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This paper explores snowball sampling, a recruitment method that employs research into participants' social networks to access specific populations. Beginning with the premise that research is ‘formed’, the paper offers one account of snowball sampling and using social networks to ‘make’ research. Snowball sampling is often used because the population under investigation is ‘hidden’ either due to low numbers of potential participants or the sensitivity of the topic, for example, research with women who do not fit within the hegemonic heterosexual norm. This paper considers how the recruitment technique of snowball sampling, which uses interpersonal relations and connections between people, both includes and excludes individuals. Following this, the paper contends that due to the use of social networks and interpersonal relations, snowball sampling (in)forms how individuals act and interact in focus groups …