It’s fascinating how plastic surgery evolves over the years, and it’s not simply about popular procedures or surgical techniques.
A few decades ago, celebrities were the foremost proponents of plastic surgery, and many patients wanted to have procedures that their favorite movie stars had. But starting in the 2000s, there was a shift to reality television, which gave us new celebrities that promoted plastic surgery, such as the Kardashians.
Today, a new factor is driving demand for breast augmentation, facelifts, liposuction, and more: social media. The stratospheric rise of social media has major implications for plastic surgeons who want to grow their practices with effective marketing.
Let’s take a look.
How Facebook, Snapchat, and Instagram Have Changed Plastic Surgery
How many of us have accounts for Facebook, Snapchat, Instagram, Twitter, and more? These visually-focused social media channels are ideal for selling the public on the benefits of plastic surgery.
Many of the most notable plastic surgeons in the country have made impressive careers by effectively using social media to drive their surgical practices.
When they share before-and-after photos, videos, and posts about cosmetic procedures, they build vast followings of consumers who review their content regularly and become interested in plastic surgery.
This has led to a surge in interest in plastic surgery around the world and more acceptance by the public of going under the knife.
Popular social media channels have provided plastic surgeons with the ability to market their practices in ways that were unimaginable twenty years ago. Today, intelligent plastic surgeons can target patient audiences by leveraging social media by sharing content and even using social media advertising.
Tips to Grow Your Practice on Social Media
Now that we’ve established how social media can produce big dividends for your practice, let’s look at how to boost your business on popular social media channels:
- Attract new clients with detailed before-and-after photos.
- Create trust with past patient testimonials.
- Increase traffic with highly informative educational content about your most popular procedures.
- Place unique posts on every social channel you use – everything shared on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, Twitter, etc., should be original content.
Best Social Media Practices for Marketing Plastic Surgery Procedures
If you want to ramp up your practice’s social media marketing, great! However, it’s wise if you follow several best practices recommended by the American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS).
Keep Personal and Professional Accounts Separate
No matter your industry, it’s easy to mix personal and professional relationships on social media. But it can be especially problematic when it’s anything in the medical industry.
The Federation of State Medical Boards strongly recommends keeping your personal profile and plastic surgery practice profile separate on every social media channel. Maintaining separation between your private and public persona is essential when you are dealing with medical procedures.
Also, remember that everything that you post on the Internet is essentially public, so it’s essential to keep any of your personal posts as non-controversial as possible.
Safeguard Patient Privacy
As doctors, we must safeguard patient privacy in everything we do. HIPAA rules contain eighteen personal identifiers, so we must be sure we never reveal compromising information. This includes the metadata that accompanies images that could reveal your patient’s identity.
Also, please remember to remove any identifying features from your before-and-after photographs. It’s also easy to get tripped up by reposting images that your patients sent you.
Next, be sure that your patient photos and files aren’t visible in your social media posts.
Patient Consent
Plastic surgeons usually obtain patient consent to take photos before and after surgery. However, it may be wise to get another consent to put their pictures on social media channels for marketing purposes.
Follow the ASPS Code of Ethics
It is essential to ensure that your social media post for marketing purposes follows the Society’s ethical guidelines. The Code of Ethics was updated a few years ago to apply to electronic communications, of which social media is a part.
The guidelines for marketing and advertising state that doctors should not claim superiority over other medical professionals, misrepresent procedure results, or generally mislead the public.
What Happens Next?
Who knows what will drive plastic surgery forward in the future? But we do know that technology is evolving faster than ever. After all, who could have imagined ten years ago how Instagram, for example, could make a plastic surgeon based in one city famous around the entire country?
That’s why forward-thinking plastic surgeons need to stay abreast of technological trends, just as we monitor trends in plastic surgery techniques and equipment.
If you find a new social media channel or tool that you think could give your practice a boost, try it out! We’ve seen how social media is so instrumental in the growth of countless surgical practices. So, you could be onto another significant development in plastic surgery marketing.
As long as you follow the aforementioned ASPS guidelines, your practice could be in for a surge of business with your new social media efforts.
More about the Practice
Dr. Raja Mohan is a skilled plastic surgeon who focuses on aesthetic and reconstructive procedures on the face, breast, and body. He is one of a handful of surgeons in the Dallas area with extensive aesthetic surgery training.
Dr. Raj has years of training in nonsurgical procedures and offers his clients the best chemical peels, laser skin resurfacing, injectable fillers, and Botox injections.
He graduated from MIT in mathematics. During his undergraduate studies, he discovered a passion for plastic surgery and decided to attend the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine after he earned his mathematics degree.
To learn more about Dr. Raj Plastic Surgery in Dallas, visit him online.
short url:
