Social Media as a Platform for Information and Support for Melanoma Patients: Analysis of Melanoma Facebook Groups and Pages

Background: Social media is increasingly used as a source of health information and is useful for information exchange and patient support. Objective: The aim of this study is to describe the Facebook groups and pages that are available for melanoma patients. Methods: A systematic search of Facebook groups and pages was performed using the word “melanoma.” The first 50 pages found in the search, sorted by most relevant, were analyzed for several characteristics, namely page name, category, verification status, number of likes, number of followers, visitor posts per week, page posts per week, ability to donate, date of inception, and for-profit or nonprofit. The first 50 groups found in the search, sorted by most relevant, were analyzed for name, category, number of members, and privacy setting. Results: There were 669 pages and 568 groups related to melanoma found on Facebook. The first 50 pages had a combined total of 266,709 likes and 257,183 followers and, of these, 30% (15/50) were verified by Facebook. Within the analyzed Facebook pages, the average number of visitor posts per week was 0.48, the average number of posts by the page per week was 5.6, and the most common page categories were community and nonprofit. Of the 50 groups analyzed, 18 were public and 32 were private (closed). The total number of combined group members in all 50 groups was found to be 23,047 and 52% (26/50) of the groups were categorized as support. Conclusions: Melanoma pages and groups on Facebook reach a large portion of the population. To provide resources for the population of patients diagnosed with malignant melanoma and ensure that proper information is distributed, physicians and health care organizations may consider using Facebook as a platform to support and educate patients with melanoma. [JMIR Dermatol 2018;1(1):e2]