Increasing Social Media Presence for Graduate Medical Education Programs

Virtual residency interviews during COVID-19 pandemic created a need for residency programs to use social media to increase their visibility and connect with potential applicants. This was, however, new and a road never travelled for many programs. This report describes how our General Surgery Residency Program increased its presence through social media by using various exposure methods and approaches, including diversifying presence and developing candid personalized content. Results suggest that these methods have increased our exposure and reach from an average of 7 people per post to posts reaching over 4500 people. Moreover, the video posts introducing our residents and faculty provided the highest activity and reach. Thus, appropriate use of social media with described interventions and new content creation could exponentially increase the visibility of a residency program. Moreover, educating faculty and residents on the use and importance of social media could increase their interest and participation as well.