Creating a Poll in your Instagram Stories can be a great way to grab your audience’s attention and to interact with them. It also allows 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 dive in. To begin with, there are two kinds of Poll stickers you can use for your Stories. You can either add two customisable options or pick emojis for your Instagram Stories Poll. If you’re new to using Instagram Stories Polls, here is a quick guide to help you out:
7 Creative Ways to Use Instagram Stories Polls:
How to Add Polls in Your Instagram Stories
After taking a photo or a video, select the “Polls” icon from 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 customise your Poll choices. In addition to this, you could also try adding emojis. By default, the options are “Yes” and “No.” While there is no character limit for the questions that you post, 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. Once voting starts, you’ll be able to see results in real-time. To check your results, you need to go to your Story and swipe up. There you will be able to see how your friends are voting along with the number of views your post has garnered. Your Poll on Instagram will last for only 24 hours. If you want to extend the polling time, you should add your Poll to your Stories Highlight.
Creative Ways to Use Polls in Instagram Stories
Ever since Instagram introduced the Polls feature, brands are coming up with creative ways to boost their engagement using this feature. To spark your creative side, let’s take a look at some ways in which you can use Polls in your Instagram Stories.
1. Showcase Your Best Products
Show, don’t tell. That’s the first rule of marketing. If you want to sell your products, you need to resist the temptation to go overboard with selling. Let your product do all the talking. Instead of just listing all the best features of your product, show what’s it like to use your product. Being a highly visual platform, Instagram is a great place to show what you’re selling, doing, or working on. 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 users if they liked their “Salted Caramel Cheesecake” or “Chocolate Thunder From Down Under” dessert better. On their Instagram page, they frequently pit two of their most popular dishes against one another. Without even directly promoting it, they highlighted the best food they have on offer. Such Polls work because they are creative, interactive, and fun. It’s especially a useful tactic if you are launching a new product or want to boost the visibility of a specific product. You could also include a discount code 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. What’s more, they could even avoid, switch, or even boycott brands based on their social or political stance. If you are not clearly showcasing your brand’s values, you are ultimately going to lose out on customers. Polls are a great way to tell people what you believe in. By using Polls, you can also encourage your followers to do their bit for important causes. Refinery29, a digital media and entertainment company, published several Stories on Instagram covering the Global Climate Strike in New York. To spread awareness about the event, they even asked their followers if they knew why hundreds of school kids were skipping school in an Instagram Poll. On one hand, it encouraged audiences to 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 a lot of coverage on their page. In the past, they have also encouraged their followers to vote in elections through Instagram Polls.
3. Make Quizzes to Boost Engagement
Who doesn’t like a bit of trivia in the middle of a dull workday? You can use Polls for quizzes to boost engagement and to liven up your followers’ day. The best part is you could conduct a quiz for any topic or niche. It’s informative, educational, engaging, and fun at the same time. National Geographic is known to conduct interesting quizzes on Instagram. Sometimes, they even use Polls in their Instagram Stories to create 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 tactic because it’s so subtle in its promotion. Before you design a quiz for your Instagram channel, make sure it aligns with your brand identity and your overall content strategy.
4. Ask Your Followers What They Want
Understanding your customers’ needs and mindsets is essential to the success of any marketing strategy. While conducting research is necessary, sometimes it’s best to ask your followers directly what they want. It could help you make smarter decisions related to product development and marketing. For instance, you could ask your followers if they would rather see a new line of beachwear or evening gowns. Or maybe you could ask them to pick between two flavors for your next chocolate. It could be anything. You can also gain insights into your audience’s preferences through email surveys. However, they are time-consuming and can seem off-putting. Polls can come in handy here because they require little time. You can also seamlessly plug add an Instagram Poll in with your other Stories. That way, your followers will organically see it while they are spending time on Instagram. Benefits Cosmetics uses this strategy in an unconventional way to keep their followers hooked on their live Stories. As you can see from the screenshot below, they have created an Instagram Poll to ask what Lauren, the makeup artist, should do next. It makes their followers feel like they have a say and that their opinions matter to the brand. Plus, it makes them more invested in watching the videos, eventually driving engagement.
5. Promote Your Website Content
In 2017, Instagram introduced a new feature that allows users to add links to their Instagram Stories. This made it easy for brands and influencers to send redirect traffic from Instagram to their blogs. When you see a “swipe up” option in any Instagram Story, that’s an indicator that you will be redirected to a blog or website link. This feature can be combined with a Poll to drive more engagement. Take a leaf from Who What Wear’s Instagram strategy. As you can see in the screenshot below, they created a quiz question. To find out the answer, users need to go to the blog post. Not only does it engage their audience, but it also rouses their curiosity. This is a great way to drive traffic back to your blog or website.
6. Ask For Feedback
If you want to improve, you need to listen to honest feedback intently. Instagram Polls make it easy for you to find out what your audience really thinks about your products. Australia-based chocolate company, Perfection Chocolates, conducts Polls to get some quick feedback. It’s an easy way to gauge the audience’s reaction. You could ask for feedback on different products, your delivery service, or even event ideas. You can get as creative as you want. You may not always get the expected results. But in the long run, it can help you understand your audience in a better way. To make this strategy more effective, you could also share another post where you ask for their opinion. Encourage your audience to be honest so that you can improve their customer experience.
7. Ask Relatable and Entertaining Questions
Not all Polls need to ask serious questions. You can also use Polls to give your audience a good laugh. Or you could make them see the funny side of a mundane situation. If you’re looking to drive engagement, humour is the way to go. The Knot, an American wedding planning company, asks entertaining questions that are also relatable. And they use emoji sliders to give their audience more options to choose from.
Final Thoughts
Move over boring Instagram Stories. It’s time to jazz them up by adding an element of fun to them. Polls can take your Instagram Stories to the next level. They are easy to create, interactive, and don’t require much thought or time. That’s why they are a great way to engage your audience on Instagram. Using Polls in Instagram Stories, you can showcase your new products and even ask your audience for genuine feedback. What’s more, you can also create fun quizzes to boost your brand awareness, visibility, and overall engagement. If you’re not using Polls in Instagram Stories yet, it’s time to jump in on this powerful marketing tool.
