Abstract

The rise of online communication has meant that a growing number of users now spend more time communicating through social media, such as Instagram, Facebook, YouTube and Twitter. As new technologies continue to emerge, researchers are considering social media as a medium for recruiting participants for research. Social scientists including health related researchers often face challenges with participant recruitment. Recruitment remains a persistent challenge for researchers particularly when topics are sensitive such as healthcare and mental health. Inadequate sample size, delay and even cancelled studies can occur due to lack of enrolment and are challenging for researchers. Using social media networks health researchers can improve the pool of research participants, who then can be selectively recruited for both online and offline studies. The purpose of this paper is to describe the process involved and the issues researchers encountered with participant recruitment during two research studies that employed online social media methods. This is a growing field and more research is required to explore optimal strategies for the successful recruitment using online social media platforms. Researchers need to consider new and evolving ways to recruit research participants particularly within difficult-to-reach populations.