How to create a poll on instagram story


a Complete Guide to Polling Your Followers

  • To make an Instagram Poll, start by creating a new Story post by swiping right on Instagram's home screen.
  • Ask a yes or no question or any question with two options, then share the poll to your Story.
  • View the results of your poll at any time within 24 hours of posting by swiping up on the Story slide.

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 Story

1. Open the Instagram app. Tap your profile icon at the top-left of the screen or swipe right to add a Story. 

If you don't have any live Stories, you can create a new one by tapping your profile icon. Abigail Abesamis Demarest

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 Demarest

4. 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. 

Select "Poll" or the sliding scale from the list of options. Abigail Abesamis Demarest

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 Poll

1. 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 Demarest

3. To share the results of your poll to your Story, tap Share Results, then select Your Story or Close Friends.

You can see a detailed view of the poll results, with an option to share them. Abigail Abesamis Demarest

Ideas for Instagram Polls For sliding scale polls, you can customize the emoji used. Abigail Abesamis Demarest
  • This or that: Give your followers two options and ask them to choose which one they prefer. Poll your followers about fun, random topics or ask them what types of content or formats they prefer on your feed.
  • Yes or no: Ask a yes or no question to gauge how your followers feel about specific topics. Again, you can go the random route or ask more curated questions to gauge interest in specific subjects when it comes to your content.
  • Sliding scale: Rather than a straightforward yes or no, or having to choose between two different options, a sliding scale allows your followers to choose where they fall on a sliding scale in response to your question.

How to send an Instagram Poll via direct message

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. 

Tap the blue camera icon to take a picture and add a poll to it. Grace Eliza Goodwin/Insider

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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How to Create Polls on Instagram in 2022 (Easiest Guide)

Instagram Stories has offered a poll option for the longest time, giving you a fun feature to interact with your followers on the app. But the polls feature has been barebones, limiting you to only two response options. Well, Instagram has finally given the polls feature within the app a massive upgrade. With the latest update, the company has introduced a bunch of features focused on Instagram’s chat feature, along with the option to create polls in group chats. The revamped poll option has also been extended to the Stories section. With that said, let’s take a look at the steps for how you can create polls on Instagram for Android and iOS.

Create Polls on Instagram (2022)

Table of Contents

Create Instagram Polls in Stories (Android & iOS)

1. Open Instagram’s story creation interface by swiping right on the home screen. Then, click a picture or record a video and tap on the sticker icon at the top-right corner of the screen. From the sticker tab, tap on “Poll” to create a new Instagram poll.

2. With the latest update, you are not limited to two responses and can add multiple options to the poll. Once you have added the required option, tap “Done” at the top right corner. After that, tap the “Your story” button to add the poll to your Instagram Story. Your Viewers can then tap on the appropriate option to vote in your poll.

Check and Share Poll Results in Instagram Stories

1. To check and share the results of your poll as a separate Story, all you have to do is open the Instagram Story with the poll and swipe up. From the pop-up menu, tap on “Share results” to bring up the results as a new Story.

2. From the story creation interface, you can choose to add additional text, stickers, and more. Once you are satisfied, tap the “Your story” button to share the results.

Create Instagram Polls in DMs (Android & iOS)

Before we look at the steps to create and share polls in Instagram chats, it is important to mention that the poll option is only available in group chats and not individual DMs. With that said, let’s take a look at how it works:

1. Open any Instagram group chat and tap the sticker icon at the bottom-right corner of the chatbox. From the pop-up that appears, tap on “Poll” to create a new Instagram poll in DMs.

2. You will now see text boxes to add the poll question and options to go with it. Press the “Create Poll” button after adding all the relevant options to share the poll. After the poll is published, anyone in the group conversation can tap on the “Vote” button to cast their vote. You can vote on it as well.

3. You will see the poll options in a pop-up window. Choose the one you prefer and hit the “Submit” button to vote in the poll. It’s worth mentioning that you can vote for multiple options, and anyone in the chat can add more options to the poll.

4. To view the votes of respondents, all you have to do is tap on the poll option. You will see the list of members who voted for a specific option.

Instagram Polls Alternative: Polls Go

If you want to create anonymous polls for Instagram, you could go with a third-party service called Polls Go. It lets you create polls and share a link for the same in Stories or DMs to get responses. Here’s how it works:

1. To create a new poll on Polls Go, visit the website, name the poll, and tap on “Get Started”. From the next page, tap on “Add your own question” to start a new poll.

