B0840
Title: Using social media metrics and linked survey data to understand survey behaviors
Authors: Tarek Al Baghal - University of Essex (United Kingdom) [presenting]
Paulo Serodio - University of Essex (United Kingdom)
Shujun Liu - University of Cardiff (United Kingdom)
Luke Sloan - University of Cardiff (United Kingdom)
Curtis Jessop - NatCen Social Research (United Kingdom)
Abstract: Linking social media and survey data at the individual level has the potential to add evidence to a variety of research questions. To make this data openly available to others, social media data needs to be converted into useful metrics that minimize issues of disclosure while maximising utility. The Understanding Society Innovation panel has asked for consent to link Twitter data to survey responses in two waves. It has developed a framework to create social media metrics that can be combined with survey data. It is shown how these linked data can be used to understand important survey behaviours that have an impact on data quality, particularly in a longitudinal setting. It explores how combining survey data and social media metrics can help understand contact and response outcomes, including time until contact, attrition, and mode of response. While small sample sizes impact the power of some analyses, the methods developed are illustrative of ways to use this novel data source. To the extent that social media metrics are predictive of these behaviours, the use of the data may improve strategies for future survey design.
