Instagram Tips & Resources
By Alyssa Gagliardi
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Updated on October 12, 2022
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5 minute read
Superstar engagement + data galore = Instagram polls.
Published March 8, 2022
Instagram Poll stickers are one of the easiest ways to engage your Instagram community.
From collecting feedback to gauging interest for an upcoming launch, the quick interaction can help inform your content strategy.
We’re breaking down how to use polls on Instagram Stories, plus five fresh ideas to drive engagement.
What Is an Instagram Stories Poll?Instagram Poll stickers are pretty straightforward: they let you poll your audience on your Instagram Stories.
Simply ask a question and share up to four different options for your community to choose from.
You’re essentially collecting data and driving engagement in one go. It’s a win-win.
FYI: Later is a social media management tool trusted by over 4M businesses, creators, and social media managers. Sign up for free to plan and automatically publish your social media posts today:
How to Add an Instagram Stories Poll StickerIt's quick and easy to add a poll to your Instagram Stories. Here's how to do it:
Click the "+" icon at the top of your Instagram Home feed and select "Story."
Next, tap the large white circle to take a photo (press and hold to film a video), or select existing media from your camera roll.
Locate the sticker icon (a smiley face) at the top of your screen to open the Instagram Stories sticker tray, and scroll until you see the "Poll" sticker.
Tap “Ask a Question…” above the poll to type your question. You can also select the color wheel at the top of the screen to customize the sticker.
Tap each answer to edit the different options users will be able to choose from.
Once finished, tap "Done" in the top right corner to exit the poll editor.
Press and drag to move the sticker, or use a pinching motion to resize it.
Post your Story and let the responses roll in.
Once your Instagram Story is live, you can check the results of your poll by swiping up on the published Story and selecting the eye icon.
Simple as that.
Start scheduling your Instagram Stories in advance with Later today — available on all paid plans.
5 Ways to Use Instagram Polls to Increase EngagementHere are five ways to boost engagement using Instagram Poll stickers:
Promote a Blog Post, Article, or Guide
Create Suspense for an Upcoming Launch or Collab
Gather Feedback from Your Community
Play a Game of "This or That"
Educate Your Community
Recently dropped a blog or informational guide? Create a fun quiz about the topic using the Instagram Poll sticker.
Once you’ve got them hooked, round off your final Story with a link sticker inviting your audience to learn more.
By creatively introducing your audience to your content, you’re bound to drive more traffic to your site.
DID YOU KNOW: You can also drive traffic to your blog or website by popping the link in your Instagram bio using Later’s Linkin.bio tool.
Idea #2: Create Suspense for an Upcoming Launch or CollabIf you have something exciting in the works, teasing the news with an Instagram Poll can help build excitement.
For brands launching a new product, try sharing a photo or short video with a poll asking your community if they want to see more.
If you’re a creator teaming up with another creator for a collab, create a poll inviting your community to guess what you’re working on together.
TIP: Add a countdown sticker to your Instagram Story so followers get a notification when your launch or collab goes live.
Instagram Polls are a fun and informal way to learn what your audience wants.
From gauging interest about new content ideas to collecting feedback on a potential partnership — let them know you value their opinion.
For example, creator Jaclyn Forbes shared an Instagram Story asking her followers if they were interested in shopping her outfit.
When 92% of voters tapped “yes”, she posted Stories with links to shop her OOTD.
The takeaway? Give your followers the reins and let them guide your next post.
Choose one: scheduling your posts in advance, or posting on the fly?
Everyone loves a lighthearted poll, and a game of "This or That" is the perfect avenue to learn more about your audience.
Simply poll two similar options and invite them to choose their preference:
Curious about your community's skincare routine? Ask them if they prefer sheet masks or clay masks.
And if you're wondering whether they think pineapple belongs on pizza, ask them in a poll (for the record.
.. it doesn't).
How much does your community know about you and your niche? Test their knowledge with a handful of polls.
For example, if you’re a sneaker brand, quiz your followers about different shoe styles.
Bonus points if you plug your products too!
Gamifying the education process can help generate engagement and conversations in your DMs. Plus, it creates another way to interact with your followers.
And there you have it!
Whether you’re looking to build brand awareness or learn more about your target audience, creating polls are a great engagement-driver.
So, are you ready to experiment with Instagram Poll stickers?
We have a feeling you're voting "Yes."
ICYMI: You can plan, schedule, and publish your Instagram Stories in advance with Later. Create an account today:
About the Author
Alyssa is a Toronto-based creative writer and Content Marketer at Later.
If you can’t reach her, she’s probably glueing gems to her face or thrifting. Keep up with her nonsense on Instagram – @alygeethnx.
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© 2022 Later. All Rights Reserved.
