The top dermatology influencers on social media have millions of followers and engage hundreds of thousands of people with every post on platforms such as Instagram, a new study shows.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, the most popular dermatologists on social media are those who focus on cosmetic procedures, with the majority being in California and New York.
On Instagram for example, Dr Simon Ourian (@simonourianmd1) of Los Angeles has 3.6 million followers and posts before and after photos of cosmetic procedures and also some videos explaining how the procedures are done.
But there are also dermatology social media influencers who post more medical and educational material, such as Dr Sandra Lee, aka @drpimplepopper who as her account handle suggests focuses more on topics such as acne
An analysis of social media of dermatologists by researchers at the University of Southern California found that those using Instagram had the highest numbers of followers (median 109,000) and highest engagement per post (n=984), followed by YouTube dermatologists (n=28,550 and n=135, respectively) and Twitter users (n=8,910 and n=6, respectively).
Instagram was used mostly for education posts (50%) followed by personal content (30%), accomplishment (10%) and advertisement posts (10%).
YouTube accounts of dermatologist consisted almost entirely of educational content (90%) with a small presence of number personal posts (10%).
On Twitter, most dermatologists were posting on personal topics (53%), followed by education posts (43%) and advertisement posts (3%).
And while most social media influencers were based in the US, the second most popular dermatologist in terms of Youtube reach in 2019 was Dr Davin Lim of Indoorapilly, Queensland who has more than 432,000 followers and whose videos on topics such as acne and skin pigmentation have up to 1.8 million views.
According to Dr Lim’s site, his speciality is in laser, fillers, energy devices and surgery.
His Youtube channel includes videos showing procedures and techniques such as skin rejuvenation, acne scar revision, birthmark removal and anti -ageing procedures.
The US researchers say their analysis highlights the fact that some dermatologists have large audiences and substantial reach on social media.
“The dissemination of accurate information by a trained dermatologist is crucial to promoting proper skin habits and to dispelling false and potentially harmful information that may be popularised on social media,” they write.
“These social media sites provide opportunities to dermatologists to disseminate accurate and informative medical information with patients.”
Top 10 Instagram influencers:
- Dr Simon Ourian @simonourianmd1 Los Angeles, 3.6 million followers
- Dr Sandra Lee @drpimplepopper California, 3.4 million followers
- Dr Shereene Idriss @shereeneidriss New York, 125,000 followers
- Dr Paul Jarrod Frank @drpauljarrodfrank New York, 124,000 followers
- Dr Harold Lancer @drlancerrx Los Angeles, 116,000 followers
- Dr Janelle Vega @drjanellevega Miami, 102,000 followers
- Dr Andrea Suarez @drdrayzday Houston, Texas, 58,000 followers
- Dr Michelle Henry @drmichellehenry New York, 56,000 followers
- Dr Jenny Liu @derm.talk Minneapolis, 38,500 followers
- Dr Bobbak Mansouri @doctorbobbymd Austin, Texas, 37,700 followers