Online Recruitment Protocols for Hard-to-Reach Populations

The Internet now offers millions of sites catering to a broad range of audiences.  Nevertheless, identifying where to go online to recruit participants, and how to best attract them to your study and/or intervention sites can be a challenge. This presentation will provide an overview of online recruitment protocols to reach populations such as MSM of color, non-transgender male sexual partners of transgender people, and other hard-to-reach populations. Examples from past and current Internet-based studies will be provided, and we will consider the impact of social networking media on participants’ recruitment for Internet-based studies.