Whether they're just for fun or for informal research purposes, Instagram Polls are a fun way to interact with your Instagram followers. You can customize the question and the two responses (or stick to a straight-forward yes or no) and choose a background from your camera roll.
Once responses start rolling in, you can see how your followers voted, and even get a breakdown on how many people voted for each option and who exactly voted for each. After you collect responses, you can share the results with your followers so they can also see how people voted overall (but not who voted for what).
Here's how it's done.
How to create an Instagram Poll on your Story1.
Open the Instagram app. Tap your profile icon at the top-left of the screen or swipe right to add a Story.
2. Take a photo by tapping the circle on the bottom of the screen or choose a photo or video from your camera roll to post by tapping the small picture icon at the bottom-left of the screen. You can also tap the "Aa" Create icon to pull up a blank background.
Choose a blank background or a photo from your camera roll as the backdrop for your poll.
Abigail Abesamis Demarest 3. Tap the Stickers icon, which looks like a square smiley face, at the top of the screen to pull up a menu of post additions.
Tap this icon to add a poll, location tag, GIFs, and more. Abigail Abesamis Demarest4. In the pop-up menu, tap the Poll icon to ask a question with two answer prompts. To ask a sliding scale question, tap the Sliding Scale icon, which should be located next to the Poll sticker option.
5. Tap the Ask a question… field, then type your question or a quick phrase on whatever topic you want people to vote on. For a regular poll, tap the Yes and No boxes to change the responses, or keep the boxes as-is if that works for your question. For a sliding scale poll, select an emoji to add to the sliding scale.
You can edit all three fields in a poll.
Abigail Abesamis Demarest 6. When you're finished editing the question and response fields, tap Done.
7. Tap Your Story to share your poll with all your followers, or Close Friends to share the poll with your Close Friends list. You can also search for a friend or choose one from the Suggested list to send the poll via direct message.
Once your poll is ready to be posted, tap "Your Story" to share it with all your followers. Abigail Abesamis Demarest How to view and share results of your Instagram Story Poll1.
To view the results of an Instagram poll you've created, open the Instagram app and tap your profile icon at the top-left of the screen to view your Story.
2. On the Story slide with the poll, you'll see the overall results. For more information on how many people voted and what each person voted for, swipe up on the Story slide or tap Seen by on the bottom-left of the screen.
After people start voting on your poll, you'll see the overall results on the Story slide. Abigail Abesamis Demarest3. To share the results of your poll to your Story, tap Share Results, then select Your Story or Close Friends.
Poll your followers about fun, random topics or ask them what types of content or formats they prefer on your feed.1. Open the Instagram app on your device and tap the Messages icon in the top-right corner.
2. Select a recent conversation or tap the New Message icon in the top-right corner.
3.
On the message screen, tap the blue camera icon next to the textbox at the bottom of the screen.
4. Take a photo or select one from your camera roll, and tap the Stickers icon, which looks like a square smiley face, in the top-right corner of the screen.
5. Select Poll in the pop-up menu.
6. A poll box will appear over your image — type your poll question into the Ask a question section, and tap inside the Yes and No boxes to change the answer options.
7. When your poll is ready, tap Send at the bottom-middle of the screen.
Note: When you send an Instagram Poll through direct messages, the poll is not interactive, meaning the recipients will not be able to answer the poll by selecting an answer option in the image. They will have to give their answers via a separate message beneath your poll message.
Abigail Abesamis Demarest
Abigail Abesamis Demarest is a contributing writer for Insider based in New York. She loves a good glazed donut and nerdy deep dives into the science of food and how it's made.
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Polls appeared in Instagram* Stories for a long time, they are actively used by ordinary users, bloggers and large companies.
For a business, if it learns to organically use the possibilities of social networks, poll stickers can help a lot with the involvement of subscribers.
In the article “Instagram Stories Basics*: Posting Rules and Useful Features” we talk about different ways of creating stories, secrets and life hacks of the format. nine0003
Instagram* has four types of poll stickers to engage followers in Stories:
A question with 2-4 possible answers. After choosing, the subscriber will immediately know which option is correct. Let's see how to add all these polls to Instagram stories* and how to use them for business.
To post a question, go to your story, upload your photo or video, and then select the "Questions" widget in the settings. You can choose the color of the widget, as well as increase or decrease it.
Ask people to ask you questions and post their answers in StoriesTo view the responses to your questions, click in the lower right corner of the post in Stories - the responses will be there. You can scroll through all the responses or share one of them. nine0003
If you'd like to share a response or answer one of your subscribers' questions, open the response you want, then click Share Response. A form will appear in which there will be your question and the answer to it. You can choose your background, as well as add your comment and publish it in stories.
