We present our experiences of novel value from online social media for Participative Design (PD) research. We describe how particular social media (e.g. Facebook, Pinterest, WhatsApp and Twitter) were used during a five-year project on learning space design by the researcher and interested teachers across all research phases (contextual review, user studies, PD action research). Social media were used to source and share comments, photographs and video documentation, supporting participation in design research. Based on our experiences, we provide recommendations on informed worthwhile use of social media to enrich PD research by increasing diversity, recursivity and timely access to insights, informants, inspirations and influencers.