Automated Assistance with Study Recruitment on Social Media

We are currently not accepting any new clients for this service. We will update this page once we have resumed offering this service.

Using the Trial Promoter package includes customized recruitment support through social media. We support grant applications and actual ongoing projects at USC, CHLA, LA County DHS, and other external institutions. More information about Trial Promoter is available here. The Trial Promoter service package includes:

• Provision of suggested wording for the IRB protocol that explains the use of Trial Promoter and social media strategy
• Development of social media messages for different platforms including text and images or video (in English and Spanish)
• Setup of social media accounts
• Calculation of social media advertisement budget and setup
• Trial Promoter set up
• Trial Promoter maintenance and data collection throughout the recruitment period
• Comment and engagement moderation: For example, in situations in which a user shares protected health information on a study-related social media account, as well as flagging of toxic comments if a user uses offensive, disrespectful language Generation of performance reports (frequency can be determined by study team) and final comprehensive report based on desired metrics that may include but are not limited to message engagement metrics, website engagement metrics, study team contact requests, enrollment, and completion of transaction such as a survey.

The automated approach to study recruitment on social media allows study teams to efficiently promote their study over the recruitment period without the need to allocate dedicated human resources or acquire special social media knowledge.

The service is provided in the form of a consultation with an option to purchase additional services on a recharge basis. Investigators may be eligible for multiple categories of discount; maximum number of free hours per investigator per year is 15 hours.

Recharge rates: $75/hour after initial consultation * Free 1-hour initial consultation is included

• Initial Consultation: (up to 1 hour): Free for any project based at USC, CHLA and affiliated SC CTSI institutions.
• SC CTSI Pilot Funding Awardees: (up to 2 hours*): Any SC CTSI Pilot Funding Awardee can receive up to 2 hours free for work related to the funded project.
• Junior Investigators: (up to 5 hours*): Junior Investigators, as defined by NIH and/or in an Assistant professor classification may receive up to 5 free hours of support per project.
• K Awardees: (up to 15 hours annually*): All K awardees may receive up to 15 hours free in total annually for their K – related project based at USC, CHLA and affiliated SC CTSI institutions.
• T Scholars: (up to 15 hours annually*): All T scholars may receive up to 15 hours free in total annually for their T – related project based at USC, CHLA and affiliated SC CTSI institutions.

Software sharing policy
The code of any software tool the SC CTSI team develops will be made available to the CTSA consortium. SC CTSI will further be able to use the tool in support of other investigators. 

Data sharing policy
Any recruitment-related data we generate using Trial Promoter can be used for research purposes and other investigators and the Trial Promoter data project that collects data on the success of research recruitment messages across different study disease types, study populations, and digital and social media platforms.