Quick Guide To Instagram Polls (& 4 Creative Ways To Use Them)

Instagram polls are a great (and super fun) way to interact with your followers on the platform.

You can ask for feedback on aspects of your business and find out more information on who your target audience is.

You can also use these polls to give your followers a glimpse into your company’s persona.

If you want some tips on how to successfully use polls, here is a complete guide to show you how you can get more out of this simple, but effective feature.

How Instagram Polls Work

As long as you understand how to add Instagram Stories to your profile, then adding a poll will be a breeze. It is a simple sticker addition to your Story that you can add over a clear background or a selected image.

The sticker allows you to ask a question with two answers available. The answers can be yes or no, names, emojis, or anything else shorter than 28 characters. It is completely up to you what you type into the blocks.

Once you upload it to your story, viewers will be able to select one of the two options (hopefully Instagram allows for three or more options later on). After selecting an option they will see the percentage of people who have chosen each option.

As a moderator, you will see who chose each option and how many people have voted. This can give you valuable insight into your followers’ interests.

When the 24 hours are almost up, you can share the results on your Story. This will show viewers the same poll but the results will be shown on each option and viewers won’t be able to vote anymore.

This gives you an extra 24 hours of advertising from that same story, which is even better if you have added a swipe-up link to your website.

How to Set up an Instagram Story Poll

Setting up an Instagram poll is easy, and once you have your idea of what your poll will say, it only takes a few minutes.

Luckily, we will give you some great ideas to start you off. So your job here is really going to be easy.

Step 1: Open Instagram and swipe from left to right to access your story.

Step 2: Either take an image you want as a background or choose an image to upload by clicking on the image icon in the bottom left corner. You can also select “Create” on the left-hand side if you want a clear background.

Step 3: Select the sticker icon at the top – the square-shaped sticker with a smiley face.

Step 4: On the stickers page, you will see one that says “POLL”. Select this.

Step 5: The sticker is now placed over your selected image, background, or video.

Step 6: Click on the “Ask a question” section and type in your question or statement. Then do the same in the “Yes” and “No” blocks to type in the two options your followers will choose between.

Step 7: You can adjust polls like any other sticker, by moving it around the image or resizing it as needed.

Step 8: Post your story and enjoy the interaction with your followers.

Girls sitting on ground outside looking at phone

Why Use Them?

Polls are a simple yet effective marketing tactic.

Instagram Stories alone are a great tool to market your business not only informally but also cost-effectively. You can easily make announcements, share more about your business, and show how trustworthy your company is.

Using a poll on your Stories gives your digital marketing strategy an extra layer of all these elements. Most importantly, the poll allows your followers to interact with you and give you valuable feedback.

This lets you find out exactly what your audience likes and dislikes about your products or services. It can also help you identify what they would like to see from you in the future. As a result, you can improve your business strategy and fast-track your success!

4 Creative Ways To Use Instagram Polls To Engage Your Audience

There are many awesome ways to increase audience engagement with Instagram polls and here are just a few of them to get your creative juices flowing.

1. Get to Know Your Audience

Polls are a great way to get to know your audience on a more personal level. You can find out what they like or dislike to add to your market research. It can also help you create more individualized profiles for personalized marketing approaches.

For example:

“Who’s ready for summer!?”

“Mee!! Warm weather rocks!” or “Coats and cuddles rather!”

2. Direct Traffic to Your Website

Since Instagram added the swipe-up link to websites, businesses have a new way to direct traffic to their site. Using an Instagram poll is a creative way to do this.

You can craft a question that allows your followers to guess the right answer. Then in your next story tell them to swipe up to find out the answer and link to a blog post on the topic.

3. Ask for Product Feedback

Find out how popular (or not) a new product is by asking the very people who actually buy your products. You can gain valuable feedback from this to determine which are your most popular products and to find out how well a new product is doing.

Try something like this:

“Do y’all like product A?”

“Best product EVER!” or “Nah, not for me!”

4. Give Your Customers a Say

You could also use Instagram polls to involve your audience in the design of your next product. You can upload images to let them see the options and create excitement for the launch too. This interaction also allows your buyers to feel heard.

Try this:

“New bag dropping soon!”

“Purple” or “Turquoise”