Using Social Media to Recruit Participants for Scholarly Research: Lessons from African Female Immigrants in the United States

Social scientists are increasingly using social media to conduct research and to recruit subjects for research studies. Prior research seems to suggest that using social media is particularly helpful when it comes to recruiting participants from hard-to-reach populations such as immigrants. In this study, we examine how social media platforms (i.e., Facebook and WhatsApp) were used to recruit participants for a study, which examined Kenyan immigrants’ perceptions of the police. Within the context of criminal justice research, the inclusion of African immigrants in research is important as their experiences and perceptions of justice get muted when compared to the experiences of blacks in general. We found that when conducting research among this group of immigrants, social media was instrumental in facilitating the recruitment of participants. Moreover, we discovered that building rapport with the participants and clearly articulating the objectives of the study was important. Implications for research are discussed.