In recent years, alternative forms of impact measurement, known as “altmetrics”, have been proposed as a potential supplement to the more traditional citation-based metric system in determining the influence of orthopaedic literature on the community. As social media grows increasingly more pervasive into mainstream society, so too does its presence in the health care field, especially in the realm of orthopaedics; therefore, it is necessary to determine the influence social media has both on orthopaedic care and the dissemination of orthopaedic literature to the academic community.