To add a vote, go to stories, add your photo or video. Go to settings and select the "Polls" widget. As with questions, polls can be color-coded and resized. nine0003
In the survey, you write the text of your question and two possible answers. It is better if they are short - the fields for answers are very small. Everything, poll can be published!
Subscribers are offered a choice of two optionsAfter the survey is published, you will see what percentage of people voted for a particular answer. In addition, you can open the analytics of your story and check which subscribers chose this or that option. And the statistics also show a clear number of those who voted and saw the stories with the survey. nine0003
To add a voting scale, go to the stories section, select an image or video for the background, and then select the voting scale icon in the settings.
You can change the background and size of it, and also choose the emoji that will be used in the timeline.
After you place the voting scale in your story, your subscribers will start moving the slider to express their reaction to the question. nine0003
By clicking on the statistics icon, you can see exactly how the people who viewed the publication voted, as well as send them a message in direct. In addition, the total number of viewers and voters will be indicated there.
To add a sticker quiz or sticker test, go to your story, select a background video or photo. In the stickers, find the widget that says "Test". Give the form a name or write a question, suggest answers and indicate the correct one. You can change the number of options, color and size of the window. nine0003 In the statistics, you can see how the subscribers answered and who gave the correct answer.
The subscriber will be able to choose one of the proposed options and immediately find out if he voted correctly.
The account owner has access to statistics where you can see what answer was given most often, what each user chose, which of the subscribers chose the correct option. To see it, swipe up on the story.
Test stickers are suitable for conducting surveys, intellectual and entertaining quizzes, competitions, and data collection. nine0003
You can create stories with polls and other stickers in the delayed posting mode using the SMMplanner service. All you need is to register and choose the appropriate tariff. The blog will help with the search for ideas for Instagram* Stories, and the service will help with the technical side of the implementation.
Great help! You ask subscribers a direct question, and they answer it. They answer because people generally love surveys, tests and all that.
And also because the question is asked not in a post, but in a story, where most of the content is generated by ordinary people, and there is no feeling that “this store is asking me for show.” nine0003
You can use the results of polls and polls on Instagram* for internal research of the audience of your business, as well as simply fulfill the desires of your audience: for example, suggest in stories to choose which drink will be seasonal this winter - salted caramel latte or gingerbread latte . Feedback from people will help you decide.
Companies actively use questions and voting in stories to engage their audienceWhat else do polls on Instagram* do is to draw the attention of your followers to values and ideas that are meaningful to you. You can ask questions to people in such a way that, by the answers, they feel like a single group that shares your values. nine0003
In addition, you can invite people to ask you questions, and from these questions to collect ideas for content, and write about what your target audience is most interested in.
You will learn a lot about your audience if you just ask them. Questions and polls - it's so easy!
Here are some story poll ideas that can engage your audience:
Invite people to choose which of the two promotions they want or which product they dream of choosing as a seasonal item. The most popular option and worth using! 
People are not so interested in reading just facts about you, and through polls and voting, they are given the opportunity to express their reaction. Compare: “We opened on the Kitai-Gorod metro station” or “We opened on the Kitai-Gorod metro station! And which coffee shop is more convenient for you to get to, the old one or the new one? Options: Kitay-gorod or Pushkinskaya. Trust me, you'll get a lot more feedback if you ask questions! Try different options for working with voting, study how your subscribers react to them, and apply this engagement tool to your business. nine0003
The article has been updated. First published November 12, 2018
It is impossible to view Instagram Stories * and not stumble upon a request to select an answer. Since the social network introduced new two-choice poll stickers in the fall of 2017, every second Story is full of them! We will find out what is the reason for such love for them, as well as:
Instead of standard answers, you can write something short. After clicking on one of the buttons, you will see the percentage of answers so far.
Or you can get creative: replace words with emojisInstagram* polls in Stories are used for two purposes:
There are, of course, many more real reasons for using surveys. But we divide them into two directions, based on the feedback we expect from the audience. To get an opinion or to attract attention - it turns out something like this.
Along with the polls, you received response statistics.
Statistics show how many votes were given for one or another answer option; from this data, the total number of voters can be calculated. There is also detailed information for each user - see who answered how. nine0003 Go to History and below you will see those who looked at it. Clicking on them will open statistics
There are two main tabs in statistics:
The views show the number of voters for a particular answer, and the lists of voters show a detailed report of those who clicked which answer.
In addition, by clicking on the up arrow, you can make a post from the History to the feed. nine0003
If you didn't have time to see the results of the survey, and the Stories have already expired, go to the archives of your account, all old Stories with the results are stored there.
On the main page of the account, go to settings, then to the archive, and select the Stories archive Poll-evaluation .
