I direct a program of studies on neurocognition, substance abuse and HIV. Our previous recruitment strategies (HIV or SUD treatment facilities, community organizations and word of mouth) work well for some of our participant groups but not others. Any input from researchers using FB, Twitter etc for recruitment would be extremely helpful. thanks
Eileen Martin
My research lab focuses mainly on eating disorders and SUD research.Currently we use serval different platforms, one of which is facebook. After we created a research lab page and promoted our ad through facebook, it has been very helpful. I should note that most of the people we get from facebook are usually members of our healthy control groups. That being said, at the International Conference on Eating Disorders, one of the key note speakers spoke about the effectiveness of social media platforms as recruiting tools. The key note speaker does very large scale GWAS studies of Anorexia Nervosa and said that the speed of recruitment increased 5 fold after reaching out on twitter and facebook and has been their best form of recruitment. So from my own experience it hasn't been the best in finding member of clinical samples, but there are others who would argue otherwise.
Best of luck!
The world wide web has to be a contender but not everyone has access to it. Local and national press, university and college notice boards, corner shops and supermarket notice boards. If you have ethics approval other arenas, hospital notice boards etc. Community pharmacy, addiction services. If I was looking for people for my planned book (I have enough at the moment) I would source newspapers e.g. court cases etc.
Have a look at Brickman-Bhutta (2011). Not by the Book: Facebook as Sampling Frame.
http://www.thearda.com/workingpapers/download/Not%20by%20the%20Book%20-%20Bhutta.pdf
I do not but one of our researchers, John Schneider, is an expert in this venue.
kate
I think this is an emerging trend.
I am using survey monkey and Google analytics to recruit participants to a new business idea perception survey. Yet to use it for purely academic frame.
In order to reach more participants and to cope with the cost arising from the distance of the clients (rural communities) we used the internet and sent our questionaire to self-help groups forums, third sector organizations sites and used Whatsapp to access specific key persons.
For all these cases we received approval from the ethics committee at the university.
Sorry to be late... there's a really useful network called New Social Media, New Social Science? which has a blog with loads of relevant resources and a Twitter account @NSMNSS - also worth checking out the hashtag #NSMNSS. Good luck!
I have some links in the area of alcoholism. Also there is VOICE North at University of Newcastle, Turning point, Plummer Court Newcastle, Hospital notice boards.
Has anyone had difficulties in obtaining timely IRB approval to use social media for recruitment?
Hi,
I want to use the Facebook to advertise my study by recruiting participants, has anyone had the same experience ? how was it?
- Badges
- Science topic