Social Savvy: Insights from the Front Lines
Favorite platform: Instagram, and I am also liking TikTok for the entertainment value.
Her “why”: I give a whole lecture on this and also have a paper published called “ROI on Social Media.” I see direct benefits to my practice with an increased volume of patients who already know who I am. They already know I am their surgeon before they walk in the door.
Social media philosophy or mission statement: You attract what you put out. Be authentic to who you are; you will attract people who like who you are.
Defining success: I think success to me is having a following who really has your back and trusts your recommendations. I think I have achieved this for the most part.
Campaign that was “most successful” or she is most proud of: I have been very active in speaking up about anti-Jewish racism. I am really proud of this as it took courage to do so.
Social media lesson learned: You can’t have people love you without having some people hate you. You have to be truly you and that can be polarizing. And that’s okay.
Best social media advice for a colleague: Put out your authentic self. Don’t worry about cancel culture or pissing people off.
Favorite platform: While I don’t have a favorite, I’m probably most sentimental about my YouTube and Instagram pages, because that’s where it all began to take off. Posting on social media is a job in itself and I certainly have people who help me with this, as it can get overwhelming and time-consuming. Presently, I’m very involved in TikTok and it really has reinvigorated my love for posting on social media. I like the positivity that is present on TikTok in particular.
Her “why”: When I first started posting on social media there were really no other physicians posting or engaging. As I began to grow, I realized I could use this exposure as “free advertising” for my practice. I no longer have to pay for ad space in magazines or newspapers. This is free advertising and free promotion to a wide international audience.
This can be rather addictive, especially if you’re growing quickly—it may increase your clout or influence but will only increase your patient load to a certain point if this is your primary motivation. People living far away in other countries may follow you on social media but this will likely not translate into patient visits. Certainly, many physicians now grow and post on social media to increase their notoriety and popularity with the goal of establishing themselves as physician influencers—”skinfluencers.” They then use this increased popularity to create sponsored ads with companies paying for them to endorse their products. Personally, I think this should be done very selectively; too many sponsored ads will decrease your credibility.
The popularity of the Dr. Pimple Popper brand on social media has translated into many opportunities, including my TLC series and my skincare line, SLMD Skincare. For me, it’s incredibly humbling and fulfilling to be able to reach so many people—so many more than I’d be able to help in my office.
Social media philosophy or mission statement: I don’t know if I have a real mission statement or social media philosophy per se. I do have my skincare line, products that help to democratize dermatology. I post on social media and am able to grow because people find my content entertaining, but I am trying to, at the same time, educate people in a non-threatening, non-preachy way. I realize that I’ve gained the trust of many people around the world and this is very important for me to maintain.
Defining success: I don’t really think about things in this way. I’m certainly proud of what I’ve built, and I know that I’ve done something that no one has done yet to date. Now that I’m here and I know that I have gained the trust of many people around the world as a dermatologist, I feel I have a huge responsibility to represent my specialty well, to make sure I’m taking the best care of my patients as I possibly can, and to continue to put out truthful educational content on social media and television.
Campaign that was “most successful” or she is most proud of: I’m most proud of the overall theme that runs through all my social media: It’s all about normalizing skin conditions. I’m grateful I’ve been given this opportunity to connect with people and patients, getting to educate people about their skin, helping them understand how to treat it and reassuring them that although sometimes it may feel like it, they’re not the only ones going through it.
Social media lesson learned: I think the fact that I am older and had already been in practice as a dermatologist for over a decade prior to all of this has helped me to know how to responsibly grow on social media. There are certainly things that I decided to do from the beginning that I’m very happy that I stuck with. I do not engage with any negativity on social media. I think that this is key; when you introduce criticism or negativity yourself, you invite the same to be directed back at you. I always stay positive, and I think that a lot of popaholics in my community feel very safe in the space we have created.
Best social media advice for a colleague: Know that it’s like gambling, in the sense that the only way you can “win” is if you play in the first place. You’ve got to get over any hang-ups or insecurities and just get out there and try to do it. It gets easier, and you learn as you move along. Most importantly, you cannot delegate this, especially in the beginning. You are a physician; You cannot simply delegate to a non-physician to present your views and educate the public. For you to be successful, it’s important for you to know and understand how this whole social machine works.
Favorite platform: Definitely Instagram. I really like how it is so interactive and you can see stories, reels, and posts!
His “why”: I really decided that being active on social media was truly worthwhile when I did a rhinoplasty surgery for a well-known YouTube star. Following the surgery, she put all of her experiences, stories, and video blogs on her YouTube channel and my social media outlets were then flooded when that happened.
I definitely see direct benefits to my practice from social media interaction. Many patients seek me out directly from things they see on Instagram and social media. Although I don’t spend money on Instagram, it is my number #1 marketing source, other than my website. It just takes a lot of my own personal effort and time to run it! Indirectly, I think social media is beneficial in that when prospective or current patients follow me, they feel like they know me and my personality without even meeting me. It gets them immediately comfortable with who I am.
