Successful and Cost-Effective Facebook Recruitment: Is It Possible? Results From a Longitudinal Randomized Clinical Trial in Grandmother Caregivers

Abstract

Facebook is often cited in health-related research as a practical option to recruit participants into research studies, but issues with recruiting verifiable and qualified participants and unpredictable costs exist. The purpose of this paper is to describe a social network theory-guided, no-cost, Facebook recruitment strategy in comparison to a traditional recruitment campaign for a national online intervention study for grandmother caregivers (n = 348); 211 participants were recruited via Facebook, and 137 through traditional techniques. Participation rates did not vary by recruitment method. Facebook participants were slightly older, higher income, and more likely to be white and married, but did not differ in education levels. Our strategy quickly obtained an engaged and committed participant base. The application of social network theory to traditional recruitment strategies represents a novel way for researchers to recruit through Facebook and yield viable and engaged participants without investing in Facebook ads.

Keywords: Facebook recruitment; grandfamilies; grandmother caregivers; recruitment; social media recruitment; social network theory.

Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of Interests: The authors have no conflicts of interest to disclose.

Figures

Figure 1:

Trajectory of a Shared Post. The figure shows the trajectory of a shared Facebook post. A post from the study Facebook page was shared by one of our community stakeholders. Each arrow represents a separate share by either a group or individual. Solid line arrows represent shares by private, unknown individuals, dashed line arrows represent shares by publicly viewable groups, dotted line arrows represent shares by publicly viewable individuals. The post by our community stakeholder was shared 25 times, including a group which resulted in an additional 13 shares.

Figure 2.

(A) Recruitment outcomes from Facebook recruitment with number of screeners, eligible participants, contacted participants, and active participants. (B) Recruitment outcomes from traditional recruitment methods with interested persons, eligible participants, and active participants.

Figure 2.

(A) Recruitment outcomes from Facebook recruitment with number of screeners, eligible participants, contacted participants, and active participants. (B) Recruitment outcomes from traditional recruitment methods with interested persons, eligible participants, and active participants.