2. You should now add the question and responses in the text boxes. Once you are satisfied, tap on “Done adding questions” and copy the link using the “Copy link” button on the next page.

3. You can then paste the link to the group chat and ask members to vote. The response is anonymous, and hence, others won’t know what you voted for.

Instagram Polls Ideas

You could also use Instagram polls creatively to engage with your audience. Here are a few Instagram polls ideas to get started:

  • Would You Rather

You could use Instagram Polls to create ‘Would You Rather’ polls to know your audience’s opinion. For instance, you could create a question like “Would you rather travel to the past or future?”, with past and future being the two options.

  • What’s Your Favorite

As the name suggests, you could use Instagram’s polls feature to ask your followers about their preferences. For example, you could create an Instagram poll asking “What’s your favorite weather?” and add the seasons in the poll.

  • Market Research

If you are a business owner, you could use Instagram polls to analyze interests in upcoming products. It’s as simple as creating a new poll, listing products you’re planning to launch, and asking followers to vote for their favorite product.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: Can I create Instagram polls on private DMs?

No, Instagram’s official polls sticker is limited to group chats at the moment. However, you can use websites like Polls Go or Opinion Stage to create custom polls and share the link in DMs. Another workaround is to create a group chat with three members and remove the third member.

Q: Are Instagram polls multi-choice?

Yes, you can vote for multiple options on Instagram polls. Furthermore, anyone can add options to the poll at the moment.

Q: Are Instagram polls anonymous?

No, Instagram polls are not anonymous, and everyone in the group can see the poll results and who you voted for.

Survey Friends and Followers with Instagram Polls

Instagram was one of the few social media apps without a versatile poll option so far. But it has finally revamped the poll option and also expanded it to group DMs. In fact, the update comes merely a couple of months after Snapchat added the option to make polls in the app. While it’s good to see Instagram working to beef up its poll option, the company still has to work on improving the feature with additions such as anonymous polls and option limits, to name a few. For now, we will have to wait to see if the Meta-owned platform plans to bring these enhancements to Instagram polls in the future. What do you think? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

Polls in Instagram stories - how to do everything right

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, and also:

  • what polls look like in Instagram Stories*;
  • why we need polls in Stories;
  • options for polls in stories;
  • how to avoid poll errors in Instagram Stories*;
  • how to create a poll in stories on Instagram*;
  • how to add a poll to stories using SMMplanner.

What polls look like on Instagram Stories*

All polls only have two voting buttons, but that doesn't mean they have to be the standard "Yes" and "No"

You can write something short instead of the standard answers After clicking on one of the buttons, you will see the percentage of answers so far.

Or you can get creative: replace words with emoji

Why we need polls in Stories

Instagram* polls in Stories are used for two purposes:

  1. Collect the opinions of subscribers in order to adjust plans for working with Instagram*.
  2. Increase interest in Stories, increase audience reach.

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.

How to find out if you got attention in Stories with a survey

Along with surveys, 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.

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:

  • general history statistics - four vertical sticks;
  • views - eye icon.

Views show the number of people who voted 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.

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 options in stories

Interesting polls in stories, with which we find out the opinion of the audience

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”).

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.

Sample audience surveys

Find 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.

Of course, you will get an approximate result, but it will already be possible to navigate by it. Find some tests from the "your mental age" series and adapt them to Stories. Then alert the audience about the test, and run several slides in a row at once - in the end you will have a real game of engagement.

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 Stories
If 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!

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.

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 yes

Encouragement 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.

Thus, the viewer willy-nilly catch their eye and ask what is being discussed

Examples of entertaining polls in stories

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 emotions

There 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!

A very popular trick: you get a reaction to the Story just because people see the poll and “get stuck” on it

How to avoid mistakes in polls in Instagram Stories *

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.

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 check Stories after posting

How to create an Instagram Stories Poll*

Create 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.

Answers that are too long should be written in the title, and emoticons should be placed on 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:

  • add several photos and place them on the background;
  • use the collage function;
  • create a picture of the desired format in advance using Photoshop and other applications;
  • use the delayed posting service.
Two options to add multiple photos to the Story using the standard features of the application

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.

The disadvantage of the third option is a long preparation. Let's take a look at the fourth option below.

How to add a poll to your story using SMMplanner

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.

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:

  • add manually and arrange nicely;
  • use built-in third-party services.
Using a sticker, add some photos, place them on the background of your choice and add a poll

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. You just have to harmoniously arrange the sticker with the answers and publish the story.

