Social Media and the Aesthetic Physician

The birth of social media has brought a revolutionary opportunity for the public to learn about skin health and beauty and for physicians to impact public health. But every new advance brings the opportunity for good and, well, as you’d guess, harm. Social media has given us an advantage in so many ways, but it didn’t come with a handbook, set of rules, or established ethical guidelines for the medical doctor to follow or to protect the public. This leaves open a very wide door for misinformation. Sometimes we are like that little boy trying to put his finger in the dam to control a flood. Trying to stem the misinformation is more than a full-time job, since there are way more of them (“misinformers sometimes known as influencers or marketers”) than there are of us (board-certified physicians with decades of education behind us and lifelong learning ahead).

Creating content and getting through to a broad audience are our biggest challenges, especially when we’re in competition with media-savvy people who don’t have busy day jobs as we do or whose only job is to post and “influence” on social media. Many of them often have hundreds of thousands of followers or more, and by virtue of their reach and impact they are often accepted and trusted as experts, when the reality is that they don’t have any degree—let alone a medical degree—and are often giving advice that is neither medically sound nor backed by evidence. The advice given is at best benign or somewhat helpful, and at worst harmful. It also makes our lives as physicians difficult because we then must spend time debunking so much of what is conveyed.

Influencers cannot all be lumped into one big group, though. There are plenty of exceptions of influencers and beauty writers who create connections with board-certified physicians and who make a concerted effort to help get accurate information out to the public. The more we work with and engage them, the more we extend our reach.

When the influencers are well-known celebrities with enormous platforms, it can be nearly impossible to set the record straight—No, do not use sunscreen to help create contours by “selective tanning”! The blurred lines between trained physicians and those with access and followers has made our work of helping patients understand key messages exceedingly difficult. For example, we have spent decades working to educate around sun protection, and that can be all but wiped out by social media posts talking about the dangers of sunscreen ingredients.

Opportunity comes when we partner with as many companies and individuals as possible to help them shine and to help them give accurate information. It ends up being a win for the doctor because they gain followers and a win for the public because they get accurate information. Sometimes the influencers expect payment or free services; that needs to be negotiated up front.

Those of us on social media platforms today are by default the trail blazers and with that comes a responsibility to be the best of who we are and what we can do as board-certified dermatologists and plastic surgeons. It requires discipline and patience. It can be tempting to follow the path of influencers, but the quick rise can also mean a quick fall. I’ve seen colleagues give in to the temptation to please their audience by posting photos and videos that make me wonder about their intentions: Is it purely self-serving or is it to entertain while educating? It’s probably generational at least in part, but also, sadly, a sign of the erosion of the status of “physician” as a higher calling. My observation has been that those who stay true to who they are and to their message of science backed by sound data, delivered in bites the public will digest, do the best in the long run.

If we look at an example of a colleague who has done it well and who has maintained their success, there is much we can learn from her. Dr. Sandra Lee started out by posting various dermatology videos and then saw that certain ones, around “popping” cysts and pimples, gained more traction. Each video had educational content with useful information and her delivery hit a note that resonated with the public. Over time, as her audience grew by the millions, she was noticed by TLC and now has a successful show and product line and is essentially a household name. She represents us beautifully and celebrates all the board-certified dermatologists she can. She is in high demand but she never betrays her conscience or ethics to increase her ratings.

Status Update

What I love about social media is not just the direct access to patients and the public but also that it is a creative resource that allows each of us to showcase who we are in ways that are authentic to us. One of the fun new ways to call out those who are spreading misinformation is to create a Tik Tok or IG reel to do a voice over a video, called a stitch, to directly speak to a video that is spreading misinformation.

We each have a unique voice, and those of us who are comfortable posting on social media can work together by supporting and liking and even sharing each others’ posts, by working with the ASDS and AAD to send out messages to the public and to reach as many as we can to keep misinformation at a minimum. It’s a never-ending process, but it’s worth the effort