Board Forum: Establishing the Role for Social Media in Your Practice

To what extent do you use social media to promote your practice? Why?

Michael Somenek, MD: I use social media as a platform for brand awareness for our practice. I don’t pay for any advertising on social media to directly promote the practice. We prefer to use other outlets to promote the practice, such as Google and print within our local market.

Thuy-Van Tina Ho, MD: I try to post twice per week and use it for my platform and marketing as a facial plastic surgeon.

Joe Niamtu, III, DMD: First of all, I would say that every contemporary practice uses social media or by definition they are not contemporary. Merely using social media does not necessarily grow a practice, as there are numerous variables. For instance, if you are treating aging face and body, then social media that mostly appeals to young people may not produce a good return.

By the same token, a “shotgun” approach is always the best promotion. True branding means putting your brand out in a lot of places. Some may be productive; some may not, but in the big picture it gets your name out there.

I use a lot of social media because it keeps my practice “alive.” A newspaper or magazine ad may be forgotten after turning the page. TV and radio, are also fleeting impressions. With social media, everything is out there, current and archived. It is a 24/7 representation of one’s practice.

Flora Levin, MD: I use it to a very large extent. I post in my feed three to four times a week and stories almost daily. It’s a mix of 75 percent before/after photos or procedure videos and 25 percent personal stuff (myself, my kids, etc.).

Who handles your social media for your practice? Has this changed over time?

Dr. Levin: I do it myself. It is a big source of referrals. As it grew and I saw more ROI, I’ve gotten more active.

Dr. Niamtu: Unfortunately, I handle all of it. In many respects I truly enjoy making videos and posting blogs. No one can tell my story like I can. I envy my friends who have multiple employees that take care of all their marketing and media. They just sit back and watch. I am too hands-on for that. The downside is that I spend a lot of my free time doing posts and videos and due to that I don’t use all the available social media platforms. I have a huge presence on some platforms (over 20 million YouTube views) and a meager presence on others. I also am not a fan of “Kardashian” culture and trendy fads. I do aging face surgery and promote an academic and educational approach aimed at patient safety and predictable outcomes. I don’t really care about “fox eyes,” giant eyebrows, crazy stuff that people will regret later in life.

You can’t be everything on all platforms. My advice to new docs is to market their target audience, be sincere, don’t try to imitate goofy fads; find your best means of branding and stick with it.

Dr. Somenek: I personally handle the social media for my pages. About four years ago we hired a company to manage this and quickly learned that it was very difficult to maintain the personal feel of the page while someone else was creating the content. While it does take a little extra time out of my day, I think the overall message and branding on my social media is much more consistent and personalized as a result of this.

Dr. Ho: I do. I also now have a marketing director who runs my two professional practice accounts (I run my personal one).

I started after fellowship in 2018 because of my future practice, and it is an increasing necessity.

Do you use social media as a professional networking tool? How and why?

Dr. Ho: Yes, it is nice to network with and learn from other colleagues.

Dr. Somenek: It is good to see what our colleagues are doing nationwide and sometimes worldwide with their practices via social media. It does allow me to connect with them on a unique level, especially over the past 18 months where many of the conferences and other social interactions have been converted to a virtual platform.

Dr. Levin: Yes. I follow other providers. It allows me to see and explore new products, treatments, etc. that I may not have seen yet. It also allows me to see what is popular and what people are interested in.

Dr. Naimtu: I belong to a number of informal social media groups with friends and colleagues. It is nice to stay in touch, see what others are doing, give advice, and take advice. I am part of the Botox International Advisory Board and toured the factory in Ireland with a group of about 30 docs. We have all stayed in touch about personal and professional matters. It is both entertaining and useful.

Thinking broadly, what do you see as the greatest potential benefit of social media use by medical aesthetic practices?

Dr. Niamtu: It is not what I see as potential benefit of using social media, it is quite the opposite. The potential drawbacks of not using it are endless.

Dr. Somenek: It allows us to connect with our current and prospective patients on a level that is becoming more and more normal in today’s society. They feel that, in a strange way, they “stay in touch” with us, following us to medical conferences, seeing what we are doing in the office, as well as seeing what we do in our personal lives.

Dr. Levin: It’s an extension of your website with a broader reach than Google, where your geography is limited by the ROI. It also allows people to get to know you more personally, so many patients feel that they already “know me” and feel comfortable with me.

Dr. Ho: Marketing, showing my personal side.

What do you see as the greatest potential detriment of social media use by medical aesthetic practices?

Dr. Ho: Lack of filter of information for consumers.

Dr. Somenek: I have seen many before and after results that have either been blatantly Photoshopped or using lighting practices that create very unrealistic expectations for potential patients. This makes it difficult for those physicians consistently trying to establish realistic expectations for their patients.

Dr. Niamtu: In many respects, things have gotten out of hand. You see people singing and dancing in the OR with some patient’s bare butt in the background. There is also so much excess treatment that people are doing—trendy stuff that is just faddish and can lower the perception of a practice. In many platforms, once you post something it is there forever, and I have seen many people regret trying to be cool. Also, there is so much hype and smoke and mirrors being posted, it takes away from true, time-tested, safe procedures. Social media: lots of good, plenty of bad.

Dr. Levin: Unrealistic expectations, since everyone posts only their “best.” Other concerns are blurred borders in the patient/doctor relationship and insecurity in your work when comparing to others.