Etiquette and security in finding interviewees

I'm a researcher/PhD student working on a study about influencers and algorithms on Instagram. I recently joined BHW to learn more from this community and in the hopes that I might find individuals to interview as part of my study. I am paying interviewees $50 for interviews that last ~1 hour. I want to post a thread in the Instagram forum inviting people to participate. My questions are:

• What's the best way to connect with (potential) interviewees after posting a thread? I'm concerned about protecting my privacy/safety and, so, don't want to post my email address publicly in a thread, but a moderator of the Instagram forum also said I could not ask people to PM me their email addresses. Should I just coordinate via PM? How do people typically do things like this?
• If I ask for someone to share their Instagram profile with me (to verify that they're actively maintaining an IG account and trying to attract more followers), what's the best way to verify that they are the owner of the account?
• How do I demonstrate my own credibility since I'm a newbie on BHW and don't want to share my email address or website in a thread?

Thanks in advance.

1. Either PM or setup a new email address.
2.Ask them to upload a certain post.
3. By paying $25 upfront.

• What's the best way to connect with (potential) interviewees after posting a thread? I'm concerned about protecting my privacy/safety and, so, don't want to post my email address publicly in a thread, but a moderator of the Instagram forum also said I could not ask people to PM me their email addresses. Should I just coordinate via PM? How do people typically do things like this?

One way is to post a HAF thread, be specific as to requirements and maybe do it his way. You are limited here though that only upgraded members can respond to apply.

• If I ask for someone to share their Instagram profile with me (to verify that they're actively maintaining an IG account and trying to attract more followers), what's the best way to verify that they are the owner of the account?

You have zero credibility on here, so people will be reluctant to share / verify with you their account(s)

• How do I demonstrate my own credibility since I'm a newbie on BHW and don't want to share my email address or website in a thread?

You hire them and pay them.

for that money make sure you do this manually becouse your get a bot if done via forms,,,,

just saying.

i am sure you can use instagram and there advert platform to get a responce.

i am sure you can use adwords or bing or facebook or ig , to get users to leave there number to phone them back to do the paid survey's/quistionare .

there 1 person on here member @IGKing that might be able to help you , as he a ig guru, he has his own forum and app , but maybe a huge list of people that might be happy to be paid for a survay.

i suggest using a safe member on here for this type of work.