Woman standing in front of a pink background recording herself on her phone with a ring light.
From obtaining customer feedback to gathering opinions on desired content topics, creating polls on social media is an effective way to engage with your audience. — Getty Images/wagnerokasaki

Polling on social media gives users a chance to have their voice heard and provides businesses with helpful insights from their most engaged followers. The majority of today’s most popular social platforms have a polling feature built in, so you can ask questions and gain valuable insights into your followers’ opinions.

How to create a poll on your social media accounts

Facebook

Facebook polls are a great way to gather users’ opinions on potential Facebook Live topics, gauge interests for events, and find out what followers want to see more of from your business. As of now, the only ways to share a Facebook poll are through Facebook messenger, your stories, or directly on your company’s Facebook group page.

Here’s how to create a Facebook poll in your business’s Facebook group:

  1. Head to your group’s main page and click on the status bar labeled, “What’s on your mind?”
  2. When the “post” section appears, click on the three dots at the bottom of the prompt.
  3. More options will appear, including one for “poll.” Click on it.
  4. Fill in the fields of your preferred question and subsequent answers.
  5. Set restrictions for the poll, such as how many times an individual can answer the poll and if they can choose multiple answers.
  6. Finally, click “post” to make the poll live.

[Read more: Choosing the Social Channels That Are Right for Your Business]

Twitter

Twitter polls are short questionnaires that can provide quick insight into your followers’ thoughts and feelings on simple subjects. Because of Twitter’s character limit, its polling feature is best for yes-or-no questions or queries that require limited detail in the response.

To create a poll on Twitter:

  1. From your business’ main Twitter page, choose the icon to create a new tweet.
  2. Select the icon to “add a poll."
  3. Fill in the question box and choose up to four answers.
  4. Set how long the poll will remain in your followers’ feeds.
  5. Click “tweet” to post the poll.

LinkedIn has recently revived its polling feature after taking a hiatus in 2014. With LinkedIn polls, your business has the chance to receive opinions, feedback, and guidance from industry experts and fellow business owners.

Instagram

An Instagram poll provides your business the opportunity to show off the company’s aesthetic while retaining consumer feedback. As with Twitter, less is more when it comes to polls on Instagram. Ensure your questions and answer options are short and sweet to increase engagement.

To post a poll on Instagram stories:

  1. Click on the icon to create a new story and add a photo or graphic for the background.
  2. Select the “sticker” icon and choose the option for the poll sticker.
  3. Draft your questions and answers.
  4. Finish editing the photo, then share the post.

LinkedIn

LinkedIn has recently revived its polling feature after taking a hiatus in 2014. With LinkedIn polls, your business has the chance to receive opinions, feedback, and guidance from industry experts and fellow business owners.

To use LinkedIn’s poll feature:

  1. Click “start a post” on your LinkedIn’s main feed.
  2. Choose the “create a poll” icon.
  3. Input your question and subsequent answers.
  4. Choose how long you’d like the poll to run.
  5. Click “done” to share the poll.

[Read more: How to Improve Your Brand’s Social Media Content]

Zoom

While Zoom polls may not be high on your radar, they’re an effective way to gain responses from attendees of your Zoom events or to simply gauge the reactions of your team during a virtual meeting.

To hold a Zoom poll:

  1. Sign in to your Zoom account.
  2. Schedule a meeting or click on the scheduled meeting where you’re planning to hold the poll.
  3. Scroll to the bottom of the page to the “polls” tab.
  4. Choose “+ Create” and begin filling in the fields.
  5. Once finished, choose the tab with three dots to allow users to submit their answers anonymously.
  6. Click “save.”

TikTok

While TikTok is known for its short, engaging videos, there’s an option to embed opinion polls directly into a video. TikTok polls can be used to boost interactions with your followers and improve your account’s overall engagement.

To create a poll in TikTok:

  1. On your TikTok app, choose the “create” option on the navigation bar.
  2. Add the video of your choice and click “next."
  3. Select the sticker icon and choose “poll."
  4. Fill in the question and answer fields.
  5. Choose “done” and then create a caption and add relevant tags.
  6. Select “post” to share to your page.

[Read more: Small Business Social Media Trends for 2022]

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