Dr Olivier Branford started on Twitter just a couple of years ago but his ever-growing online audience already numbers over 130,000 followers.

He has also become a key opinion leader in plastic surgery as a result of his work on the use of social media by plastic surgeons to educate the public, as well as his many peer-reviewed articles on aesthetic breast surgery and breast reconstruction.

Dr Branford is on the social media committee at the American Society of Plastic Surgery and is social media advisor to the Association of Breast Surgery in the United Kingdom.

IMCAS Academy spoke to Dr Branford to find out how he successfully harnessed the power of social media.

What first prompted your professional interest in social media?

It is very difficult for the public to find out the truth about the safety and efficacy of plastic surgery treatments and also about the profession. There is a lot of misinformation about plastic surgery in both the traditional press and on digital media that is heavily marketed by individuals masquerading as trained plastic surgeons, often with large budgets, in the interests of making profit. I didn’t like that the public were being fooled. Board certified plastic surgeons were initially slow to adopt social media in the interests of education. I wanted to encourage other plastic surgeons to flood social media with evidence-based truths in order to drown out the torrent of false claims regarding treatments and expertise. Effectively I wanted to get our evidence base out of libraries and to the public. Research studies are designed to improve the quality of patient care – I wanted to help make those studies accessible to all. I wanted to help the public access the truth directly, and to be fully informed when making decisions when seeking plastic surgery treatments. I have had feedback from a number of people who have read articles that I have posted and they have discussed these with their doctors. I am delighted that social media has empowered patients in this way.

Why does Twitter hold such appeal for you over other forms of social media?

Although Twitter is seen by some as a business to business (N2B) platform, I have found that most of my followers are members of the public; in fact they account for over 80 percent of those reading the scientific plastic surgery articles that I post. Evan Williams, one of the cofounders of Twitter, has stated: “We eventually came to the insight that Twitter was really more of an information network than it is a social network”. I like the microblogging nature of the platform, where those who post are obliged to be concise in 140 characters or less. Twitter also allows photos, videos and links to original articles to be posted so it is ideal for an academic plastic surgeon wanting to extend their digital reach. I think all the platforms have their own advantages, as set out by Dr David Song, previous President of the American Society of Plastic Surgery (ASPS), the largest plastic surgery society in the world, in his PRS Global Open journal article “#SocialMedia for the Academic Plastic Surgeon – Elevating the Brand” published in January 2016. Facebook has financially driven algorithms that limit how many of your followers see what you post unless you pay to promote your posts. Plastic surgeons are still hesitant about Snapchat, although this will change as we find a way of using it for education and not self-promotion. I am becoming increasingly interested in Instagram as the visual content has great appeal for the public and the engagement is huge even when compared with Facebook and Twitter.

Why should busy plastic surgeons make time in their schedule for Twitter?

Social media is used by over two thirds of the public, and over 90 percent by some demographic groups, and is becoming the new language of plastic surgery education. If you don’t have a digital presence as a surgeon then for many patients you don’t actually exist! As surgeons we are trained to be educators. My research articles used to be read by a few hundred people at best. Now they are read by millions. That is very gratifying as an academic plastic surgeon. Twitter also helps you build your brand and that of your institution. It is like a 365 day a year conference and is very democratic in nature – most surgeons, including the thought leaders in plastic surgery, will interact on Twitter if you engage with them. We have recently published an article analysing the use of Twitter by plastic surgeons entitled #PlasticSurgery, which provides a lot of advice, videos and references. ASPS has published a blog and video about this. I started advocating the use of the hashtag #PlasticSurgery by plastic surgeons together with the journal Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery (PRS) and the American Society of Plastic Surgery. Both are huge advocates of education via social media and their support is the reason that we have been so successful as a profession with regards to digital engagement. #PlasticSurgery is now the number one trending healthcare hashtag in the world with over 3 BILLION views per year! Before starting this project only 6 percent of posts about plastic surgery were by plastic surgeons. Now it is well over 90 percent. This has to be great for patients seeking credible information: I would say that as educators it is our duty to get involved! This model is being replicated by other medical specialities, including dermatology, which is a fantastic development. As an individual plastic surgeon it is a great way of getting your message and personal brand out there. I regularly have over 2 million views a month for my posts and over 100,000 profile visits. For the Paris IMCAS conference in January there were almost 50 million views of the conference posts – my own account was responsible for 31 million of those. Nothing like this was possible before social media. IMCAS has been visionary as an academic global institution in supporting the use of social media to educate about plastic surgery and dermatology. We have recently run a public poll via Twitter and found when asked “Who would you trust the most for education about healthcare on social media?” that over 90 percent of the public trusted academic doctors, versus only 3 percent choosing global marketing teams as their trusted source, 5 percent millennial YouTubers and zero percent choosing tabloid press articles.