For more information on how to use Canva, see our Canva Service Overview article.

Do you use surveys to:

  • increase outreach;
  • collecting statistics on audience preferences;
  • your choice!

Write in the comments!

The article has been updated. First published: April 6, 2018

How to make a poll in Stories on Instagram ➔ ideas for stories

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Content

  • 1 How to create a poll on Instagram
  • 2 Ideas for the survey on Instagram Storis
    • 2.1 General survey
    • 2.2 Assignment poll
    • 2.3 Educational survey
    • 2.4 Motivation or survey 9000

Polls on Instagram-a good method to attract an audience to communication. First, they are used for variety. Standard content is boring, while questions increase the interest and engagement of subscribers.

Secondly, to find out something or ask for advice. For example, "Which picture do you like better?" or “Will a certain topic of articles be interesting?” and others. You can ask anything on Instagram, because people like to express their opinions on the Internet. Why not take advantage of this?

Another reason to use engagement surveys on Instagram is to engage and encourage action. For example, you can take the account of a store that sells outerwear.

How to create an Instagram poll

By posting multiple photos of coats, you can ask your followers which one is more interesting. Then you can post information about the discount on them. This will attract the audience and increase the chance of acquisition.

The survey tool is found in Instagram Stories stickers. Step by step how to add to stories:

  1. To post in Stories, you first need to select a photo or video for the background. Or you can take a photo or shoot a video through the Stories functionality.
  2. Then upload it and add the "Survey" sticker.
  3. Next, write a question. If your question does not fit completely in the field of the sticker itself, write it separately using the "Text" function.
  4. Add answer options. Only two are allowed. You can enter no more than 15 characters in the answer option, it is allowed to add emoji.

You can add other elements to the sticker in the Story: emoji, gif, hashtag or location.

If there is no such sticker in the Stories functionality, update the application to the latest available version.

All responses are displayed in Stories statistics within 24 hours after publication. There you will also see who exactly voted for a particular option. You can track the effectiveness of surveys on the LiveDune service. It will allow you to track the change in Stories reach.

  • If you are conducting a survey in Direct, then you need to go in and find the plus or pencil symbol at the top right, select users and click Next.
  • Then you need to select a photo using the icon at the bottom left and follow the same steps as when creating polls in stories. After that, it remains only to send and wait for answers.

there is no automatic calculation and analytics on the answers, you have to process everything manually.

Instagram Story Poll Ideas

There are many tools on Instagram to increase follower engagement. Through polls, you can find out the opinion about your content, what excites followers, and get to know new readers.

General survey

The most common type of survey suitable for getting to know your followers on Instagram. Examples of such questions are:

  • “Have you read a book…”,
  • “Where do you like to relax more: on the sea or in the mountains?”,
  • Do you like rain? etc.

Evaluation survey

This type of survey is created to send or receive an assessment of any opinion from subscribers. Assessment surveys are very similar to general questions, but differ in wording. For example, an evaluation question is:

  • “Is my rubric useful ...?”,
  • “Which camera is better ...?”,
  • “What to tell in the next post about business?”.

To arouse more interest on Instagram, you can use a provocation. But be careful: not everyone likes such tricks.

Educational survey

They are great for educational blogs, such as language blogs. Examples of such questions are:

  • “Where is the emphasis placed correctly: cakes or cakes?”,
  • “What is the term for ...?”,
  • “Do you know about life hacks for our products?”.

Through educational questions on Instagram, you can tell your followers about new features of your products or additions to your services.

Motivational or heating survey

Most applicable for online store accounts to encourage the target audience to buy. Also applicable for warming up on Instagram before selling info products. There are several options for using such surveys.

The first option is to post a series of questions with different types of products like “What do you like more: model 1 or model 2”. After voting and choosing the leading positions, you can announce the sale of these products at a discount.

The second option is suitable for increasing engagement and coverage on Instagram. For example, the first stories with the question: “Would you like a raffle?”, Then the question “What would you like to raffle?” is posted. (with answers, for example: robot vacuum cleaner or phone).

After collecting the voting results, set the start date and conditions for the draw. To make you happy with the results of your activity, read our article on how to run a contest on Instagram.

Thus, conducting polls on Instagram is a great way to remind followers about yourself and attract their attention. The Instagram algorithm is positive about the activity of subscribers on stickers in the Story, and this way you can improve the ranking of the promoted profile.


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