Social Media Focus: For new graduates wading into the deep end

A hearty congratulations to all my fellow grads, who have joined me in entering "the real world." After grueling hours of residency and fellowship, we find ourselves starting clinical practices, venturing out into the world of complete responsibility for our every decision and action.

As is often the case when leaving the nest for the first time, the "real" learning starts on the job. For many of us, these early days have been spent anxiously thinking about our first consults and cases; challenging clinical problems; clinical conundrums of our own design; and about our pending board exams. As challenging as these are, we've been training for these throughout residency and fellowships.

Then there's the other side. For the first time, we've been thrust directly into the financial center of medical practice and are in charge of building our clinical volume, while developing our professional reputation. Many of the strategy recommendations to build a successful practice remain the same over the years – be affable, able and available – with one key addition: Be active on social media.

Currently, 73 percent of adults have accounts on YouTube; 68 percent of online adults use Facebook; and 35 percent are on Instagram. Snapchat and Instagram "TV" are rapidly becoming standard forms of direct communication. As we've all experienced, most patients have looked online for health data and present to office visits armed with "information." Patients are more discerning than ever, evaluating our ratings online before ever considering us for their care.

Although involvement in social media was often thought to be relegated to private practice and "cosmetic surgery," major hospital systems and academic centers have embraced the importance of their social media presence and are now encouraging their physicians to be active participants.

With such a tremendous emphasis on social media and marketing activity, let's take this opportunity to revisit some key guidelines that are particularly important to us in these early stages of our careers.

What to know

First, there are very specific marketing and advertising guidelines that every one of our social media posts must abide by. For the most part, these are in-line with state and national ethical and legal guidelines for everyone, with some key added features for recent grads:

• Do not claim Board Certification prior to successful completion of the certification process
• Do not post false or misleading advertising that leads to unrealistic expectations
• Do not minimize the magnitude and possible risks of surgery
• Do not solicit patients for operations that they might not otherwise consider
• Be sure to obtain written, patient photograph-consent specific to social media
• Maintain HIPAA compliance at all times
• We are responsible for all instances of advertising (including third-party employers, physician rating websites and sites others may have modified on our behalf)
• Read and follow all American Board of Plastic Surgery Code of Ethics Guidelines (abplasticsurgery.org)
• Anyone can file an ethics violation against us if our actions violate these rules

The following ultimately disqualifying information is well known, but critical to keep in mind for the board-eligible plastic surgeon:

• Do not use the ABPS, ASPS, ASAPS logos
• Do not market/hold events where alcohol is served and injectables, procedures or operations are performed

As many of us have been on varying social media platforms for quite some time, we've embraced a certain level of comfort and familiarity with posting our opinions, news and updates. In our new roles as full-fledged attending surgeons, we all face competing interests and anxieties as we find our comfort zones reaching out to our networks and potential patients. In this critical time, it is more important than ever to be acutely aware of the rules that govern the development of our professional reputations.

If you have any questions or are unsure about a particular rule, always be sure to read all the governing guidelines – and check before you post.