Social media philosophy or mission statement: My social media philosophy is, “This is me! Take it or leave it.” My Instagram profile is very eclectic and ranges from my surgical results to my sneaker obsession and even has a lot of my family life and friends on there. I put it all out there and have only had positive feedback about it to this point.
Defining success: I define “success” on social media as having fun documenting my crazy jammed-packed life and practice, and if patients see what we are doing in the office or operating room and want to be a part of it, that is all the better. I am still enjoying putting content out there for my followers, and patients are coming into the office mentioning it, so I guess something is working.
Campaign that was “most successful” or he is most proud of: The post that I am most proud of was from September 17, 2019. On that day, I opened my private office, Bloom Facial Plastic Surgery. I only put out a post that the office opened, our address, and contact information; instantly patients began to find me. It put a smile on my face that I did the right thing.
Social media lesson learned: A lesson that I have learned with social media is that you don’t have to spend money to have a social media account or be active. It only takes time. I have never spent any money on my @drjbloom Instagram account and continue to run it myself. It was entirely built and grown organically without paying any companies or services to buy followers or get higher status. I only recently hired an associate in my office to help out creating content and running my office @bloom.facial.plastics account. She is doing a great job and stops by the office to video procedures, get testimonials, and touch base on the account.
Best social media advice for a colleague: My best advice I have found with social media is that the best content is uniquely “you.” My family life posts and exciting personal things going on with my life always far outweigh the interactions that I get with my practice-based posts. It is for this reason that I still have complete control of my accounts. Having someone else come in there to run it would lose the personal feel.
Her “why”: I am an eternal student. I always want to push the needle, work on advances in my field, and expand my own knowledge. I love to share the things I’m working on and learning from a very organic standpoint. The conversations I have with my patients in the office are so enriching and inspiring to me. I started to engage on social media as a way to expand upon those conversations and to empower others, even if they are unable to see me in the office. I stopped taking new patients several years ago because I have a very loyal patient base, and the wait times for my existing patients were becoming just too long. I want to be accessible and present for them.
Social media allows me to empower so many individuals with all of this information that I genuinely love to share. I have found that the communities that have grown so naturally on my Instagram and TikTok channels are warm, thoughtful, supportive, and encouraging, which I know is not everyone’s experience on these platforms. Our community works to enrich and support each other in a way that makes the experience exciting and fun for me, and which keeps me coming back!
Social media philosophy or mission statement: Skin health isn’t superficial. It isn’t about what’s happening at the surface level only. Instead, I take an integrative approach to dermatology, which looks at our skin health in the context of our overall health. So, skincare is a chapter, but it isn’t the whole book. My approach is evidence-based and is guided by the gut-brain-skin connection. We nourish our skin through microbiome-friendly foods. We dial down the stress hormones that impact our skin through exercise, sleep habits, and stress management. And, as a community, we optimize our skin health through a powerful cycle of ingredients specifically geared to make our skin glow with health. This is called skin-cycling and we have a calendar that many of my audience members follow alongside me, which includes exfoliation night, retinol night, and recovery nights to allow our skin barrier to heal.
Defining success: To me, success is seeing the level of meaningful, thoughtful engagement just explode. If I’m offline for hours and then I check in, I love seeing that my audience members are chiming in and answering each others’ questions based on information that I’ve shared previously or links that I have readily accessible to our community! When I see and feel this positive, encouraging atmosphere, filled with empowering information taking on a life of its own, I feel very successful!
Campaign that was “most successful” or she is most proud of: Recently, my nine-year-old daughter and I shared a collaborative, fun-spirited video about sun protection that went viral. We had 3.6 million views on this particular video, which was very successful in terms of analytics and reach, but most importantly, the message was skin protection for younger generations. The fact that my daughter was able to inspire other younger people to care about skin health and sun protection makes me incredibly proud to be a dermatologist mom!
Social media lesson learned: On my platforms, I am very much open to challenges and discussion. I welcome thoughtful back-and-forth and I work very hard to view seemingly antagonistic comments through a lens of discussion-based opportunities. I’ve learned that some individuals on these platforms feel a need to antagonize or even bully other people who do not share their viewpoints. The most powerful lesson I’ve learned is to keep my conversations grounded in science, in calm reflection, and in an above-board tone. I have found that my community has grown around this approach, and we all support each other with kindness and respect, even and especially when we disagree!
Best social media advice for a colleague: Comparison is the thief of joy. If doing dances and pointing to information doesn’t feel authentic to you, be true to yourself. Create content that means something powerful to you and allow yourself to have fun. Focusing too much on the algorithm or the reach of other people’s accounts can absolutely sap the joy from this experience. You do you, and that will feel the most inspiring to others.
Her “why”: I see direct benefit in that patients find me on social media. The indirect benefits are connecting to so many of my colleagues around the world.
Social media philosophy or mission statement: My philosophy is to educate the public about the skin and cosmetic procedures because there is so much false information.
