Using Facebook™ to Recruit College-Age Men for a Human Papillomavirus Vaccine Trial

Abstract

Background College-age men were recruited using Facebook™ advertisements (ads), as well as traditional recruitment methods, for a randomized controlled trial to compare immunological responses to human papilloma virus (HPV) vaccine administered in two dosing schedules. This study compares enrollees who were recruited through traditional recruitment methods vs. social networking sites including Facebook™. Methods Potential participants were recruited using fliers posted on and off campus(es), and distributed at health fairs, classes, sporting and other campus events; e-mails to students and student organizations; and print advertisements in student newspapers and on city buses. Facebook™ ads were displayed to users with specific age, geographic, and interest characteristics; ads were monitored daily to make adjustments to improve response. Results 220 males, ages 18–25 years enrolled between October 2010 and May 2011. The majority of participants (51%) reported print advertisements as the method by which they first heard about the study, followed by personal contact (29%) and Facebook™ or other social networking site (SNS; 20%). The likelihood of SNS being the source by which the participant first heard about the study compared with traditional methods was increased if the participant reported: 1) being homosexual or bisexual; or 2) posting daily updates on SNS. Conclusions Facebook™ and other social networking sites are a viable recruitment strategy for reaching potential clinical trial participants among groups who typically use social media to stay connected with their friends and hard-to-reach groups such as young men who self-identify as homosexual or bisexual.

Online Recruitment Methods for Web-Based and Mobile Health Studies: A Review of the Literature

“…One study advertised through search term query results on multiple search engines [ 34 ], and the other two studies used a combination of various websites, search engines, and social media outlets for recruitment purposes [ 27 , 33 ]. One third of the studies (4/12) used a combination of traditional methods and Web-based methods of recruitment and compared them side-by-side for effectiveness [ 24 , 26 , 29 , 35 ]. Two studies [ 24 , 35 ] used Facebook ads as the Web-based method (17%) and compared it to the use of flyers and newspaper ads.…”

Comparison of the sociodemographic characteristics of the large NutriNet-Santé e-cohort with French Census data: the issue of volunteer bias revisited

“…22 Regarding the recruitment of young (college-age) single men, future efforts could also include leaflet distributions at campusbased sporting events as well as social network advertising. 23 Establishing the relative representativeness of a cohort is important because it allows prevalence estimations in the reference population, investigation of risk factor trends and an unbiased evaluation of exposure-outcome relationships. 24 In future analyses, especially those focused on the prevalence of a given disease or health/risk behaviour, 25 the issue of nonrepresentativeness might pose a challenge.…”

Share2Quit: Online Social Network Peer Marketing of Tobacco Cessation Systems

“…Prior Facebook recruitment efforts have used direct marketing, ie, using advertisements to market the intervention directly to users. [33][34][35] However, direct marketing does not take advantage of the interconnectedness of online social networks. At an NIH-funded meeting on online social networks and smoking cessation, peer marketing use and the identification of influential ties to drive propagation within online social networks were identified as important research areas.…”