Social Media and Internet Driven Study Recruitment: Evaluating a New Model for Promoting Collaborator Engagement and Participation

Abstract

AimsA substantial challenge facing multicentre audit and research projects is timely recruitment of collaborators and their study centres. Cost-effective strategies are required and fee-free social media has previously been identified as a potential conduit. We investigated and evaluated the effectiveness of a novel multi-format social media and Internet strategy for targeted recruitment to a national multicentre cohort study.MethodsInterventions involved a new Twitter account, including weekly live question-and-answer sessions, a new Facebook group page, online YouTube presentations and an information page on a national association website. Link tracking analysis was undertaken using Google Analytics, which was then related to subsequent registration. Social influence was calculated using the proprietary Klout score.ResultsInternet traffic analysis identified a total of 1562 unique registration site views, of which 285 originated from social media (18.2%). Some 528 unique registrations were received, with 96 via social media platforms (18.2%). Traffic source analysis identified a separate national association webpage as resulting in the majority of registration page views (15.8%), followed by Facebook (11.9%), Twitter (4.8%) and YouTube (1.5%). A combination of publicity through Facebook, Twitter and the dedicated national association webpage contributed to the greatest rise in registration traffic and accounted for 312 (48%) of the total registrations within a 2-week period. A Twitter ‘social influence’ (Klout) score of 42/100 was obtained during this period.ConclusionsTargeted social media substantially aided study dissemination and collaborator recruitment. It acted as an adjunct to traditional methods, accounting for 18.2% of collaborator registration in a short time period with no associated financial costs. We provide a practical model for designing future recruitment campaigns, and recommend Facebook, Twitter and targeted websites as the most effective adjuncts for maximising cost-effective study recruitment.

#colorectalsurgery

“…Using the online social media analytical program CREATION Pinpoint, original tweet creation was tracked using the hashtag phrase #colorectalsurgery and the number of tweets that were 'retweets'. Retweets are [5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20] 21-80 81-300 301-6369 1-4 0 mentions akin to direct quotations of other users' tweets, and so retweeting is a near-instantaneous method of digitally broadcasting and/or disseminating the content of another user; this directly widens the scope of the audience. Data relating to the number of 'impressions' (views) of all tweets, and the number of users who had used the hashtag at least once, were also extracted.…”

Clinical Research Informatics: Supporting the Research Study Lifecycle

“…Clinical studies can involve large numbers of highly diverse staff members, including investigators, research nurses, coordinators, data managers, and statisticians. The review included papers that focused on understanding the perspectives and requirements of stakeholders, including approaches for engaging them in the research process [8,50,51]. In addition, there were articles that discussed the educational needs of research staff for tasks such as record linkage, ethics, and biobanking, which use a range of online and multimedia content to deliver training [52][53][54].…”

Extrahepatic Autoimmune Diseases are Prevalent in Autoimmune Hepatitis Patients and Their First-Degree Relatives: Survey Study (Preprint)

“…Online patient groups can now provide an integrative, synergistic system for collecting data and engaging patients in the participation and advancement of research [16,17]. In the current study, we aimed to utilize a novel research method centered on SNS to examine the association between AIH and the presence of autoimmune diseases among those with AIH, as well as their FDRs.…”