Harnessing Social Media in Survey Research
Amanda L. Skaff
Mathematica Policy Research
Lisa K. Schwartz
Mathematica Policy Research
Lisbeth Goble
Mathematica Policy Research
Jillian Stein
Mathematica Policy Research
Engaging and retaining young adults in longitudinal survey research presents unique challenges, particularly among the predominately male, non-white, low-income, and highly mobile young adults who comprise the sample of the U.S. Department of Labor's evaluation of the YouthBuild program. In an effort to combat these challenges, the current study took an innovative approach that harnesses youth's ongoing engagement with social media to help increase survey participation across three waves of data collection. In this paper, we explore the effectiveness of incorporating social media, specifically Facebook, into an overall data collection strategy and assess the extent to which it influences response rates and survey retention over time. Overall, our early findings suggest that Facebook may be a useful tool for sample engagement and retention in longitudinal research. We find increased survey response in the first and second follow-up surveys for Facebook friends in our sample.