Creating Powerful Polls on Instagram
Star Castle Studio provides artful entrepreneurs and makers with tips and custom-created visuals needed to beautifully run a professionally branded business and make an unforgettable impression online.
With everything currently happening in the world, the importance of having a strong online presence is undeniable, and that includes making a powerful impact on social media platforms. You need to connect and engage with your people now more than ever.
One of the top social media platforms today is Instagram – many entrepreneurs use it to engage with their followers and potential clients. Who doesn't love Instagram? It's fun, colorful, and very visual – perfect for any online creator!
An easy way to engage with your followers is through an Instagram poll. If you haven't tried doing a poll yet, you should create one today! They are super helpful for boosting engagement, as most everyone loves to share their thoughts and opinions online. Plus, if done with intention, a poll can help you find out the views and/or preferences of your audience without being too salesy or pushy.
“It’s an easy way for users to engage with our content as it doesn’t require much effort to respond.” – Lauren Ong, Social Media Manager, Dropbox
Once you’re ready to run a poll on Instagram stories, how do you know which type of poll to choose? Each has its own pros and cons, and you might like the feel of one more than another. I suggest trying a few out and seeing what gets the best engagement with your audience! Here’s my simple breakdown of when to use which type of IG story poll (and how to do it!)
Types of IG story polls
Emoji Slider Poll
This is a popular type of poll to see how interested a follower may be in a certain type of product or service or gauge their current feelings about a certain topic. This type of poll question is great because they are super easy for people to engage with and are fun to answer. As a creator, remember that this type of poll responses will give you very limited information, even if tons of people answer.
If you do use a slider poll, be sure to use a fun emoji for the icon!
Feel free to get creative with the options you include. Instead of a boringggg yes or no, opt for an on-brand pop of personality with clever choices like – “Duh 💁🏼♀️” or “Nahh bro 🙅🏼♀️” (assuming your brand voice is personable & sassy!)
Multiple Choice Question Poll
This is probably the type of question that first comes to mind when you think of polls. It's pretty straightforward: you ask a question with several different answers to choose from. For example, a bakery could ask their followers which flavor of cake is their favorite. This type is great because you can narrow down which type of item a person would choose, but they also take a little more thought and effort to put together and are best mixed with other types of questions to keep from being repetitive.
‘THIS OR THAT’ POll
This is personally my favorite type of poll to run. You give your followers two answers to choose from. You can ask them to choose between this or that (for example, brownies or ice cream), or you can ask a yes or no question (would you try this product?). It’s easy to make these questions visual and fun, and they’re simple for viewers to engage with (only one click of the screen)! People who answer also get the added bonus of seeing the current stats/results of everyone else. It’s hard to pass up a good this or that prompt!
Question sticker polls
Simple ‘ask me anything’ box where your followers can write whatever they want! Simply choose the question sticker from the sticker tray within Instagram, type out your question on the sticker and/or add write it out on the post, then post your story and follow-up with people who respond!
Which type of Instagram poll should I run?
There’s no best type of poll to run, but rather a right time for each type of poll. Ask yourself: what kind of information are you hoping to gather from this? How important is engagement for you? And don’t forget to play around with what type(s) tend to perform best with your audience!
Here’s the short and sweet breakdown of pros/cons and examples of when to use which type!
Emoji Slider Poll
PROS: encourages easy engagement
CONS: you’re not able to gather very specific information from results
Example: ‘How excited are you for the weekend?!’
Quiz / Multiple Choice Poll
PROS: you can get super detailed with your choices, improving the ability to gather information
CONS: you’re limiting what type of responses you’ll get
Example: ‘What’s your most productive time of day? Morning, Afternoon or Night?’
‘This or That’ Classic Poll
PROS: encourages simple engagement, shows poll results automatically to responders
CONS: easy for bots to engage (these automated accounts tend to automatically select the first response, messing with your stats)
Example: ‘Which of these 2 color palettes do you prefer?’
Question Sticker Poll
PROS: Super open ended – your people get the chance to really say whatever they want!
CONS: Easy for viewers to skip past – it’s asking a lot for someone to type out their response… Plus, there’s a limited word count for responses which can further discourage people from answering what they really want to say.
Example: ‘What are you celebrating today?!’
How to view your poll results
The purpose of asking questions is to get answers, right? To view how many people answered your poll and what their answers were, view your story that has the poll and tap the "seen by" button in the bottom corner. You can also share your results with your followers so they can see what the total percentages were. People love getting this behind the scenes peek!
I recently did a poll on how the pandemic affected your business, for good or bad, and I teased a little bit about it in my newsletter. It was a simple way to engage with my audience, relate tot hem on a personal level, and remind others (with actual poll results) that they aren’t alone in feeling a certain way!
You can checkout the results from my polls and see how I formatted them as stories below…
Tips & Best Practices
Stay on brand!! Use brand imagery that’s cohesive with your look & color palette. No brand photos? Use a simple background color that’s on brand and add a gif or two that evoke your desired feeling!
Make sure it's not 'out of bounds'. Have fun with it and try to connect with your followers, but try not to ask questions that are too personal or controversial.
Make sure you make it easy to interact with – asking too much will result in people simply skipping through your story and onto the next one in their feed.
Be sure to follow-up with EVERYONE that responds (ideally with an engaging question)!
Remember, your followers are your people and they WANT to connect with you.
Be there for them, and they will be there for you!
running your own poll?
Let’s connect on Instagram!
I’d love to participate in your poll(s)! Also feel free to DM me whenever with anything from Instagram poll tips to a good conspiracy!
