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Social Media: encouraging plastic surgery? (Week 6)

It is widely understood that social media is capable of connecting users in a way that traditional forms of media cannot. Unlike traditional forms of media, social media can be used as a mundane platform, whereby people post pictures and videos relating to their personal lives, or a commercial platform, whereby professionals and business people alike use the connectivity and instant-reach provided by social media to sell to impressionable consumers. Recently, social media has evolved to become a digital infrastructure capable of advertising and promoting plastic surgery procedures.  

As identified by Dorfman, Instagram in particular is a ‘natural suit’ (Dorfman et al. 2018, pg 332) for ‘business marketing’ (Dorfman et al. 2018, pg 333) surrounding plastic surgery. This is because Instagram is a photo and video sharing platform and  plastic surgery is a ‘visual surgical specialty’ (Dorfman et al. 2018, pg 332). Through using Instagram, plastic surgeons are able to post photos and videos of procedures, before and after comparisons and also market their procedures to a desirable audience. 

However, whilst it appears that social media and plastic surgery is the perfect match, this relationship is bittersweet. 

It is advantageous for plastic surgeons to use social media as a marketing tool to gain new clientele. With more and more people interacting and using social media, plastic surgeons will continue to gain more interest and enquiries via these platforms. However, whilst social media is a great marketing tool, it is not the most professional nor educational tool consumers should use to inform themselves about plastic surgery procedures. Dorfman’s research indicated that a vast number of posts under the hashtag ‘plastic surgery’ were ‘self-promotion’ (Dorfman et al. 2018, pg 334) rather than ‘education’ (Dorfman et al. 2018, pg 334). With an increasing number of plastic surgery patients using social media as a ‘consultation’ service to inform themselves of plastic surgery procedures, self-promotional posts or posts from nonplastic surgeons may be detrimental to potential consumers. 

Additionally, through the continued use of social media by plastic surgeons for self-promotion, the procedures of plastic surgery have become a ‘trivialised aesthetic’ (Dorfman et al. 2018, pg 335), rather than an understood medical procedure. This aesthetic coupled with a lack of ‘board-certified plastic surgeons’ (Dorfman et al. 2018, pg 334) posting to popular social media hashtags used by consumers to inform themselves of procedures, produces a dangerous situation whereby consumers can be falsely enticed into a surgery that they know little about. With a lack of educational posts surrounding plastic surgery, consumers are unlikely to be properly exposed to the ‘risks and dangers’ (Dorfman et al. 2018, pg 336) of plastic surgery.  

Ultimately, social media presents a valuable option for plastic surgeons to inform and gain new clientele. However, there are significant risks to using social media to inform and advertise plastic surgery. Whilst there is an abundance of self-promotional content regarding plastic surgery on social media platforms, there is a significant deficit of educational content regarding the risks and dangers of plastic surgery . Moreover, there is a lack of ‘board-certified plastic surgeons’ (Dorfman et al. 2018, pg 334) using social media to inform these consumers, instead popular plastic surgery posts are often posed by nonplastic surgeons. To combat these issues, as argued by Dorfman, more ‘board-certified plastic surgeons’ (Dorfman et al. 2018, pg 334) should post to social media, adequately informing potential consumers of the benefits and risks of plastic surgery procedures.

References:

Robert G Dorfman, Elbert E Vaca, Eitezaz Mahmood, Neil A Fine and Clark F Schierle, ‘Plastic Surgery-Related Hashtag Utilization on Instagram: Implications for Education and Marketing’, Aesthetic Surgery Journal, Volume 38, Issue 3, March 2018, pp 332–338