Khatri Chetan, Chapman Stephen J, Glasbey James, Kelly Michael, Nepogodiev Dmitri, Bhangu Aneel, Fitzgerald J Edward
Imperial College London Medical School, London, United Kingdom.
University of Leeds, Leeds, United Kingdom.
PLoS One. 2015 Mar 16;10(3):e0118899. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0118899. eCollection 2015.
A substantial challenge facing multicentre audit and research projects is timely recruitment of collaborators and their study centres. Cost-effective strategies are required and fee-free social media has previously been identified as a potential conduit. We investigated and evaluated the effectiveness of a novel multi-format social media and Internet strategy for targeted recruitment to a national multicentre cohort study.
Interventions involved a new Twitter account, including weekly live question-and-answer sessions, a new Facebook group page, online YouTube presentations and an information page on a national association website. Link tracking analysis was undertaken using Google Analytics, which was then related to subsequent registration. Social influence was calculated using the proprietary Klout score.
Internet traffic analysis identified a total of 1562 unique registration site views, of which 285 originated from social media (18.2%). Some 528 unique registrations were received, with 96 via social media platforms (18.2%). Traffic source analysis identified a separate national association webpage as resulting in the majority of registration page views (15.8%), followed by Facebook (11.9%), Twitter (4.8%) and YouTube (1.5%). A combination of publicity through Facebook, Twitter and the dedicated national association webpage contributed to the greatest rise in registration traffic and accounted for 312 (48%) of the total registrations within a 2-week period. A Twitter 'social influence' (Klout) score of 42/100 was obtained during this period.
Targeted social media substantially aided study dissemination and collaborator recruitment. It acted as an adjunct to traditional methods, accounting for 18.2% of collaborator registration in a short time period with no associated financial costs. We provide a practical model for designing future recruitment campaigns, and recommend Facebook, Twitter and targeted websites as the most effective adjuncts for maximising cost-effective study recruitment.
多中心审计和研究项目面临的一个重大挑战是及时招募合作者及其研究中心。需要具有成本效益的策略，此前已确定免付费的社交媒体是一种潜在渠道。我们调查并评估了一种新颖的多形式社交媒体和互联网策略在全国多中心队列研究定向招募中的有效性。
干预措施包括一个新的推特账户，每周进行现场问答环节，一个新的脸书群组页面，在线YouTube演示以及一个全国性协会网站上的信息页面。使用谷歌分析进行链接跟踪分析，然后将其与后续注册情况相关联。使用专有Klout分数计算社会影响力。
互联网流量分析共识别出1562个唯一注册网站浏览量，其中285个来自社交媒体（18.2%）。共收到约528个唯一注册，其中96个通过社交媒体平台（18.2%）。流量来源分析表明，一个单独的全国性协会网页导致了大部分注册页面浏览量（15.8%），其次是脸书（11.9%）、推特（4.8%）和YouTube（1.5%）。通过脸书、推特和专门的全国性协会网页进行的宣传相结合，使得注册流量增长最为显著，在两周内占总注册量的312个（48%）。在此期间获得的推特“社会影响力”（Klout）分数为42/100。
定向社交媒体极大地促进了研究传播和合作者招募。它作为传统方法的辅助手段，在短时间内占合作者注册量的18.2%，且无相关财务成本。我们提供了一个设计未来招募活动的实用模型，并推荐脸书、推特和定向网站作为实现成本效益最大化的研究招募最有效的辅助手段。
