An Approach to Using Social Media as a Research Platform

Claire Bethel^1,

¹Clinical Education, Banner Health, Phoenix, Arizona, USA

Cite this paper:
Claire Bethel. An Approach to Using Social Media as a Research Platform. American Journal of Nursing Research. 2017; 5(6):200-201. doi: 10.12691/ajnr-5-6-1

Abstract

AIM: To examine the use of the social and technology features of Facebook to recruit research participants from a closed-group. BACKGROUND: Limited research in healthcare focuses on the use of Facebook despite the many opportunities that exist. METHODS: The experience of gaining access to and recruiting participants from a closed-Facebook group using two different types of posts to advertise the study. DISCUSSION: The paper focuses on the lead author’s experience of recruiting participants from a closed-group on Facebook and her experience of using two different types of posts to advertise the study. A personal post with a picture of the lead author receiving a grant to conduct the research resulted in 32% of the completed survey responses in 24 hours. CONCLUSION: Using a closed-group on Facebook was an inexpensive and successful method to survey many respondents with a shared identity from all over the United States in a short period of time. Future researchers choosing to utilize social media as a research platform should share their methods to better understand how social media can be leveraged in nursing research.

Keywords:
Facebook social media research methods survey travel nurse nursing research onboarding orientation recruitment

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References:

[1]	Dalsgaard. S. (2016). The ethnographic use of Facebook in everyday life. Anthropological Forum, Vol. 26, Issue 1.
[2]	Child, R., Mentes, J., Pavlish, C. & Phillips, L. (2014). Using Facebook and participant information clips to recruit emergency nurses for research. Nurse Researcher. 21, 6, 16-21.