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The new Twitter poll feature offers marketers a new way to research audiences and increase engagement.
Marketers can create two-choice polls from the compose box on each user’s home page. Polls remain live for 24 hours, and votes are anonymous. During a poll, the feature shows how much time remains to vote and how many people have voted. Poll results can be viewed publicly after the poll is completed. Users can retweet polls and vote in retweeted polls. The polls provide marketers with an easy way to conduct audience research.
Twitter had already offered ways to participate in polls. Users can tweet questions and track replies, tally hashtag votes, or ask followers to favorite or retweet to vote. However, the new poll feature is more advanced and convenient. Polls are a native feature — meaning the polls are embedded directly into the tweets, rather than having to use Twitter Cards.
Many Possible Poll Questions
Twitter polls can help marketers increase engagement with their followers in several ways, writes Ash Read at Buffer in his guide on using Twitter polls. Brands can request product feedback, predictions, reactions to real-time events, opinions on news stories and responses to blog posts. “This quick, lean approach will take minimal time and give you results in 24 hours or less,” Read states. “From your results you can then look at whether or not you’d like to further explore your original hypothesis.”
It’s too early to tell exactly how much the new polling feature will increase engagement with brands. Ryan Hoover at Product Hunt, an early poll tester, said his polls experienced remarkably high engagement rates. One poll engaged 10% of his followers. However, the figure is probably inflated due to the feature’s novelty, he cautions.
Anonymous Votes
Because no one can know how people vote, brands cannot target users based on their votes. While that may be a disadvantage for marketers, it may entice more people to participate in polls since they need not fear receiving spam or other unwanted messages from brands, says Drew Olanoff at TechCrunch. Brands will still use the feature abundantly, he predicts. News outlets will also use it, especially as presidential elections approach.
Some marketers view the feature skeptically. Although brands will love the feature, Twitter users may not, Greg Eckelman, senior strategy director at We Are Social, told Campaign US. If consumers feel they are not receiving relevant information from brands and only getting polled, they may ignore or unfollow them.
“Polls could be potentially disruptive to the flow for consumers and the type of information they get from brands,” Eckelman said.
To be most effective, the polling feature must be part of a full-service and engaging brand presence on Twitter.
Bottom Line: Twitter polls offer marketers a new tool to engage followers and research their audiences. Whether the Tweeting public continues to participate in polls in significant numbers after the feature’s novelty wears off remains to be seen.
William J. Comcowich founded and served as CEO of CyberAlert LLC, the predecessor of Glean.info. He is currently serving as Interim CEO and member of the Board of Directors. Glean.info provides customized media monitoring, media measurement and analytics solutions across all types of traditional and social media.
