Using social media to recruit sample for research

[kscience]

HI,
I have been browsing this board for a while but not really contributed.

Have just been appointed to first HE lecturing post... just completing MSc which has allowed me to switch from secondary school teaching (also have relevant industry experience).

SOOOO I am good with Facebook, have posted on numerous relevant pages seeking participants for research study. Have emailed relevant local societys which may yield some response.

Twitter however is a whole new deal (had an account for a coupe of years but rarely even looked at it) is there an idiots guide for attracting research participants? (Have googled but still confused.com)

The key with Twitter (if you don't have your own followers) is to get your message retweeted by groups/organizations/people that might reach your potential participants, are there any hashtags that could be used that would be relevant? e.g. if you were researching #cancerstories or #healthbehaviours or whatever, then if you tag it correctly (by using these hashtags) then they may get retweeted.

If you get the right one, you can get huge coverage, I got several hundred surveys completed in one day from a small geographical region by using Facebook/Twitter with the right collaborator tweeting.

If you are working with charities or local orgs, use their hashtags/org contacts as well, so:

Researcher wants to hear life-stories from WW2, anywhere in UK #OldSoldiers @BritishLegion

They will then retweet those as they retweet everything with their usernames in.

You insert the usernames by typing them into the tweet and it recognizes them (I usually look them up first)

No-one minds being hashtagged/usernames used on Twitter, more publicity is better!

I don't use Twitter hugely for academic purposes, I did but find it so big now, with so many photos it takes ages to scan it and I don't have the hour or two a day it might require, but for specific purposes- posting a new paper to your followers, posting for participants, posting a really excellent article, it's worth it.

Do you mean participants to come into your uni? Or to do online tasks?

Thanks chaps

TDS I need participants to come to the university to take part in a physical task and have measurements taken. Don't need a large pool of participants.

It is industry specific so have targeted the social media of local groups and national organisations linked to this. Starting to see some response...so fingers crossed