Abstract

Due to growing social media impact on society, we sought to determine dermatology related patient organization popularity on various social networks. On June 2, 2012 we examined the popularity of these organizations found through searches performed on Google and cross-referenced on each respective social site. Most active dermatology patient organizations on: Facebook [Likes]: 1)Skin Cancer Foundation [19,210], 2)National Psoriasis Foundation (NPF) [14,730], 3)Melanoma Research Foundation (MRF) [9,468], 4)AiM at Melanoma [9,423], 5)Children's Alopecia Project [7,796], 6)National Alopecia Areata Foundation [5,371], 7)DEBRA (Epidermolysis Bullosa) of America [5,118], 8)National Eczema Association [4,484], 9)Psoriasis Cure Now [4,274], 10)Derma Talk [3,788]. LinkedIn [Followers (F)/Members (M), Employees (E) (if applicable)]: 1)NPF [192F, 49E], 2)Melanoma Research Alliance [136M], 3)Skin Cancer Foundation [84F, 15E], 4)MRF [63F, 13E], 5)Children's Alopecia Project [39F] 6)DEBRA UK (EB) [36F, 17E], 7)Skin and Cancer Foundation Inc [34F, 17E], 8) National Eczema Association [31F, 3E], 9) National Alopecia Areata Foundation [25F, 6E], 10)Foundation for Ichthyosis & Related Skin Types [14F, 3E]. Twitter [Followers]: 1)Derma Talk [21,542], 2)Skin Cancer Foundation [4,963], 3)NPF [4,464], 4)Nottingham Eczema [3,372], 5)MRF [3,042], 6)Melanoma Research Alliance [1,631], 7)National Eczema Society [1,332], 8)Psoriasis Association [1,293], 9)Rosacea Support Group [1,244], 10)AIM at Melanoma [1,202]. The most popular social media pages for Dermatology related patient organizations largely overlap on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn. Still, there is much more activity on the interpersonally focused sites, Twitter and Facebook, compared to the more business oriented site, LinkedIn. These findings may relate to the supportive relationships fostered through activity on these sites.