TikTok is often considered a platform best used for silly dance videos, but business owners are finding success as they can share their expertise and answer follower questions. Scottsdale plastic surgeon, Dr. Pablo Prichard, started using the app to educate and reach new customers and only in a matter of months, his account @DocScottsdale amassed more than 2.2 million likes, with some videos racking up with over 1 million and 5.4 million views.
Dr. Prichard is an American Board-certified local surgeon in Scottsdale, Arizona. He is the Senior Partner and Founder of Advanced Aesthetic Associates and offers preeminent plastic surgery procedures for clients within both the Scottsdale and Phoenix area.
“I was inspired to create my own practice because I noticed at the time several were being run in a very old-fashioned way,” said Dr. Prichard. “Having that ability to build a practice from the ground up and being given more leeway to implement a more modernized practice was really important to me.”
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Looking to spread knowledge regarding different plastic surgery procedures, Dr. Prichard created a TikTok account and immediately began posting content.
“We started off using other forms of social media like Facebook and Instagram, but TikTok was emerging and appealed to the masses as many people wanted to be entertained, they also wanted to learn,” Dr. Prichard commented. “Unlike the other platforms, TikTok allowed for educational material to be presented to a population that wanted it but in a way that was entertaining and that grabbed their attention.”
Since being on the platform, Dr. Prichard has found that the educational material he has posted on TikTok has helped boost more traction towards his business.
“We get tons and tons of communications over TikTok from potential patients asking various questions about different procedures as well as for appointments and actually coming in for consults,” remarked Dr. Prichard. “Many of which are coming from them seeing the educational material on TikTok and then wanting to come in for that said procedure.”
The content provided by Dr. Prichard has had viral success on the platform and it has not just happened on one occurrence but has been reached on several occasions.
“The first time something went viral, there was a social media person helping me with the postings and while I was operating, she had just posted a video,” said Dr. Prichard. “She had noticed that it had instantaneously done way better than the other videos and it was a pretty cool moment because you know that you did something that people enjoyed and learned from.”
The 60-second platform puts a healthy amount of pressure on people to give content that strikes up the attention of the audience and keeps them in tune. Luckily, Dr. Prichard has been able to do just that.
“I try to mix a good amount of educational content and at the same time do it in a way that is fun and entertaining and doesn’t seem dry,” stated Dr. Prichard. “It’s those first couple of seconds that grab someone’s attention especially if they’re interested in a particular procedure, so you just tell them exactly what you’re going to show them, and you go on to construct it in a way that’s fun and gives them an idea of how that procedure works or what it might look like.”
Of the material posted, Dr. Prichard has found that material regarding breast surgery is the most asked about.
“So far, I have noticed a lot of people are interested in my TikToks on breast surgery which is a big part of my practice and is one of my major focuses,” commented Dr. Prichard. “But in my comment section, I often get asked to do videos on that subject as people are really interested in learning more about it and so I try to do content based on what they’re interested in seeing.”
Dr. Prichard has high hopes for the platform and is hoping that it will begin creating age-appropriate ratings to help make it more beneficial for businesses and other content creators wanting to share educational content.
“Right now, TikTok is geared towards a young demographic as far as the community guidelines go,” stated Dr. Prichard. “The problem with this is that some of the content I post can be a little more mature in nature and not geared towards the demographic TikTok intended but is more geared towards the demographic I am actually looking at which is between 24–35-year-olds. TikTok is strict on community guidelines in what you can show due to the fact they don’t really have different ratings for age groups on videos at this point. My hope is that TikTok will eventually open up their guidelines to be more age-appropriate and it would allow for material to be more educational.”
Dr. Prichard believes that age-appropriate ratings would be not only beneficial for his own business but for other professionals (medical, dental, aestheticians, accountants, etc.) as it would allow these professionals to provide content for the demographics targeted and become a lot more educational.