What are your top tips for creating social media content and where do you find inspiration and information for your content?

I have set out all my tips in a PRS Journal blog “Twitter for plastic surgeons who are too busy to tweet” , which also contains a video link to my Tech talk about this subject. My main advice is to post original content as much as possible – for example scientific articles or blogs about those articles. Blogs about plastic surgery related topics are also of huge interest to those seeking plastic surgery. Posts with links to articles, photographs and videos have the most engagement – anywhere from twice to 1000 times higher – especially for video. The best way to curate information is to follow key opinion leaders and leading engaged institutions in plastic surgery.

What are your top tips for plastic surgeons who want to build Twitter followers?

Building a following is a marathon not a sprint. It is important to be time efficient: we are surgeons first and foremost. Being positive really helps, and remember that once you have a large following that you effectively become a broadcaster. The following can then grow exponentially. This is certainly the case after the first 2,000 followers.

What are the common mistakes that people make on Twitter and how can users avoid them?

It is so important to engage and educate – not to sell or self-promote. Of course ‘academic marketing’ is a form of selling your personal brand but this is an indirect consequence and is secondary to education. It is important to be authentic, tell a true ‘story’ and to build trust by posting the truth about plastic surgery. Never ever troll or become aggressive. Be ‘social’! The main way to avoid mistakes is to behave with the same ethical code that you would in your practice, especially when it comes to patient confidentiality. When asked what the primary role of plastic surgeons should be on social media, 67 percent of the public wanted plastic surgeons to educate, 26 percent said they wanted them to engage, and only 7 percent wanted to be marketed to. These results are pretty clear!

What other advice do you have when it comes to managing your Twitter account?

My main advice is to do it yourself – the public can easily tell if it is managed by a third party. They want to get to know you, not your marketing team. Although automated apps can be helpful I have found that well-timed manually posted tweets have the greatest engagement, especially using hashtags and visual content. Post regularly – the optimal amount on Twitter is about 6 times a day according to data analyses. Remember that you are speaking to the world so you have to cover different time zones by posting the same tweets 12 hours apart. Twitter now allows you to repost your tweets. Key influencer accounts provide the best examples of how to start. For plastic surgery these are: @DrRodRohrich, @drkarenhorton, @drdavidsong, @danielzliu, @drchrysopoulo, @Dr_SamuelLin, and @drroykim. Also the plastic surgery accounts: @ASPS_News, @prsjournal, and of course @imcasacademy and @imcascongress. For dermatology follow @ducrest, @DrDorisDay, @DrAnjaliMahto and @Florez_vanessa.

What would you say were the three main reasons for your success on Twitter?

I am lucky enough to have over 130,000 followers on Twitter despite having signed up only a couple of years ago. There is no reason why others can’t do the same. I think that the public are very informed and smart and have huge interest in the truth about plastic surgery. Firstly, I think that having an educational approach to your feed generates the most interest. Secondly, I try to be as visual as possible – using photographs, gifs and videos, and this creates the greatest engagement. Lastly, but most importantly, I write a lot of scientific articles and this gives me original content – as they say “Content is King!” I look forward to seeing you all at the IMCAS webinar on 29th March “#PlasticSurgery and #Dermatology Using #Twitter to Engage and Educate”. Good luck and looking forward to seeing you on social media! @OlivierBranford