Defining success: I am my toughest critic, so I always think I need to work harder.
Campaign that was “most successful” or she is most proud of: It is not my most successful, but one I am most proud of from July 15, 2020: Truth about counterfeits in cosmetics. I had recently published an article in Dermatologic Surgery about how common fake cosmetics are in the US, and this was a way to share that information with the public and also other derms.
Social media lesson learned: Don’t take anything personally. Even if you post something completely benign, someone might make a negative comment and that is ok.
Her “why”: I’m not a huge social media fan, but I think that it’s actually important in this time as a cosmetic physician because you’re able to capture a wider audience in terms of procedures. When patients see that we get a procedure done ourselves, they noticed that; they like it. That’s definitely a direct benefit to the practice.
A lot of my followers are actually my patients or friends of my patients. I think it adds to your community. It’s a good way to educate them and to hopefully drown out a little bit of the noise of all the information that’s coming to them with regard to skincare procedures or dermatology in general—there’s so much misinformation out there.
I think it’s great in terms of an educational platform. I think sometimes you are surprised with how you connect with your patients. I think that was more surprising for me. When I start to be a little bit more open with my personal health journey or personal skincare journey, I think it makes you feel more as a physician, like a human to your patients that I think that connection that you make with them is really meaningful for the patient.
Social media philosophy or mission statement: Talking about things that I enjoy doing that are my area of expertise or my niche. And then I really like to advocate for women. So focusing on women’s health, especially during different transitions or moments in a woman’s life that may be more difficult with regards to her skin or her beauty journey. That’s usually how I approach it.
Defining success: It’s not my goal to become a social media influencer or primarily to get patients. I get most patients through word of mouth. I think more of my success comes if I am authentic to myself. I’m not looking at metrics so much. Sometimes a patient does come from social media, but I’m not using it as a marketing tool.
I think it can be a very successful marketing tool, but for me, it’s just me being me and my patients feeling like they’re getting the same version of me in the office as they are in social media.
Campaign that was “most successful” or she is most proud of: I think what I’m most proud of in terms of social media is not getting drawn into feeling like I have to do certain things that you might feel like you have to do as a physician, if you engage in social media. I think there’s a feeling or sentiment that a lot of physicians have that they have to do certain things. I think you should use the platforms really just to connect, engage with your patients or your audience as you feel is the most enjoyable. That’s when you’ll actually get the most success from it.
I made the decision to be really open about my IVF journey for a personal reason and, you know, I take care of mostly women. A lot of them are struggling through their family planning process. As their physician, I just noticed that so many women were so lonely and felt really not connected and not knowing where to turn. So I think that really changed my direction and how I looked at social media as well, because it was something that, you know, I saw that my patients and then I experienced myself as a patient. I think that a lot of patients feel closer to me, we have more intimate conversations, which has led to more procedures that we do for some of them. I just enjoy caring for them more and I see them more as a whole person.
Social media lesson learned: I’ve seen a lot of successful physicians do social media. I think people see metrics in terms of how many followers people have. A lot of times it’s not really consistent with engagement. So I think the most important thing for social media really is not how many followers you have, but really how much engagement, how much back and forth and dialogue you’re having with your followers. I think that leads to a more meaningful experience for you. It’s how you see patients. Do you want to have a deeper relationship, a long-term relationship where they return to you for their cosmetic procedures and their journeys or do you want patients you just see once and then they’re gone. That’s the mentality I transferred to social media, as well. That’s been a great lesson. And not getting caught up in really what other people are doing. That can be exhausting for a lot of physicians.
Sabrina G. Fabi, MD
Instagram: @sabrina.fabi
Facebook: @drsabrinafabi
Her why: As someone who is private, social media until recently had never really been for me. I recognized the benefits and the role it plays today in communicating with my patients and I needed to remain in the conversation. Being on social media keeps me top of mind with patients and their aesthetic needs—in a space where there is an abundance of misleading or inaccurate information.
Social media philosophy or mission statement: My intention when I became active on social media was to be a credible source and offer evidence-based medicine that my patients and aesthetic consumers could trust. Making the move onto social media has also allowed me to feel more connected to my patients on a day-to-day basis, and them to me. It’s in this medium where I share some personal things about myself that allow for them to get to know the person underneath the white coat, as typically when they are in the clinic, I like to make it all about them.
Defining success: Success is practicing my intention on a daily basis and this adding value in the lives of others, whether it is patients, aesthetic consumers at large, residents, fellows, or colleagues.
Social media lesson learned: As with life in general, there will always be haters. You can't concern yourself with people that find it easier to criticize you than to focus and create something unique themselves. Giving them any of your time and attention, i have found, takes away from your purpose. Ignore them.
Best social media advice for a colleague: As the famous @beautybydrkay once advised me when starting out, "The goal isn't to have 100K followers, the goal should be to have 1,000 good quality, loyal followers that you have an impact on.”
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