Social media – does the dental world need it?

Social media is considered to be ‘websites and applications that enable users to create and share content or to participate in social networking’ (Oxford University 2016). The major social media platforms are considered to be: Facebook (1.79 billion active monthly users), Instagram (500 million active users) Twitter (317 million registered users). However, YouTube (1 billion), Google+, Pinterest (150 million) and SnapChat are gaining popularity (Digital Mums, 2016). These figures stand for now, but they are changing constantly.

‘It took the telephone 75 years to reach 50 million people, the radio 38 years to reach 50 million people, and the television 13 years to reach 50 million people. Facebook reached 50 million people in just 3.5 years. At the end of 2014, Facebook had 864 million daily active users and 1.35 billion monthly active users' (Digital Mums, 2016).