Nurses' Health Study 3

Screenshot of Nurses' Health Study 3's Facebook page--an example of a research retention strategy

PI: Walter Willett, MD, Harvard School of Public Health

Peer-to-peer recruitment proved to be a successful, cost-effective strategy for the Nurses' Healthy Study 3 (NHS3). To maximize recruitment as well as to support retention of participants, we developed a multi-faceted social media strategy that utilized Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Craigslist to highlight the study’s achievements and increase nurses’ awareness of the opportunity to join. During the period when HCC assisted the study team by actively managing the NHS3 Facebook page, the number of “Likes” increased 450% from 2,000 to more than 10,000.