Study Finds Nonsocial Doctors Are Terribly Outdated

As published to The HuffingtonPost

Does your doctor need to be on Facebook? How about your plastic surgeon? That’s the question RealSelf.com asked more than 700 users in a recent study. Nearly 60 percent of respondents said they like doctors to be “somewhat engaged” on social media, while 32 percent said they want them “very engaged.”

Get social and get with it

People particularly care about social media when it comes to picking a doctor. If a cosmetic doctor has very limited information online, people overwhelmingly see that person as outdated, not with the times, and therefore, undesirable.

Prospective patients want the latest in technology and medical advancements, and a perceived reflection of that is having a doctor with a strong social media presence.

A mere 18 percent said they thought a doctor without any online presence was successful, while 16 percent thought the doctor may even be hiding something. “That raises a red flag for me on many levels,” wrote one survey taker.

Interestingly, people surveyed also aren’t interested in using social media to research a procedure. Facebook and Twitter both ranked near the bottom in terms of importance for medical research. No favorites or retweets on the social media marketing attempt below:

 

Finding A Good Doctor To Work With http://t.co/1EYoVAjKGR

— LifeStyle Info (@One4Heath) June 11, 2015

Even photo-heavy platforms like Instagram and Pinterest had low marks when it came to helping people make an informed choice, with 53 percent of respondents ranking Instagram as “not at all important” in helping them make a cosmetic medical choice.

Main image credit: scienceroll.com