Social media continues to redefine how consumers find, choose and buy products and services — and plastic surgery is no exception.
That’s the major takeaway from a just-released survey from AAFPRS. In 2011, says the Academy, 42% of patients received most of their information about plastic surgery from social media, an increase from 29% the year before.
Conversely, the percentage of patients that obtained information from friends dropped from 63% to 48%.
We are encouraged by the possibilities that Facebook, Twitter and other social channels offer for prospective patients, but urge all patients to exercise caution in researching facial plastic procedures to ensure information is from a reliable source, said AAFPRS President Tom D. Wang.
At RealSelf, that’s been the driving philosophy since Day One. By providing a platform where prospective patients can interact with both doctors and other medical-beauty consumers, they can ask questions, get answers and make informed decisions without having to broadcast their interest to friends and family. As CEO Tom Seery recently wrote,
RealSelf engages a community of millions that is deeply interested in getting informed about everything from acne scar treatment to liposuction to zoom teeth whitening.
Given the latest data — more on that to follow in a subsequent post — there’s little doubt that such communities will only grow in 2012.