Make a poll with a one-word question "Do you like it?" or "Do you agree?" For such surveys, the standard “Yes” and “No” will do. You can ask about everything. I often see questions about content, account or new photos: “What is the best photo processing?” (“Before / After”), “Tell me more about the psychology of personal relationships?” (“Yes / No”), “Evaluate the quality of our manager’s work” (“Good / Bad”). nine0003 Try to ask more or less important things, not everything :)
Research target audience . Run polls to help you understand what your audience likes best. For example, ask what content your subscribers prefer - “Video” or “Photo”, which coffee tastes better - with milk or black. Do not be afraid to add a little provocation, for example, ask who cooks better (drives a car, understands SMM, and so on) - men or women.
Audience Opinion Survey ExamplesFind out intentions
When you are going to broadcast live, run a marathon, or just make a series of posts on a topic, it's good to know the interest of your audience on the beach.
More examples of interesting polls in Stories:
Before starting the game, we warn and give a hint An example of competently adapting a regular test to the poll format in StoriesIf you want to test using the appropriate sticker, read about it and not only in the article "How and why to conduct surveys" in our blog.
Quiz . Quizzes, unlike tests, involve a question that has a correct answer. This answer can be given immediately after the question, or some time later. Many linguistic bloggers launch surveys in the style of “What is the right way - are you calling or are you calling?”. Try doing something similar in your account.
And don't forget to answer! nine0003 With quizzes, users can not only test their knowledge, but also learn something useful
"Warming up" for sale . In marketing theory, there is such a thing as "customer temperature", which refers to the readiness of the client to purchase. Let's use this theory and try to warm up the audience with the help of polls. Place two products on the first slide and ask your audience to choose the product they like best. On the next slide, leave one of the same products, plus offer a discount on it. If a person has already admitted that he likes the product, the likelihood of a purchase will be higher. nine0003
The same rule applies to a new post in the feed that you want to pay attention to.
Increasing interest in the questions described in the post Encouragement to read for those who answer yesEncouragement to listen to information
It happens when a blogger wants to announce something or just share something, but a long speech not everyone will listen in stories.
Polls are added as the story progresses to grab the user's attention. nine0003 In this way, the viewer willy-nilly catch their eye and ask what they are discussing
It can be different. You can cutely ask about some little things, or you can make your audience worry about you and frantically follow your stories.
Draw attention to Stories either by beauty or sharp emotionsThere is also the following trick: you need to tell your audience about something, but the poll seems to be of no use, so you put ... two identical answers! nine0003 A very popular trick: you get a reaction to the Story just because people see the poll and “get stuck” on it
What can go wrong if everything is nice, neat and interesting?
First, you need to remember that everyone's smartphones are different, screens are also different sizes, and if text or poll buttons on your phone are not overlapped by the profile name or the "Send a message" window, then this may not be for everyone.
Therefore, when placing a survey on the screen, remember that it is not desirable to place it at the very bottom and at the very top. nine0003
Secondly, if your text is in any way related to the pandemic, then the corresponding inscription will appear on the History at the bottom, and everything will be blocked.
Be sure to view Stories after postingCreate a basic Story with a photo or video.
Access the sticker menu by clicking on the sticker icon. In the list, find the "Survey" sticker if you have the English version of Instagram installed*.
Once you attach the poll sticker, you can ask a question and change the button names. nine0003 Answers that are too long should be written in the title, and emoticons should be added to the buttons themselves - this way the poll looks neater
If the poll requires two or more photos to be shown to viewers, the options are as follows:
You can add multiple photos using the corresponding sticker. The downside is that you have to scale down and position the images on the screen using your fingers, and it's not always possible to do it beautifully and the way you intended.
The minus of the second option - collage - is significant: you can place the photo only in the designated windows. If you want to place two photos from the bottom, you will not succeed, since the social network starts posting photos from rectangle No. 1 and ends with No. 4. And when you try to delete, for example, No. 2, numbers 3 and 4 move up. nine0003
The disadvantage of the third option is a long preparation. Let's take a look at the fourth option below.
Go to SMMplanner and start creating a new Story.
For this, the service has a separate beautiful button.
When you click, a window will open with a phone screen In the first tab, select the account where the Story will be published, in the second - set up the background applications. nine0003 In the third tab, select the "Survey" sticker
Write the question itself and customize the answers, then click OK. Now it remains to set the time for the release of the Story and publish it by adding a poll to the Stories!
Let's add some images to the History. There are two options in SMMplanner:
If you want the text color of the question to be different or located in a different place, use the Text sticker to write the question. And in the “Poll” sticker, leave the field for the question empty.
Select the Canva service in the background section and create a cool Story with a question Click "Insert in Story Maker" and the created image will be displayed in the SMMplanner window.
