On Data Collection (Where My Participants At: Round 2)

A few days ago I posted about the ups and downs of data collection. Well, mostly the downs. Today, I want to share with you the ups…and some things I learned over the past few days.

As I mentioned before, I went to Chicago late last week to do some in-person research recruitment. Before I left, I posted a study announcement on the Facebook page I set up for the study. On a whim, I decided to “boost” the post. I set a budget of $25 and “targeted” the post to reach my target population for the qualitative portion of my study (one county in Illinois). I also tweeted about the study and tagged (is that what it’s called on Twitter? I’m still figuring this Twitter thing out) several organizations and people asking them to RT (re-tweet). Then I left for Chicago and let the internet work its magic (or so I hoped).

Chicago is only a couple of hours away from me, but I ended up stopping after an hour because of fog so bad I couldn’t see cars in front of me.  It was so bad that 3 separate accidents shut the interstate down for long periods of time.  I’m glad I stopped. Once I got settled into my hotel for the night, I had a chance to catch up on emails and social media. I was blown away. In a matter of hours, the number of “likes” on my Facebook study page had increased by 20, I had 2 emails from youth requesting participation in the study, and my post had reached nearly 1,000 people–and only $5 of my $25 budget had been spent. Needless to say, I decreased it to $10 with the goal of spreading that “boost” money out over a couple of weeks. By the end of the 2-day boost/promotion, the number of “likes” on my page had nearly doubled (52 to 99 as of this morning), 3 interviews have been scheduled with youth, a couple new surveys have come in, and the post was seen by over 1,500 people. Totally worth it.

The next day I was able to make it to Chicago and had one day to get 1 1/2 days worth of research recruitment in. I met with a school social worker who was very excited about the study. She plans to inform the youth she works with about it and gave me some contacts to follow-up with. It was a wonderful meeting. I also met with a friend/colleague at a university in Chicago. We spent some time catching up but she also provided some ideas for reaching out to Chicago organizations to help promote the study. After the meetings, I went to post flyers. Thank goodness my amazingly supportive wife was with me because a) navigating Chicago by myself would have been a nightmare and b) by the time I got around to posting flyers, my introvert had taken over and I just wanted to go back to the hotel and take a nap (which she wouldn’t let happen–despite the fact that she, too, wanted a nap)!  It was cold and windy, but we walked around Boystown and posted flyers anyway. We met a few particularly nice individuals at LGBTQ-related stores. One talked with us about possible places to advertise the study and another talked about how he’s been working in Boystown for decades and how he’s seen so much change (for the better and the worse). Unfortunately, I didn’t make it to Andersonville or Bronzeville on this trip, but I plan to go back later in the Spring (when it’s warmer!).

Driving around all day, I didn’t get much chance to check my emails or social media. When we finally got to our hotel, I had over 30 emails. I realized quickly that half of them were from Twitter and I sat down to figure out the chain of Twitter events that I had missed. And here it comes. The 2nd exciting social media event of my week:  Kate Bornstein retweeted my post about the study. Yep. That happened. And then a few more people retweeted it and I lost count. I love Kate. I’ve seen her speak twice and met her both times and I just adore her. To have her retweet my study meant the world to me–even if it doesn’t go “viral”–the support there is immeasurable.

Alas, I am home now. And thankful for it. Time to rest up for a few days (and by rest up I mean catch up on lots of work) before heading to Southern Illinois late this week to do some more research recruitment. This morning I created a new post–specifically targeting my quantitative sample–all of Illinois, rather than just one county–and “boosted” it. And I have an interview in a few hours. Look for updates on all of these fabulous happenings this week later. And thanks for reading.