Med spa social media: ideas and before-and-after rules

A med spa wins on social media by teaching people what a treatment is really like: who does it, how long it takes, what the days after look like. Before-and-after photos are the post everyone wants to make, and they come with the most rules: patient consent, FTC rules on results, state law in some states and Meta's own limits on ads. Ideas first, then those rules, then captions rewritten to pass them.

Eight post ideas that fit a med spa

1. Meet your injector. A short video of the person who will hold the syringe: their license, their training, how long they have done this.
2. The appointment, start to finish. Check-in, consultation, numbing cream, the treatment, the ice pack. Film it with a staff member or a patient who signed a consent form.
3. Aftercare in 30 seconds. What to avoid for the first day after a filler or a peel. Make it the kind of post a client saves for later.
4. Myth or fact. "Does microneedling hurt?" "Can I work out after Botox?" One question, one honest answer, ideally from the medical director.
5. The tools up close. The laser, the sterile packaging, the treatment room being cleaned between clients. It shows safety without saying "safe."
6. Price and membership posts. What a treatment costs and what a membership includes. Read the California section below before you write one.
7. A day in the clinic, in stories. Morning setup, a fully booked afternoon, closing up. Faces only with consent.
8. Before and after, done properly. With every rule below checked.

Ideas 1 to 5 carry little risk and build the trust that makes someone book. Idea 8 is the one to slow down on.

Before-and-after photos: four layers of rules

1. The patient's written consent

Under HIPAA, "full face photographic images and any comparable images" count as identifiers, and a covered entity needs a patient's written authorization to use their health information for marketing. HIPAA covers health care providers who send health information electronically in certain standard transactions, such as insurance claims, so whether it applies to your med spa is a question for your compliance advisor. Either way, a signed consent that names social media, and that the patient can withdraw, is the safe habit.

2. The FTC: results people can expect

The FTC's Endorsement Guides, updated in 2023, say that an ad with a customer's experience "on a central or key attribute" will likely be read as showing "what consumers will generally achieve." If you cannot show that a result is typical, the FTC says the ad must make clear what people can generally expect. A dramatic result from your best patient, posted with no context, is exactly what this covers.

The same guides cover free treatments. If you give an influencer a complimentary facial in exchange for a post, the connection has to be disclosed clearly, for example with "#ad" or "Gifted by" and your spa's name in the post itself. The FTC says "Gifted" on its own, without the name, is likely to be ambiguous.

3. State law: California as an example

California's Business and Professions Code section 651 applies to people licensed under the state's healing arts laws, physicians included. In its current form since a 2017 amendment, it says before-and-after photos of an actual patient must:

• state "in a prominent location in easily readable type" what procedures were performed
• be "comparable in presentation," so results are not distorted by poses or lighting
• include a statement that the same results "may not occur for all patients"

It also says that a photo that "has been altered in any manner" from the real patient is misleading, and that a photo of a model needs a prominent note saying it is a model. Other states have their own rules, so check with your state's medical board.

4. Meta's rules for paid ads

Boosting a post makes it an ad, and Meta's health and wellness ad policy adds its own layer:

• Ads for cosmetic procedures must be targeted to people 18 or older.
• Before-and-after transformations for general cosmetic procedures are allowed in those ads.
• The policy changes from time to time, and its page keeps a change log. Read the current version before you pay to promote a before-and-after, because an ad is reviewed under Meta's ad rules, not only the rules for your feed.

Captions, rewritten

The last row matters in California: section 651 says a price ad must be "exact," without phrases like "as low as" or "and up." The prices in that row are only an example.

Photo day: a checklist

• Same room, same light, same distance and angle for the before and the after.
• No filters and no retouching on the patient's face.
• The signed consent form is in the file before the camera comes out.
• Write down the treatment, the amount and the date for the caption.
• Take the after photo at the time point you plan to state, not whenever the patient drops by.

This is general information, not legal or medical advice. Your medical director, your state's medical board or a health care lawyer can confirm what applies to your practice.

Who makes the posts

You or your team take the photos and short clips in the clinic, because nobody else can. The rest can be handed off: on our Growth plan we turn them into 15 posts a month, up to 4 of them short videos, plus 8 stories, for $149 a month, and send a monthly list of what to shoot next. Nothing is published until you approve it, and your medical director should look at every before-and-after. We are not lawyers or clinicians, so the final check stays with you. If transformation videos are new to you, our ideas for hair salons and barbers show how to film them. See the plans.