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- Presentation
Social Media Best Practices and Ethics for Dermatologists
Description
The speaker, a Mohs surgeon and educator, outlines social media best practices and ethics for dermatologists. She advises choosing only the platforms that fit your goals, posting consistently without burning out, and sharing useful, evidence-based content that educates and engages followers. She cautions against forced trends, oversharing controversial personal views, excessive self-promotion, and following patients online unless there is an existing relationship outside the doctor-patient context. She emphasizes authenticity, encouraging clinicians to be genuine, avoid over-filtering, and let their personality and core values show. For paid partnerships, she recommends only promoting products or brands you truly trust and always following FTC rules. Ethical guidance includes avoiding medical advice online, protecting HIPAA and patient privacy, obtaining consent for patient photos, disclosing conflicts of interest, maintaining professionalism, and avoiding posts that could unintentionally affect reimbursement or promote unsafe self-procedures. For negative comments, she suggests correcting factual errors, apologizing when appropriate, thanking constructive feedback, and responding quickly to comments that gain attention, while ignoring or removing trolling, spam, and offensive content.
View moreConclusions
- Dermatologists should use social media strategically by choosing platforms selectively, posting consistently, and setting realistic expectations for growth.
- Effective professional content should provide value, maintain evidence-based credibility, and engage followers while avoiding burnout.
- Social media use should avoid inappropriate trends, oversharing, and overly promotional behavior, especially when the content could feel forced or unprofessional.
- Maintaining patient privacy and not following patients online are important safeguards because confidentiality cannot be guaranteed on the internet.
- Authenticity builds trust, so clinicians should present themselves genuinely rather than relying on heavy filters or over-polished content.
- Paid partnerships are acceptable only when the product or brand is truly trusted, and sponsored content must follow FTC disclosure rules.
- Professional boundaries on social media require avoiding medical advice, preserving confidentiality, disclosing conflicts of interest, and refraining from posts that could undermine physician value or encourage unsafe self-procedures.
- Negative comments should be answered when they correct facts, acknowledge mistakes, offer constructive criticism, or draw unwanted attention, but trolling, spam, and offensive comments should be ignored, removed, or reported.
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