Variation in academic neurosurgery departments' #neurosurgery social media influence

Background: Social media use is increasingly common among academic neurosurgery departments, but its relationship with academic metrics remains underexamined.

Methods: We examine the relationship between American academic neurosurgery departments' number of followers on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook and the following academic metrics: Doximity Residency rankings, US News & World Report rankings (USNWR) of their affiliated medical schools, and the amount of NIH funding of those schools.

Results: Few departments had disproportionate number of followers. A greater proportion of programs had Twitter accounts (88.9%) than had Instagram (72.2%) or Facebook (51.9%) accounts (p=0.0001). Programs identified as "Influencers" had more departmental NIH funding (p=0.044), more institutional NIH funding (p=0.035), better Doximity residency rankings (p=0.044), and better affiliated medical school rankings (p=0.002). Number of Twitter followers had the strongest correlation with academic metrics, yet only modest correlations were identified to departmental NIH funding (R=0.496, p=0.0001), institutional NIH funding (R=0.387, p=0.0072), Doximity residency rank (R=0.411, p=0.0020), and affiliated medical school ranking (R=0.545,p<0.0001). On multivariable regression, only being affiliated with a medical school in the top quartile on the USNWR rankings, rather than neurosurgery departmental metrics, predicted having more Twitter (OR=5.666, p=0.012) and Instagram (OR=8.33, p=0.009) followers.

Conclusion: American academic neurosurgery departments preferentially use Twitter over Instagram or Facebook. Their Twitter or Instagram presences are associated with better performance on traditional academic metrics. However, these associations are modest, suggesting that other factors contribute to a department's social media influence. A department's affiliated medical school may contribute to the department's social media brand.