Do you want to get more engagement on your Instagram account? Are you finding a way to get genuine feedback from your audience and understand more what your audiences want from your channel? Creating Instagram Stories Polls can be an amazing way to grab your audience’s attention and to interact with them. It also helps you to catch the pulse of the audience in a fun and interactive manner.
If you’re not leveraging Instagram Stories Polls, it’s time to jump into it. To get started, there are two types of Poll stickers you can use for your Stories. You can either add two customizable options or pick emojis for your Instagram Stories Poll.
If you’re a newbie in using Instagram Stories Polls, we have here a quick guide to help you out:
How to Add Polls in Your Instagram Stories
- After taking a photo or recording a video, choose the “Polls” icon in the Stickers section, which is visible on the top-right corner of your screen.
- Place the “Poll” Sticker on your post.
- Next, you can add your questions and customize your Poll choices. Moreover, you could also try adding emojis. By default, the options are “Yes” and “No.”
- There is no character limit for the questions that you post, but the responses have to be limited to 22 characters.
- Once you have your questions and responses ready, you can share your Instagram Poll with your friends and family on your Story.
- Once voting starts, you’ll be able to see the results of this poll in real-time.
- To check your results, just go to your Story and swipe up. Then, you will be able to see how your audiences are voting along with the number of views your post has garnered.
- Your Poll will last on Instagram for only 24 hours. If you want to extend the polling time, you have to add your Poll to your Stories Highlight.
Image via Instagram Press
Creative Ways to Use Polls in Instagram Stories
Ever since Instagram launched the Polls feature, brands are coming up with creative ways to boost their engagement using this feature. To spark your creative aspect, let’s take a look at some incredible ideas that you can use Polls in your Instagram Stories.
1. Showcase Your Best Products
Just show, don’t tell. That’s the first rule of marketing. If you want to sell your products, you should resist the temptation to go overboard with selling. Let your product do all the talking. Instead of just listing all the greatest features of your product, show what’s it like to make use of your product.
Being a highly visual platform, Instagram is a good place to show what you’re selling, doing, or working on.
For example, American casual dining restaurant chain, Outback Steakhouse, leverage this strategy to showcase images of their delicious dishes and drinks.
In one of their recent Instagram Stories, they asked their followers if they liked their “Salted Caramel Cheesecake” or “Chocolate Thunder From Down Under” dessert better. On their Instagram page, they frequently put two of their most popular dishes against one another.
Image via Instagram
Without even directly promoting it, they highlighted the best dish they have on offer.
Such Polls are effective because they are creative, interactive, and fun. It’s especially a useful method once you are launching a new product or want to boost the visibility of a specific product. You could also include a discount code on your story to boost sales.
2. Encourage Your Followers to Take a Social Stance
It’s no secret that audiences are now drawn towards a brand’s beliefs and values as much as their products. In fact, 64% of consumers all over the world consider a brand’s beliefs while shopping. Moreover, they could even avoid, switch, or even boycott brands based on their social or political stance.
In case you are not clearly showcasing your brand’s values, you are ultimately going to lose out on customers. Polls are a great way to show people what you believe in. By using Polls, you can also encourage your followers to give their hands to important causes.
Refinery29, a digital media, and entertainment company posted many Stories on Instagram covering the Global Climate Strike in New York. To spread awareness about the event, they even asked their followers in an Instagram Poll if they knew why hundreds of school kids were skipping school.
On one hand, it let audiences get informed about what was happening in New York. On the other hand, it made it clear that they care about the movement by providing it much coverage on their page. In the past, they have also asked their followers to vote in elections through Instagram Polls.
Image via Instagram
3. Make Quizzes to Boost Engagement
Who doesn’t like a bit of trivia in the middle of a boring workday? You can use Polls for quizzes to gain more engagement and to liven up your followers’ day. The best part is you could create a quiz for any topic or niche. It’s informative, educational, engaging, and interesting at the same time.
National Geographic is known to conduct fun quizzes on Instagram. Sometimes, they even use Polls in their Instagram Stories to make buzz regarding their new show or episode.
Recently, they ran a series of Polls in the form of a quiz to promote Yellowstone Live, their adventure-filled live TV event. It’s a clever marketing method because it’s so subtle in its promotion.
Before you create a quiz for your Instagram channel, make sure it aligns with your brand identity and your overall content strategy.
