The process of snowball sampling is much like asking your subjects to nominate another person with the same trait as your next subject. The researcher then observes the nominated subjects and continues in the same way until the obtaining sufficient number of subjects.
What is a specific example of snowball sampling?
For example, in the interview phase, snowball sampling can be used to reach hard-to-reach populations. Participants or informants with whom contact has already been made can use their social networks to refer the researcher to other people who could potentially participate in or contribute to the study.
How do you do snowball sampling?
Snowball sampling consists of two steps:
- Identify potential subjects in the population. Often, only one or two subjects can be found initially.
- Ask those subjects to recruit other people (and then ask those people to recruit. Participants should be made aware that they do not have to provide any other names.
