Originally presented by RealSelf CEO and Founder Tom Seery at ASAPS in New York City on April 27, 2018 as part of a panel titled Re-Designing Your Aesthetic Practice.

1. Thriving in an Era
of Digital Disruption
Tom Seery
CEO/Founder
ASAPS
April 27, 2018

2. 60%
conduct plastic surgery research online
Sources: RealSelf Google Analytics, September 2016 through August 2017, AAFPRS/ RealSelf consumer survey, September 2014
Within 8,264 tracked aesthetic accounts 1,086,136 posts on Instagram in 2017. RealSelf internal data, Q3 2016. .
49%
say social media directly influenced consideration
or decision to have cosmetic procedure
40M
visits to questions on RealSelf
every quarter

3. Digital disruption
We love it

4. vs

5. vs

6. vs

7. Digital disruption
We hate it

8. http://fortune.com/2018/02/11/equifax-hack-exposed-extra-data/

9. “Senator,
we run
ads.”

10. “I’m my own dermatologist”
“We have found that dermatologists no
longer carry the skin care authority and
influence they did just 3 to 5 years ago.
We advise our clients to stop adding
‘Dermatologist Recommended’ on new
product packaging".

11. Digital Disruption. We hate it.

12. Surviving Thriving
trusted profiles
socially engaged
reliable

13. 01. Thriving by building
Trusted online
profiles

14. I need to know that women
like me get good results
+
I need to verify this by doing
online research
There’s a confidence barrier to
moving forward

15. High performing
Marketing teams focus on reaching
people where they spend time
01. Social Media Marketing
02. Advertising on Social
03. Video Advertising
Source: Salesforce.com, State of Marketing Annual Report, 2016
Going beyond your own website
Underperforming
Teams overinvest in their
own website
01. Social Media Marketing
02. Website
03. Advertising on Social

16. Source: Brightlocal 2017 Local Consumer Review Survey
People are 17% less
likely to visit your
website after reading
positive reviews

17. Up-to-date, complete profiles on
trusted sites are highly influential

18. Reviews are the
cornerstone to every
profile on the web:
product, business or
person

19. Reviews are instrumental for consumers to
find the right provider
68%
say reviews are how they
decide whether a doctor
is trustworthy
Source: RealSelf survey, July-August 2016

20. The more you have, the more business you
get
Source: RealSelf Data
10 - 24 reviews
25 - 49 reviews
50+ reviews 70x
20x
8x more contacts vs practices with <10 reviews

21. Source: RealSelf research, Feb. 2018
Yet, 82% of practices have fewer than
50 reviews on the major platforms
less than 25 reviews
less than 10 reviews
less than 5 reviews
zero reviews
less than 50 reviews 82%
76%
64%
51%
37%

22. 02. Thriving by being
Socially engaged

23. Get noticed. Be memorable.

24. Source: Pew Research Center, Social Media Use in 2018

25. @simonourianmnd1
@drpimplepopper 2.7M
@beautybydrcat 1.1M
#1 plastic surgeon influencer
Chasing fame
is
intoxicating
Just 2.2% of
7,585 aesthetic
accounts
have 100k+
followers
@laradevganmd 187k

26. What, if anything, turns you off about doctors
on social media?
Overuse of emojis
or hashtags
Too many specials
or promotions
Not authentic Boring content
26% 19%41% 19%
What do you think “not authentic” means?
Filter: 35 plus; Weight: Weight; base n = 217; total n = 2696; 2479 missing; effective sample size = 184 (85%); 46% filtered out
Graphic/gory
content
Other
Overly casual Nothing
8% 5%15% 28%
Filtered by respondents who are 35+

27. Shadowbanning
The act of blocking a user or their content from
an online community such that the user does
not realize that they have been banned
How to avoid?
Act like a human and not a bot

28. 01 02 03
3 Tips for Instagram
Be consistent
The top 15% of
aesthetic accounts on
Instagram post on
average once per day
Hashtag
thoughtfully
You can use up to 30,
but 5-10 tend to
produce the best results
Use hashtags relevant
to your content
Stay authentic
Create content for
your user’s interest, not
your self interest
Being self-promotional
will limit your exposure
and growth

29. 03. Thriving by being
Reliable

30. https://resources.distilnetworks.com/press-releases/annual-2018-bad-bot-report
22% of all website traffic came from
bad bots in 2017

31. RealSelf: Avg. 260k requests from
bad bots blocked per day
Source: RealSelf IT dept., April 2018

32. 01 02 03
Train your staff on security 101
Do not open
suspicious email
attachments
This is the primary
entry point for
malware and
ransomware.
Do not share
passwords
Private, individual
passwords ensure
accountability. Your
password should not be
‘plasticsurgeon’ or
‘password’
Do not access patient
info on unsecured
Wifi
Unsecured public Wi-fi
networks are a favorite
tactic for hackers.
Source: Hello HIPAA, April 2018

33. Security takeaways
1. Push security requirements onto vendors
2. Retain an information security firm
3. Seek out cyber extortion/ data loss insurance

34. Reliability is often
measured by your
responsiveness to
inquiries

35. Source: RealSelf Connect data. Contact time adjusted to the provider’s primary address timezone
US based providers only, weekday contacts
Practices operate
in an analog
world, patients
don’t.
85% of weekday phone
patient leads occur
between 8 and 5
Only 51% of email leads
take place inside of
business hours

36. “
I have tried by email to get
this appointment but have not
had success thus far. Please
advise appointment possibly
next week late in the week.
37%
of patient email inquiries
received no response
within 3 days
Source: RealSelf + 3 day post lead survey, (n = 3464), Q4 2017

37. 5min 15min 20min 25min 30min 35min 40min 45min10min 50min
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
Response time
Contacts
Responsive to online patient “leads”
is key to your digital ROI

38. We’ve all been
Uberized