic content rather than scientific content. This is a significant finding because it highlights the notion that, while informational, long-winded scientific studies and medical articles filled with complicated jargon are less likely to resonate with plastic surgery audiences across all age groups.
TikTok
As it stands today, TikTok is the fastest growing social media app for plastic surgery marketing by far. This platform is exclusively designed for creating and sharing video content, allowing users to edit their videos with filters, effects, audio files, and other tools completely built into the app. Videos are usually 10 to 60 seconds long, mirroring trends in Internet culture that focus on easily digestible short-form content.
TikTok is one of the most effective, if not the most powerful, platform for far-reaching engagement and “going viral.” This is owed to its unique algorithm, which pushes new content to both followers and non-followers alike. Unlike Instagram and Facebook’s model of showing a user’s posts to only 15 – 20 percent of his/her/their followers first (and subsequently sharing the content further based on likes, comments, and engagement), TikTok creates the opportunity for unlimited growth by making content visible to a larger subsection than a person’s immediate followers. What’s more, TikTok offers a customized “For You” page that displays posts without requiring you to follow the creator’s account, and does not require you to have a TikTok account to view content. Even if your target demographic is not under 30 years old, TikTok can be a great place to stay up-to-date with trending topics and attuned to the larger plastic surgery conversation.
Instagram can provide an excellent opportunity to post photo and video content, while offering a solid platform to run promotions and specials campaigns. Most popularly used among patients between ages 25 and 34, Instagram tends to be most successful with posts involving:
- Before-and-after photos
- Testimonials
- Patient education
With the proliferation of Instagram Reels — short-form videos that can serve as storytelling, ads, or opportunities for brand discovery — plastic surgeons have more tools than ever to showcase their practice, sell an experience, highlight results, and more. Reels can also function as advertisements for a product, treatment, or promotional campaign, similar to how the “Swipe Up” function in a company’s Stories can drive website traffic and help provide insight on engagement.
As the longest-standing social media platform to date, Facebook is where older patients aged 45 to 54 are more likely to frequent. In general, the types of posts that succeed on Facebook generally involve promotional content, longer videos, event information, special offers, and links to blog posts. Since patients in their thirties and forties are more likely to consider a surgical procedure over non-surgical treatments, posting cosmetic surgery information on Facebook can be a strong way to target the platform’s user base.
Feeling Overwhelmed? Let RM Be Your Guide
Plastic surgery audiences engage with a broad range of social media platforms, and more social apps are being created every day. With the ever-increasing influence of social media on cosmetic surgery and aesthetic medicine, we know that delivering top-notch content on every platform can feel like a full time job. At Rosemont Media, our creative professionals can help you navigate your social marketing and SEO needs to multiply engagement, gain leads, and help you stay competitive in your marketplace. Get tips from our agency and reach out to Rosemont Media today!