Exploring Social Media Recruitment Strategies for Black, Indigenous and People of color (BIPOC) Transitional Age Youth (TAY): Insights from a Community Based Research Study
Author: Justin Kenneth Samaniego
Faculty Supervisor: Genievive del Mundo Mendieta
Department: Biology
In recruiting and retaining BIPOC transitional-aged youth (TAY) for clinical studies, social media may be a widely underused approach. This study examines the efficacy of social media, specifically Instagram and TikTok, as an instrumental approach to recruiting and retaining BIPOC TAY (18-26 year olds) in a nature-based intervention study. Our team leveraged engagement metrics from social media to increase attention and share tailored content with communities, such as videos and pictures showcasing the study's primary objective and study site informing about health equity research. From January 2024 to March 2024, our Instagram reached 1,466 accounts (148 followers and 1,318 non-followers), 47.9% from San Francisco and 52.1% from outside of San Francisco. Accounts reached ages in years were 18-24 (44.7%), 25-34 (35.2%), and ≥35 (19.3%). On TikTok, we observed 20k video views and 1,794 likes from January 2024 to March 2024. These social media strategies culminated in the recruitment of 12 eligible participants from the targeted demographic from January 2024 to March 2024. Our study underscores the effectiveness of using social media to increase BIPOC TAY participation in health equity research.