Did you know that currently, an estimated 3.5 billion people around the world use social media on a daily basis?!  That’s approximately 45% of the global population! Are you one of them? Would you consider yourself a social media devotee or a dabbler? Or, is it your natural reflex to just pick up your phone to place a call to share your news, rather than posting on social media? Wherever you may fall on the social media continuum, we would like to hear from you and let our community know more about you, especially as SOCS continues to expand globally. Ideally, we’d like our own social media footprint to expand as we do, and we’re very interested in featuring member-centric content to enliven our Skin of Color Society social media platforms, i.e., Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Sharing member stories and images will help SOCS members from around the world (now in 31 countries) become better acquainted, share interesting content and stay connected.

To this end, our Skin of Color Society Technology and Media Committee co-chairs, Dr Dhaval Bhanusali (@drbhanusali) and Laura Scott (@laurascottandco) invite all members to provide a photo (clinical or outside of clinic, whichever you prefer), as well as short answers to the following questions:

1. Your name (as well as social media handles if you have any) and practice location
2. Why you chose dermatology
3. Something fun or little-known about you

This material would be incorporated into future social media content on the SOCS platforms. If you’re active on social media, we’ll tag you so that you can share with your audiences, too. We’ve created a OneDrive folder where you can upload your responses and photos, by using this link: https://bit.ly/2TsrlOR.

In addition to member profiles that would include a photo and your answers to the three questions above, we’d also like to introduce more member-focused, short-form, and self-made video on our social media platforms. Do you have an activity, project or cause that you’d like to tell us about? Or a point of view on a topic of interest to the skin of color dermatology community? Or, some important news or insights to share that would be useful for others to know about? We encourage you to use your smartphone to film yourself (no longer than one minute is recommended). For those of you who are experienced in creating video messages for social media, please share your best practices with us, and we may publish them in future blogs. If you decide to create a video message, you can also upload it to the OneDrive folder noted above.

The bottom line is: SOCS members, we want to hear from you and share your content with our fast–growing organization!

If you have not done so already, please connect with us on social media to keep abreast of all the exciting, beneficial programs and activities coming up this year:

@SkinofColorSociety on Facebook and Instagram
@SkinofColor on Twitter