Thread by @edpsydan

Lots of TEPs use twitter as a way to connect with potential research participants - but I think also unwittingly make is much harder for people to engage.

Some tips (a thread) 🧵

#TwitterEPs #AcademicTwitter #AcademicChatter

Twitter is a digital platform...it's not a print platform. Research posters turned in to PDFs might look pretty - you've got images, fonts, colours, but as a digital call to action they're pretty unhelpful

Including an image in your tweet with links makes those dead links.

Any link in an image can't be clicked, or copied and pasted. Similarly, there is probably very little point putting a URL (web address) in a research recruitment image. How many times have have you ever manually typed out a long web address?

Recruitment images are also often full of text. This itself isn't an issue, but think about how you use twitter. It's likely you read bigger chunks of text or writing if you've clicked a link and followed it somewhere.

These text filled images on a phone can be hard to read

All of this text within a twitter image also makes it completely inaccessible to any visually impaired or blind twitter users. Some users might use screen readers, and all that key information is then just lost.

Another thing that has cropped up lately is people putting QR codes within images designed to recruit participants. I might be missing something but I don't understand this. If someone is browsing twitter on their phone, what are they going to use to scan the QR code?

So what might you do instead?

- Use twitter as a digital platform and think about the digital infrastructure around your tweet.

- Integrate key links within your first tweet. Give users a place they can go to learn more about your research

- Make it abundantly clear what you want from people i.e. 'Find out more' or 'Follow the link below if you are interested in participating'

- Don't expect people to spend time copying a complex URL or a weird university email address. This links to the first point.

- Provide a link that takes people to a page that provides more info. From here, you can then hyperlink your email address. This seems especially key if you're asking people to email you if they want to participate - make it as easy for people to express interest as possible

- By all mean, use images, but use them here in the ways that they're intended i.e. to grab attention - not as a way to communicate information (see accessibility point above).

- If there is key information in an image, make sure it's also in your tweet

- Don't waste time creating a QR code to link to your research information pages or your consent forms - just give people the link you want them to follow.

- If you do want to provide further information about your research, then create a thread.

- Make this process unambiguous and clear as part of your ethics application where you address recruitment procedures. Ensure you provide the committee with the content of your tweet, your calls to action, the content of the information pages you link to.