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Development of a Search and Matching Protocol for Respondent Tracing on Social Media
Amelia R Branigan1, Beverly G Bolster1, Alina R Kahn1
1Department of Sociology, University of Maryland, College Park, 3121 Parren Mitchell Art-Sociology Building, 3834 Campus Dr, College Park, MD, USA 20742.
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As social media gains traction as an important tool for survey researchers seeking to trace respondents, questions emerge regarding how to identify respondents on these platforms while ethically negotiating issues of respondent privacy and search consent in the digital age. We report on a search protocol and match definition rubric designed to standardize and streamline the process of identifying survey respondents on social media using only publicly available information that can be returned via standard search engines. Using 450 respondents randomly selected from a survey of older Millennials, we were able to identify social media accounts for 70% of our sample, along with a set of characteristics associated with the likelihood of a respondent being located on social media. We discuss the development and implementation of our protocol and match rubric, as well as considerations for researchers seeking to adapt our method for use in other survey samples.
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