Using a poll is great way to understand what your customer wants. The answers you get can give you an insight into what your customers think of you and your business; what kind of service they want; and it gives them a chance to share their perspectives with you. If your survey or poll is engaging, then your customers are more likely to participate and spread the word about you.

What is a poll?

A poll is a fun and interactive way to ask a question. Your followers must choose from a set of answers, you can choose that they can give one answer or several – it’s up to you. When they tap on the answer they want, they can see how the voting has progressed so far. Here’s an example:

Question – Marmite – love it or hate it?

Answer 1 – love it.

Answer 2 – hate it.

Answer 3 – I’ve never tried it!

What are the objectives of a poll?

Conducting a poll can just be for fun, to help you engage with your followers, as per the example above. Or, you can use a poll to gain information you’re your followers or target audience.

• You might ask opinions on a new product idea you have.
• If you’re a blogger, you could ask what subjects they might be interested in – giving a list to choose from.
• You could get feedback on something – for example, your website or shop, such as, Is it easy to navigate? Can your customers find what they’re looking for? Is there any product they’d like to see you offer?
• If you’re thinking of setting up an event, a poll is useful to find out what kind of event people like before you invest your time and money.  
• You can use a poll to spark a conversation. Ask a fun question about your products or services. For example, if you sell cakes you could ask, ‘What do you think of putting vegetables into cake, such as Chocolate and Courgette cake?’ Then give some generic answers, and add an ‘other’ option. This could give you ideas for posts later that week – take it out of the poll and into a conversation or debate on your social media page.     

What are the benefits?

• Polls give you instant answers, so it’s a really quick and easy way to gauge opinion on something. They’re good in that followers don’t have to think of an answer, they just have to tick a box – although you can choose to have an ‘other’ option where people can give their opinion.
• It takes minimum effort from participants.
• Polls stand out visually on your page.
• It gives your page increased engagement and can help grow your customer base.
• It helps you gain valuable feedback or market research for your business.
• If you have an ‘other’ box with free text, you can ask for permission to quote someone’s reply, which leads to personal engagement with that person.
• Polls can help you identify and solve issues or pain points for your customers.
• It can help generate leads.
• It can give you new ideas for your business or for products or services.
• It helps you build your community.

I hope this has been useful and given you some food for thought about how polls might be able to help you and your business. If you do a poll with a purpose and not just for fun, don’t forget to do a follow up post, giving details of responses and any observations – and don’t forget to thank your followers for taking part.

If you need help with polls or any other forms of marketing, drop me a message or email me. I offer a free 30-minute discovery call.