Why Every Business Should Use Twitter Polls

By Lauren McNamara -

With businesses trying to gain endless social media interaction and traction, it can be hard to get the kind of engagements you are looking for. Tweets can get retweets and likes, but one of Twitter’s more recent features, Twitter Polls, allows users to get an insight into the minds of their followers to gain feedback about what people are really thinking.

Here’s how to do it:

Step one: Use the third icon below the tweet box to Add a Poll. Create your tweet. This could be relevant to your business specifically such as a product or service being sold, or something broader such as opinions upon a current event.

Step two: Choose Your Responses. You can now add up to four responses for users to pick from. It is best to try and make these short, as Twitter will constrain the amount of and then give a range of responses for users to pick from.

Step three: Set Your Time Frame. You can make your poll last for whatever amount of time you want up to one week. Usually, users opt for one day, as it is likely people will not see it on their timelines after that time. Then, when you’re ready, hit publish and start to see results.

Top companies such as Air BnB are well renowned for their use of Twitter polls, which sometimes gain thousands of responses. They will often ask their followers their best holiday hotspots for certain cities, meaning they can tailor their accommodation offerings to what their clients want.

It’s not only large companies who can utilise Twitter polls though, any business can use this easy tool to their advantage. You can see real time results from your followers to understand what they’re thinking. Polls are also anonymous, so people are more likely to be honest about what they’re answering than if they were openly using their Twitter handle. They also provide quick feedback which companies can quickly act on, and tailor their social media to what people want to read about.

Top Tips For Creating Twitter Polls

1. Keep them short. Firstly, Twitter has a limit as to how many characters you can publish, so you need to filter this into your decision. But even without the limit, how many people are going to read a long and complicated poll when they’re scrolling through on their lunch break? Leave it short and sweet, and at something that is simple to answer.
2. Try something outside the box. You don’t just have to stick to ideas that revolve around your business, the beauty of Twitter polls is that there is no restraint as to what you can post. The idea of them is that they are slightly random at times, just to get a general idea of what your twitter circle are thinking.
3. Run with current events. Polls which directly benefit your business are obviously great because they do exactly what they say on the tin. However, to maximise engagements it can be useful to play upon current events. A huge event such as Trump becoming president, for example, is a controversial talking point which people are more than happy to engage with on social media.
4. Post at a good time. It sounds like a no brainer, but with Twitter polls, it matters what time you post. According to CoSchedule, the best time for Twitter is between 12 and 3pm Monday- Friday or 5-6pm on Wednesdays. If not these, pick a slot when people are most likely to be online with the available time to answer your poll. If you choose 9am on a Monday, workers are likely to be busy in meetings and catching up with their weekend emails.

Happy poll tweeting!