Content Analysis of Instagram Stories of Top Plastic Surgeons
Instagram is a visual platform utilizing two primary forms of content including posts and stories. Posts are made and remain on the associated account long-term, while stories are posted temporarily for 24 hours. Instagram stories are posted at much higher volumes and often incite better engagement than static posts. This is due to Instagram’s everchanging algorithm, which typically only shows static posts to 10% of an account’s followers unless the user pays to promote their posts. The content of static posts seen on the Instagram accounts of plastic surgeons has been thoroughly studied, however, there has scarcely been any analysis of the story content posted by these popular accounts. Given the importance of social media in cosmetic surgery practices, a detailed analysis of such trends is helpful in guiding plastic surgeon marketing regimes.
Methods/Technique
:The top 100 plastic surgery Instagram accounts in the world were identified by their total number of followers and using the keywords “plastic”, “cosmetic”, “aesthetic” and “surgeon” using HeepsyTM, a web application specializing in social media analytics. The accounts of each surgeon were monitored daily over the course of one week, categorically logging the type of content being posted. Broad categories included personal, educational, surgical, and engagement. These categories were further divided into subcategories to allow for a more granular analysis. Qualitative and quantitative measures were used to assess demographics and trends.
Results/Complications
:The average number of followers by the top accounts was 437917 +/- 36216. The majority of surgeons were located in North America (64%). The average number of stories posted each week was 28.2+/-3.7. The highest number was posted on Friday (5.01) and the lowest on Saturday (2.67). The most common content of stories posted were related to surgical procedures (57.6%), followed by personal life (21.4%), engagement polls/posts (13.4%), and educational content (7.6%). The most common subcategories of content were before and after photography or videos for surgical procedures, hobbies and miscellaneous interests for personal life content, procedural descriptions for educational content, and re-shared posts for engagement content.
Conclusion
:Social media has become ubiquitous within the field of plastic surgery, which has rapidly revolutionized practice growth and standards. As a result, Instagram stories have become an increasingly popular means of advertising to and interacting with patients, warranting a deeper analysis of their content. Our study demonstrates that highly followed plastic surgeons are more inclined to post in volumes at an average of 28 posts per week. Additionally, the type of stories most posted by these accounts majorly fell under the category of surgery-related content and typically included before/after photographs and/or videos. While it cannot be concluded that posting more Instagram stories will lead to increased follower counts, these trends display that highly followed plastic surgery accounts have an active social media presence involving a multitude of posts per week. This study provides insight into the type of content posted on Instagram stories by the most followed plastic surgeons in the world, thus providing guidance to new and existing surgeons and their marketing teams.