What question did this study set out to answer?

This study aimed to evaluate how fellowship program social media influences prospective applicants' perceptions.

June 26, 2026Open Access

Applicant perceptions of program social media on fellowship recruitment: a survey of fellows at a large academic medical center

KFKyle FarrellCreighton University MKMolly B. KrausMayo Clinic in Arizona AMAlice Gallo de MoraesMayo Clinic

Key Points

This study aimed to evaluate how fellowship program social media influences prospective applicants' perceptions.
Multi-specialty survey of fellows at a large academic medical center across three geographic regions in the USA.
Web-based 24-question survey assessing demographic characteristics, social media use, and attitudes towards program social media.
Sample included 191 fellows with a response rate of 47%.
X and Instagram were the most commonly used platforms for researching fellowship programs (25% and 20%, respectively).
44% indicated reliance on social media and websites during the virtual application cycle.
51% reported that a program's social media presence did not influence their decision to rank it.

Abstract

This study sought to understand the role fellowship program-based social media accounts play in recruiting prospective candidates. We conducted a multi-specialty survey of fellows at a large academic medical center to evaluate perspectives of fellowship program social media platforms for recruitment of prospective applicants. This cross-sectional study surveyed fellows in fellowship training programs at a large academic institution across three geographic regions of the United States. The web-based 24-question survey queried fellows’ demographic characteristics, personal social media use, social media platforms used to evaluate fellowship programs, type of content preferred, attitudes about programs’ use of social media, and contact with programs over social media. Of the 235 program directors (PDs) contacted, 135 (57%) PDs responded to the initial request and gave permission for the research group to contact their fellows ( n = 399). A total of 191 fellows responded to the survey for a response rate of 47%. The social media platforms respondents most employed to research prospective fellowship programs were X (48/189, 25%) and Instagram (37/189, 20%). Forty-four percent (77 of 176) of respondents shared that a virtual application cycle resulted in them relying more on information from program websites and social media accounts. The top three social media posts from fellowships programs that respondents were interested in were fellowship wellness/work-life balance (64/189, 34%), quality of medical education (44/189, 23%), and fellow publications/awards/presentations (43/189, 23%). Most fellowship applicants use social media and used at least one social media platform to research potential fellowship programs. Prospective fellows were more interested in programs’ work-life integration, academic productivity of current fellows, and quality of the programs’ education. However, 51% of respondents said that a fellowship program’s social media presence did not contribute to their decision to rank a program. Investing time in program social media presence may allow programs to reach potential fellowship applicants.

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