Discovering opportunities to enhance research and develop best-practices using social media

  • The problem

    There was a lack of guidelines at the University of Florida (UF) for ethically and effectively recruiting research participants using social media.

  • Deliverables

    Determine if social media should be added to our recruitment tool box and if so, which platforms. Additionally, define a process for approval and launch.

Stakeholders

  • Legal

  • Institutional Review Board

  • Marketing

  • Cybersecurity

  • Workgroup with campus leadership

Audience

There are two main audiences to consider.

First, is the community. While study teams wanted to use social media to recruit, we needed to understand how the community currently heard about research opportunities and their perceptions about participating in general.

Second, is the researchers themselves. Recruitment is just one piece of study design, and we wanted to capture the entire picture to make sure that the process we eventually put in place was helpful.

  • Understanding

    We already had quantitative data showing that researchers at the University of Florida (UF) wanted new recruitment tools. Collaborating with marketing and regulatory, we created a research plan to better articulate the problem and find a solution. Additionally, we had to present all findings and a proposal to a workgroup with cross-campus leadership.

  • Focus groups

    We conducted several focus group sessions with community volunteers. We created discussion guides and carefully moderated the conversations to gather feedback on their perspectives on participating in research and how they hear about these opportunities. Since enrollment in studies is so low, we opted for focus groups rather than 1:1 interviews to help boost conversation and initiate discussion.

  • In-depth interviews

    While we found focus groups to be most effective for the community, we knew that UF researchers had much stronger opinions and experiences and wanted to ensure their voices were heard during individual interviews. We had a group of researchers from various departments that had previously requested social media for recruitment, so we started with them and dove into their recruitment experiences and how launching guidelines would help.

  • Competitive analysis

    While conducting our own research was essential, we also wanted to understand what other academic research institutions were doing in this space. We could not find comprehensive guidelines or best practices during our review, pushing us to lean heavily on our own research results.

Analysis

The following themes emerged from our audiences:

Community members

  • Overall interested in participating in research

  • Unsure of where to find research participation opportunities, a centralized location would be helpful

  • Use Facebook as primary social media platform for information searching or getting advice

Researchers

  • The Institutional Review Board (IRB) was currently a big hurdle, so the new process needed to ensure regulatory approval was streamlined

  • Uncertain of how to create social media content (ex. difference between organic and paid, effective images, best headlines, etc.)

  • Budget is a concern, looking for a solution to help offset costs of paid social media advertising

  • Proposal

    Our analysis gave us essential information to move forward with recommendations for a centralized social media platform that will allow researchers to run paid ads and post organic ads. The proposal was centered around a Facebook page called UF Studies.

  • Process

    The proposal for this program included guidelines, such as a mock up of materials, an outline of personnel and page management and a plan for data collection to evaluate impact. An outline of how study teams will use the page was also presented, giving a step-by-step view to stakeholders to ensure that all areas, from regulatory to legal to bioethics, approve the initiative. We also included a plan to pay for the cost of advertising, introducing a voucher program.

  • Approval

    When presenting this to the workgroup, we had to be conscious of how we were framing this. Indeed, several members of the workgroup did not have a social media account, so we had to carefully explain and tailor our presentation when sharing our findings and proposal. The workgroup approved the proposal, and we selected studies to pilot the page through paid advertising campaigns covered by vouchers.

Testing

Using a broad range of studies targeting a range of participant groups, including pregnant women, adults 65 and older and healthy volunteers, we launched several paid advertising campaigns and measured their effectiveness through:

  • UF Studies Facebook Page: Followers, likes, shares, comments

  • Engagement: Likes, shares, comments on ads

  • Ad metrics: Clicks, reach, impressions on ads

  • Surveys: Satisfaction survey results from researchers who piloted the program

  • Google analytics: Page views and unique visitors generated from ads and UF Studies page

  • A/B testing: Determine ad effectiveness by comparing images, headlines and post text

  • Participation: Collaborate with study team to appropriately capture inquiries (phone calls / emails) and enrollments due to Facebook ads

Results

Pilot data demonstrated that UF Studies was a powerful tool for recruitment and we were ready to announce the UF Studies platform and guidelines to the university. You can check out the original announcement here.

We went on a road show across campus to introduce the program and guidelines, encouraging study teams to schedule a consultation and work with us to determine if social media was the right tool for them.

Impact

170 study teams were supported through consultations and 40 campaigns were ultimately launched from UF Studies. Over 1,800 participants enrolled in research studies as a result of these campaigns.

We disseminated our findings through national webinars and publications to ensure that others could replicate and add to our learnings. We even earned an honorable mention from the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC).

With the success of UF Studies, I was relied on for expertise in online research, eventually consulting on best practices for moving studies to a remote environment during the COVID-19 pandemic.

We could keep necessary health research moving forward when the world shut down because we built a program trusted by study teams, centered around the patient, and grounded in strategy.

I adapted this program in a new role as Research Operations Manager at Penn State College of Medicine where we successfully enrolled an additional 500 participants, resulting in over 2,000 participants enrolled in studies.