Twitter Polls – What Are They and How Do I Use Them?

In October Twitter introduced Twitter Polls, these are a great way to engage with your audience on Twitter. So what are they and how do you use them?

What are Twitter Polls?

Polls in general are a great way to learn what your audience thinks, whether it’s gathering opinions, feedback or having a vote on something. It also now allows those participating, to make their voice heard privately, as your vote is no longer shared publicly.

Twitter polls aren’t a totally new concept, before this new feature users were creating polls by tweeting questions and tracking replies via hashtag or favourites and retweets. This old way of taking polls meant that not only was the voters profile shown but also there was no time limit to the poll. Now your two-choice poll will be live for 24 hours and votes will be private.

How to Build a Twitter Poll

You can create a poll by starting a new tweet. Once in the composer you will see a small pie chart in the right hand corner below your text box called “Poll” (note that on mobile you will just see the pie chart symbol). Click on this.

Starting a Twitter poll image

Now you will see some new options. Simply type in your question and your two-options, then send the tweet! Remember that using #Hashtags in your question can help boost your tweet. If you’re not sure about using hashtags then check out this blog post.

Twitterpoll

Something to remember is that once a poll is completed the results can be viewed publicly. Also users can also vote in polls directly from a retweet.

How can Twitter Polls help you and your brand?

By using Twitter polls you can increase your brand engagement and follower interaction; letting your following and the public have a say can help customers feel more involved in your business. Not only this but it can help to truly understand what your customers want/are looking for from you or your brand.