Who is talking about #Facelift on Instagram?

Background: The internet has become a powerful tool for disseminating medical information. Social media platforms have gained popularity among medical professionals to connect with patients and promote their work and practices. We aimed to understand who is posting about facelift procedure on Instagram.

Methods: Sprinklr, a social listening platform, was used to compile conversations that were posted on Instagram between January 1, 2021, and February 28, 2021, and contained hashtags #facelift, #necklift, #plasticsurgery, #plasticsurgerybeforeandafter, and #platysmabands. English and Spanish language posts were analyzed for positive sentiment. Based on the number of likes, the top 100 English and Spanish posts were selected. Posts were categorized based on primary specialty of the poster as plastic surgeon, non-plastic surgeon, country of active clinical practice, board certification, and members of international plastic surgery societies.

Results: A total of 5099 posts with a total of 11,918 mentions were collected. Of the top 100 English posts, the countries most represented were the USA (59%), followed by Turkey (6%). Physicians made up 48% of the top English posts, of whom 42% were US board-certified plastic surgeons. By contrast, of the top 100 Spanish posts, the countries most represented were Mexico (29%) and Colombia (25%). Physician posters constituted 78%, of whom 38.5% were plastic surgeons certified by their country of practice.

Conclusions: Plastic surgeons have become more active in creating popular content related to facelift on Instagram over the past few years. However, a significant percentage of IG content on #facelift, a surgical procedure, was made by non-physicians and non-plastic surgeons in 2021.Level of evidence:  Not gradable.