The Use of Social Media by Plastic Surgery Journals

INTRODUCTION The use of social media to propagate educational research in surgery has become widespread in recent years. AIMS To assess social media use by plastic surgery journals and compare with other surgical specialties. METHODS Journals relevant to plastic surgery were identified from the 2014 Journal of Citation Reports and their impact factors were noted. Existence of journal websites and links to social media forums were recorded (Twitter, Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn, and YouTube). Twitter accounts for each journal were sought and account data noted. Profile influence was measured by calculation of the Klout score. Data for other social media forums were also recorded. Results were compared with top-cited journals of other surgical specialties. RESULTS Twenty-four journals were identified, 10 of which had at least 1 social media account. The option to share a link from the journal website via a reader’s own social media was available for 17 journals. Ten plastic surgery journals had Twitter accounts with a median of 525 followers per account (range, 26–4721). The median profile age was 4 years. The median Klout score of the journals’ Twitter accounts was 36 and did not correlate with journal impact factor. With regard to content, the commonest tweets linked to published articles. The use of Facebook, YouTube, Google+, and LinkedIn was less common than Twitter amongst plastic surgery journals. The use of social media by journals of urology, neurosurgery, orthopedics, and general surgery is more frequent and associated with a higher Klout score than plastic surgery. CONCLUSIONS Use of social media amongst plastic surgery journals is heterogenous. As the volume of online journal content increases, our findings suggest that use of social media to propagate items of interest to readers is underutilized. PATIENT CONSENT A study information leaflet was provided to all participants in advance of the study and informed written consent was obtained.