Social Service Workers' Use of Social Media to Obtain Client Information: Current Practices and Perspectives on a Potential Informatics Platform

To gain insight into current use of social-media platforms in human services delivery, we systematically surveyed 172 social-service workers from six agencies in a Midwest US city to gather data about social-media usage among social-service providers, potential challenges and benefits of using social media, and whether a social-media-based informatics platform could be valuable. Quantitative analyses showed that approximately half of participants have used social media to collect client-related information; nearly one-quarter indicated "often" or "nearly daily" use. Adjusting for the effects of worker characteristics, social-media use was associated with the type of agency involved and with increased tenure in social services. Adjusted results also showed that participants' comfort with using the potential application was greater in those agencies substantially involved with investigative/legal work. However, trust in the information collected by the potential application was a stronger, independent predictor of comfort using the tool. Qualitative analyses identified numerous challenges and ethical concerns, and positive and negative aspects of a social-media-based informatics platform. If the platform is to be created, work must be done carefully, fully considering ethical issues rightly raised by social service workers, existing agency policies, and professional standards. Future research should investigate ways to negotiate these complex challenges.