Social Media as a Platform for Recruitment to a National Survey During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Feasibility and Cost Analysis.

Heidi Green,Ritin Fernandez,Catherine Macphail

doi:10.2196/28656

Abstract

BackgroundWith improved accessibility to social media globally, health researchers are capitalizing on social media platforms to recruit participants for research studies. This has particularly been the case during the COVID-19 pandemic, when researchers were not able to use traditional methods of recruitment. Nevertheless, there is limited evidence on the feasibility of social media for recruiting a national sample.ObjectiveThis paper describes the use of social media as a tool for recruiting a national sample of adults to a web-based survey during the COVID-19 pandemic.MethodsBetween August and October 2020, participants were recruited through Facebook via two advertisement campaigns (paid option and no-cost option) into a web-based survey exploring the relationship between social determinants of health and well-being of adults during the COVID-19 pandemic. Data were analyzed using SPSS software and Facebook metrics that were autogenerated by Facebook Ads Manager. Poststratification weights were calculated to match the Australian population on the basis of gender, age, and state or territory based on the 2016 Australian census data.ResultsIn total, 9594 people were reached nationally with the paid option and potentially 902,000 people were reached through the no-cost option, resulting in a total of 1211 survey responses. The total cost of the advertisement campaign was Aus $649.66 (US $489.23), resulting in an overall cost per click of Aus $0.25 (US $0.19).ConclusionsFacebook is a feasible and cost-effective method of recruiting participants for a web-based survey, enabling recruitment of population groups that are considered hard to reach or marginalized. Recruitment through Facebook facilitated diversity, with participants varying in socioeconomic status, geographical location, educational attainment, and age.

Highlights

Numerous strategies such as newspaper advertisements, random mail out of surveys, and random digit dialing have been used to recruit participants into population health research
Between August and October 2020, participants were recruited through Facebook via two advertisement campaigns into a web-based survey exploring the relationship between social determinants of health and well-being of adults during the COVID-19 pandemic
Posts and reposts to the existing community noticeboard group Facebook pages were conducted 10 times over the 9-week period commencing on August 21, 2020, and the last repost made on October 14, 2020. Using this option implies that no data on the individuals reached or impressions recorded is available to researchers through Facebook Ads Manager; the number of members in each community noticeboard group were available with a potential reach of 902,000 individuals

Summary

Introduction

Numerous strategies such as newspaper advertisements, random mail out of surveys, and random digit dialing have been used to recruit participants into population health research. Implementation of these traditional strategies in modern society has limitations due to the reduced use of landline phones and increased postage costs [1,2], which make these recruitment methods less feasible. With improved accessibility to social media globally, health researchers are capitalizing on social media platforms to recruit participants for research studies This has been the case during the COVID-19 pandemic, when researchers were not able to use traditional methods of recruitment. There is limited evidence on the feasibility of social media for recruiting a national sample

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Discussion

Conclusion