Educational posts most popular amongst ophthalmology-related social media

Popular ophthalmology-related social media accounts (Instagram, Twitter, and Youtube) often create educational posts providing a valuable platform for delivering accurate information to the ophthalmology community, according to a presentation at the 2021 ASCRS Annual Meeting.

Researchers identified US-based accounts with over 10,000 followers on Instagram, 5000 followers on Twitter, and 5000 followers on Youtube; board certification and trainee status were verified for practicing ophthalmologists and residency or fellowship accounts, respectively.

Individual accounts made up 77.8% of Instagram accounts and 80% of YouTube accounts, whereas professional organizations had the majority on Twitter (60%). Few accounts belonged to trainees. All practicing ophthalmologists who ran the top individual accounts were board certified.

Educational content was most popular on Youtube but 33.3% of all retweets on Twitter were educational. The top posts on Instagram and Twitter were self-promotional content and retweets, respectively.

Reference
Hsueh J, et al. Characterizing top ophthalmology accounts on social media. Presented at: 2021 ASCRS Annual Meeting.