The best social media campaigns involve several channels of communication with existing and potential clients.
What you may gain from including polls into your social media plan
Polls and contests are integral parts of the social strategy of the most popular Facebook sites. It has been reported by Econsultancy that both Coca-Cola and Starbucks often poll their followers with questions. In an effort to better comprehend the consumer experience, “some organisations have already discontinued surveys,” as stated by newBrandAnalytics.
The success of your company depends on your ability to successfully communicate with your target audience. On top of that, Facebook allows you to reach a huge number of people, many of whom may not have participated in “conventional” surveys in the past (i.e., those shown on websites or delivered through email).
No need to be concerned about “bothering” your admirers, as they have already shown their interest by “liking” your page. Why not let them weigh in on your current offerings and future feature rollouts, the kinds of content and service they want to find on your site, and the overall level of pleasure your customers have with your company?
Now that you have an idea of why it’s a good idea to conduct an audience poll, let’s dive into the nuts and bolts of doing so by looking at the many methods now accessible, from the most rudimentary to those with more advanced capabilities.
Please note that you may always “poll” your audience by posting a question as a status update, as seen below, before we go into the list.
Tool No. 1: A Vote
Overall, Poll’s feature set is rather appealing, with the app boasting that it is the “most extensively used” polling app. With Poll, you can build a free, ad-supported poll, add a tab to your profile dedicated to your poll, and view information about the people who took part in your poll. Optionally deleting app page advertisements and enabling responders to provide comments as they answer your questions are paid features.
Also, the app stores your polls so you can access them whenever you like and even reuse them if you so choose. Some cool paid features include in-built poll promotion and the option to make “liking” your page a prerequisite for voting in a poll.
Facebook polls are Tool No. 2.
Another app that claims to be “the most popular” in its category is Polls for Facebook.
The poll maker may do things like select the question type (multiple choice, text, just one correct answer, multiple correct, add drop-down responses, etc.), customise the look of the questions (by, for example, adding photos), and send personalised thank you emails to the poll’s participants (available only in the premium version).
One small negative is that, unlike the first app on the list, there is not as much in the way of documentation and instructions, so you’ll have to give it a try to get a sense for how it works.
The Third Tool: Polldaddy
You can trust on Polldaddy’s reliability and security because it was built by the same team who created WordPress. The app’s advanced features allow its users to make polls, surveys, and quizzes that can be distributed via the web, electronic mail, social media, and more.
Users of Polldaddy can alter the aesthetics of their polls (by including media like images and videos or modifying the CS), change the format of their questions (by selecting from 14 different question types and defining a list of possible answers), enable or disable privacy settings, and filter and report on poll responses (e.g. exporting raw data into Excel, PDF, CSV, Google Docs, and XML format).
Cup.li, Device No. 4
The Cup.li app manages to be feature-rich while being intuitive to use.
Designed for “deep marketing analysis,” it provides the same features as competing apps while extending the ability to conduct a private interview, choose the format of your questions (one answer, multiple answers, matrix), narrow your survey’s audience based on demographics like age, gender, marital status, and level of education, and more.
Advice and useful links
If you’ve been on the fence about using polls on your Facebook page, this overview should have convinced you that there are a number of options, any one of which is likely to make it easier to collect useful data from your followers.
Here are a few places to go if you need help thinking of questions to ask or figuring out how to organise them:
Examples of social media marketing (including the use of polls) from Hapa, an app developer in Japan, o2, a mobile phone service provider in the United Kingdom, and KIA, a well-known automotive manufacturer (a former Nestle Brand).
Internet surveys as a means of boosting your social media presence; see the Social Media Examiner’s article on the topic.
Lastly, despite the fact that social media websites have introduced new means to “listen,” it is difficult to know what customers are thinking and why they are behaving in a certain way. The language of a poll’s questions, while seemingly inconsequential, can have a major impact on the survey’s overall results.
Keep in mind that both individuals and enterprises need to have a variety of sales and marketing channels and tactics at their disposal and employ a mix of them, taking into account the benefits and drawbacks of each.