Recruiting research participants for in-person research such as medical device testing can be difficult, especially if your study will be conducted in a different city or country.  Not everyone has the opportunity or the budget to work with recruitment partners, and it can be difficult to delay the rest of your team on account of a lack of participants. Social media is a great way to reach out to possible participants all from the comfort of your own office. Among the top social media giants to turn to, Twitter is a great place to start.

But how do you reach optimum engagement on twitter? We’ve compiled the best practices to help you out.

Narrow Down the Target Demographic You’re Looking For

The best way to do this on Twitter is through social listening. With social listening, you can target specific keywords and hashtags that potential respondents may be looking out for in Tweets. Here are two popular methods to make social listening a breeze:

1. Twitter Advanced Search

Twitter Advanced Search allows you to narrow down your search by filtering specific words, accounts, and dates. You can save up to 25 searches per account, making it easy for you to go back and reference later on.

2. Monitoring Platforms/Tools

There are some website platforms out there that are designed to do the social media listening for you. They set up alerts, similar to what you would expect from Twitter Advanced Search, which allows you to receive daily reports about conversations on social media as well what keywords are ranking and when they were most relevant.

Be Smart with Your Hashtags

People follow hashtags that interest them, which means if you use them properly, you will be able to catch the attention of the audience you’re aiming for.

Here are a few hashtag best practices from Danielle Prager:

    • Never use more than three hashtags per post.

•     • Keep them short. #LongStringsOfWordsAreAnnoying.
•     • The more precise, the better.

• Make them easy to remember and easy to spell.

•     •If you’re creating a campaign hashtag, be original.

Increase Your Engagement Further with Promoted Ads

If you aren’t receiving the traction you wanted, you can always use Promoted Ads on Twitter to boost your results. Twitter defines Promoted Ads as, ordinary Tweets purchased by advertisers who want to reach a wider group of users or spark engagement from their existing followers. All Promoted Ads are clearly labeled when appearing on the platform.

Promoted ads can be found in:

    • Top of relevant search results
    • Search results for a trend takeover
    • User timelines
    • User profiles
    • Official Twitter clients

You may have to allot a portion of your budget to keep the promoted ad running, but it’s a great way to avoid recruitment delays and keep your team on schedule.

Solve Your Respondent Recruitment Challenges Through Civicom Marketing Research Services

Get the right people for your focus groups. Let Civicom help you find the participants that will lead your project to success. Know more about Respondent Recruitment here:

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