Recruitment in response to a pandemic: pivoting a community-based recruitment strategy to facebook for hard-to-reach populations during COVID-19

COVID-19 has required researchers to change methods to better reflect the new realities of social distancing, sheltering in place, and the use of extended quarantines to isolate from the community. The paper illustrates the implications of shifting recruitment strategies midstream with populations that are already normally considered 'hard-to-reach'. The population in this illustration involves mothers with young children in shared parenting arrangements across three Canadian provinces (Alberta, Manitoba, Ontario) who have experienced domestic violence. Due to public health protocols that required social distancing, strategies typically used to engage vulnerable populations in research, including collaborating with community service providers and face-to-face contact were no longer possible. With limited knowledge and resources, we pivoted our recruitment strategy from the use of posters in agencies to a paid Facebook advertisement strategy. Prior to our social media campaign, our time-intensive recruitment efforts had produced very few responses to our online survey. Our advertisement ran from March 13 to 12 July 2020 and Facebook reported that it 'reached' an approximate 42,488 viewers Through Facebook, we discovered a number of support groups for mothers with young children that only exist online. Rather than putting up posters in their settings, community service providers became online recruiters through their 'tweets', 'likes', and 'sharing' of our study. The impact of COVID-19 on our research has taught us about the power of social media as a recruitment strategy. Facebook is a useful tool to enhance research awareness and engagement with hard-to-reach populations even post COVID-19.