Recently, we are seeing social media polls becoming a growing trend on various channels. The newer poll features we have seen have been on Instagram and Facebook. In October, Instagram added a polling sticker feature for stories. In November, Facebook added GIF-supported polls. Additionally, there are polling features on Snapchat and Twitter. These polls are becoming beneficial for brands to engage followers in a simple, creative way.

Diving into some Newer Social Media Polls

More and more, we are seeing the polling stickers on Instagram Stories. You can apply these stickers to any of your Instagram Stories. The stickers are interactive, allowing you to ask a question and view results between two given answers that you provide. The cool thing? You get to see real-time results. As soon as you post a Story, followers can begin voting. Your followers can see which answer choice is in the lead based on a percentage. However, they can’t see who else has voted. The polls on Instagram are available for 24-hours on the Story.

Social media polls differ across the different platforms. For Facebook, we’ve seen some polling features in the past in terms of a survey-related poll option. Recently, Facebook rolled out a GIF-supported poll feature. Facebook is making the polls engaging and fun, versus just plain text like a typical survey. You can create a post and click the “Poll” option, fill in your poll responses, and add a GIF for illustration. For these polls, you can choose however long you want the poll to be open for.

Using Social Media Polls to Engage with Followers

These improved polling features on social media channels are beneficial as far as engagement and marketing. You can post a creative story posing a question that will directly engage your followers. In addition, you can collect data from polls to better gauge target audience’s preferences. Since Facebook has a large range in age demographics, the GIF-supported polls can reach a wide variety of people.

Followers can voice their opinions and become more connected with a brand in a more personal matter. You can find out what your followers want to see more of or what they are expecting. These social media polls allow brands to interact with their followers on a casual, fun basis while still gaining valuable information. The interactive poll features are creating opportunities for brands to engage with followers while getting real-time feedback.