P15-17. Social media as a tool for engaging and educating audiences around HIV vaccine research and clinical trial participation

Using Social Media as a Research Recruitment Tool: Ethical Issues and Recommendations

“…To date social media recruitment techniques have shown effectiveness for HIV vaccine clinical trials (Sitar et al 2009), occipital nerve studies (Goadsby 2013), pediatric cancer research (Akard et al 2015), depression prevention studies (Morgan et al 2013), and smoking cessation research (Frandsen et al 2014; Heffner et al 2013), among others. Perhaps more striking, they have also shown effectiveness with historically hard-to-reach populations, such as young cancer survivors (Gorman et al 2014), gay Latino males (Martinez 2014), the deaf community (Kobayashi et al 2013), and sufferers of low-incidence diseases, such as spontaneous coronary artery dissection (Tweet et al 2011; Ramo and Prochaska 2012).…”

Social media microblogs as an HPV vaccination forum

“…Also, limited length of tweets urges people to express opinions very concisely. 27 The survey showed that clusters of negative vaccine sentiments lead to clusters of unprotected individuals and the likelihood of disease outbreaks increased greatly. 26 Another example of vaccine specific social media impact is the Vaccine Research Center (VRC) Clinical Trials Core (CTC) use of social media (Facebook and YouTube) to communicate with the priority population for HIV vaccine education and clinical trial recruitment.…”

“…26 Another example of vaccine specific social media impact is the Vaccine Research Center (VRC) Clinical Trials Core (CTC) use of social media (Facebook and YouTube) to communicate with the priority population for HIV vaccine education and clinical trial recruitment. 27 The VRC also undertook a website revision to more effectively engage online audiences. 27 A high return on the social media investment was seen in both site visitors' traffic and volunteered referral sources.…”

“…27 The VRC also undertook a website revision to more effectively engage online audiences. 27 A high return on the social media investment was seen in both site visitors' traffic and volunteered referral sources. 27 Although Twitter was not used in this study, the analysis "informed decision-making for greater entry into new media utilization including microblogging."…”

“…27 A high return on the social media investment was seen in both site visitors' traffic and volunteered referral sources. 27 Although Twitter was not used in this study, the analysis "informed decision-making for greater entry into new media utilization including microblogging." 27(p1) The success exemplified in these examples and the specific properties of Twitter, like fast dissemination, wide user-distribution, and concise expression, suggest bright prospects for broader use by health care professionals and policy setters.…”