Social media continues to evolve as a powerful tool for health researchers to recruit the right people to conduct trials and engage with study participants.However, while social media offers valuable benefits, such as low cost and the ability to reach a broad, diverse audience, it also presents pitfalls that can play a role be opposed to got engaged.
To make social media an effective part of your research recruitment and engagement efforts, it’s important to avoid five common mistakes.
Mistake 1: Not conducting research on potential research participants
Knowing your target audience’s social habits is the first step in getting and keeping their attention. For any audience you’re trying to reach, whether it’s a niche audience or a diverse audience, it’s always important to do your research before you start publishing content.
To effectively meet where your audience is, find out where they are already engaged. Find out which Facebook groups they belong to, the specific hashtags they follow on Twitter, and which influencers they interact with on Instagram.
Once you understand where your audience is engaging online, you can begin to understand their main concerns and the types of content they engage with the most. You can then customize the content accordingly. Your recruiting and engagement campaigns are stronger when you know which social media platform is best for your content.
Mistake 2: Using too many medical terms, using only English
On social media, keeping language accessible and engaging is always a good rule of thumb. As a health researcher, terms that are commonplace in your field may not be commonplace to your audience.
When you research where your audience is engaging online, also pay attention to the language they use in their own posts and comments. Keep track of specific keywords and phrases you see in online patient advocacy groups so you can use them when appropriate.
Also, make sure to appeal to different users. Sticking to just one language (eg English) will be a hindrance to your recruiting strategy as you will lose the opportunity to attract diverse communities and populations to study. In fact, 70% of Internet users are not native English speakers.
A key part of a strong recruiting and engagement campaign is the ability to connect with users on a personal level. Expand the language you use in social communication and you’ll expand the diversity of your groups.
Mistake 3: Using only one social media platform to connect with potential research participants
While Facebook is a great platform for reaching a large number of people (it has 1.79 billion daily active users), it is not if only The platform will help you achieve your recruiting and engagement goals.
Remember, teens and young adults make up a large portion of Twitter and Instagram’s active user base. There are other platforms, especially messaging for staying in touch with your groups. For example, the Latino population is a heavy user of WhatsApp.
Each platform will bring you success in a different way. One thing to consider before finalizing the platform you will use for your campaign is to research the format of the subject and post. Instagram focuses on visual aspects and engaging stories, while Twitter and LinkedIn tend to see more text-based posts. Get familiar with which content formats are best for each platform you’re considering.
Mistake 4: Setting up an event, posting content, then imitating your followers
Launching content on the appropriate platform is obviously important for recruitment and participation in health research, but the quality and quantity of participation requires more dedication and care than just pressing a button at a time. You should always continue to listen to social media throughout your campaign. In addition to mastering and tracking relevant hashtags and keywords, frequent visits to social channels and engagement with followers are a great way to find your people and keep them coming back.
Social media monitoring is different from listening, but just as important. The purpose of monitoring your campaigns is to track which content performs best and gives you the best ROI. What social media posts did participants engage in most before signing up for your study? What types of content are your current participants responding to, and what are they ignoring?
One aspect of social media monitoring is tracking and responding to comments and direct messages. This will help you keep the number of participants and is also a way to report any adverse events that may arise related to the trial.
If you notice that certain messages, visuals, or platforms aren’t giving you the results you want, you can always iterate and adjust accordingly. Monitoring will help you determine the best way to do this.
Mistake 5: Forgetting to engage with healthcare professionals and other industry influencers
Social media is a great way to complement other recruiting and engagement efforts. This is a great tool for groups of people that are often difficult to reach through traditional methods. However, that doesn’t mean you should forget about one of the most common recruiting methods – physician and healthcare referrals.
Healthcare professionals can also be reached on social media. Platforms like Facebook and Twitter make it relatively easy for you to use specific demographics and interests to help determine which audiences will see your content.
Despite seeing engaging and interesting content on social media, individuals may still consult their physicians about any research they participate in. When healthcare professionals have the right information, they can best guide their patients’ decisions to participate in studies and trials.
Social media has become a cost-effective, engaging and critical component of health research recruitment, participation and retention.
Doing it right can increase the workload, but the ROI of social media can make it worthwhile. As research turns to digital and remote means to reach more people, social media can be an effective recruiting tool and complement participant monitoring and tracking systems for engagement.
While participant management tools provide participants with key touchpoints for their engagement, such as invitations and follow-ups to events, email and text message outreach, and appointments for biological specimen donations, social engagement strengthens that connection. Make sure you research how to streamline your workflow to ensure you are productive, so you can harness the power of social media to complement your participant tracking tools and elevate your learning.
Photo: elenabs, Getty Images
