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Rebecca Riserbato
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I'm a little embarrassed to admit this, but checking Instagram is one of the first things I do in the morning.
But, I know I'm not alone.
Did you know that Instagram went from one million users in December 2010 to over one billion in 2020?
In fact, it's one of the most popular social media platforms in the world. So, you might be wondering, "How can I use this platform?"
Well, a great way to engage with your audience is through an Instagram poll.
According to HubSpot research, quiz or poll stickers are one of the most popular Instagram Story formats.
Polls are a great way to keep in touch with your audience and even conduct market research.
In this post, let's learn how to set up a poll on Instagram and discuss how you can use this feature.
To get started with Instagram polls, the first thing you need to do is open the app. Then, you'll swipe left. This will take you to the screen where you can post on your Stories.
Once you're here, make sure that you're posting to your Story. Underneath the record button, you'll see whether you're posting a Story, a Reel, or going Live.
To post a poll, make sure you're posting to your Story.
Now, just take the video or picture you want to post.
If you have it saved, you can just select the content from this screen by clicking on the picture icon on the bottom left. This will take you to your camera roll where you can select a video or image.
To add the poll, click on the sticker icon on the top right. It's the third icon from the left.
Now you should see different sticker options including location, time, questions, and more. Scroll down and choose the poll icon.
You can either do a question and answer poll, or a sliding poll. To choose a sliding poll, you'll want to scroll until you find the slide bar option.
If you chose the question and answer poll, it's time to type in your question and the possible responses.
If you chose the slide bar, you'll want to type in your question and then add an emoji to the sliding bar.
Now all that's left to do is post. To do this, just click "Send To" and then share the post on your Story.
Once you've posted a poll, it's time to wait for the responses. To view the results, you'll want to watch your Stories.
Then, click the "Seen by" icon in the bottom left corner.
This will show you who voted and the results.
Here, you'll also see a button to "Share Results." You can click that and post the results to your Story to let your viewers know the outcome of the poll.
When you're creating a poll, remember to place it strategically.
You don't want people to have problems voting because of the placement. Make sure your poll is placed near the center, and not too high or low that the other Story icons block it.
As you can see, posting a poll on Instagram is a simple process. But, how do you use this feature?
Here are some of the top ways you can use Instagram polls:
This makes your audience feel like they're a part of a community and like you value their opinion.Ultimately, the point of using Instagram polls is to engage with your followers and capture their attention.
To learn more about Instagram marketing, you can take HubSpot's Instagram Training course.
Topics: Instagram Marketing
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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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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:
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 emojiInstagram* 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 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 statisticsThere are two main tabs in statistics:
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 archivePoll-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.
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 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!
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 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.
Thus, the viewer willy-nilly catch their eye and ask what is being discussedIt 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!
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 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 neaterIf 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.
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 backgroundapplications.
In the third tab, select the "Survey" stickerWrite 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 questionClick "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:
Write in the comments!
The article has been updated. First published: April 6, 2018
When Instagram introduced the Instagram Stories feature to its users, many did not take it seriously. However, over time, it turned out that Stories are viewed more often than the main feed. Now stories are not only a temporary opportunity to expose what you would not like to publish in the profile gallery, but also the main tool for interacting with subscribers. In this article, you will learn how to make an Instagram Stories poll and evaluate the results.
Contents of the page
Surely each of us has been in a situation of difficult choice at least once in a lifetime. Most often, we turned to friends for help and advice. It was this idea that prompted Instagram to create a new polls feature. This is a small addition that can be found in the sticker section in the story design menu.
The first survey type was added back in October 2017. Polls help not only diversify user stories, but also improve interaction with subscribers, win over and give more importance to their opinion.
Instagram did not stop at one type of poll. The popularity of the new feature grew, gradually new ways of interacting with subscribers through stories began to be added. Today, apart from voting, there are:
In order to create each of the polls in the story, you need to select any photo or video from the phone gallery, or take a picture of something immediately in the story mode. Then you need to go to the add stickers section and select any of the polls.
The voting (polling) function allows you to find out the opinion of subscribers only among two options: YES and NO (default). You can also provide your answers to the question. In the “Ask a question…” field, you need to write a question, and if the answers to it are other than “yes” / “no”, then by clicking on the answer options, we change them to the ones you need. We click in the upper right corner “Done” and publish the story!
The "Questions" function is perhaps one of the most popular and frequently used among social network users. You can ask a question and get a detailed answer or invite subscribers to ask you questions of interest. Questions and answers are not anonymous.
When editing a question, you will see a rectangle with a template inscription: “Ask me a question” (which you can change if you wish) and an answer box that is activated after the story is published. Question length is limited to 80 characters including spaces. You can also change the color palette of the question box here. Choose the design to your liking, click “Done” and publish stories!
Emoji rating looks like a rating scale. Followers can rate your photo, video, or story question by dragging the emoji to a specific level. The further it is, the higher the score.
When you select the emoji rating function, a rectangle appears in front of us with the inscription: “Ask a question ...”, where you can write something (the maximum number of characters is 90 with spaces). You can leave the field blank (when publishing, no text will be visible). Even in the rectangle is the emoji scale itself, under which there is a ribbon with a selection of different emoticons. With the help of the plus sign “ + ”, you can add your own emoticons, if desired. At the very top there is also a palette with which you can choose the color of the scale.
A quiz is a question with two to four possible answers, one of which is correct. The user independently prescribes both the question and the answers, and for the subscribers - to guess the correct option.
When you add a quiz, you will see a rectangle with an editable caption: Guess what I like. If you wish, you can ask absolutely any question. The maximum number of characters is 50 including spaces. You also need to fill in the fields for answer options. The minimum allowed number of answers is two, the maximum is four. There is also a color selection option at the top of the menu, just like in previous polls.
After publishing a story, there is an interest to know the results of created polls. To see them, you need to open your history and swipe up. A panel will open with all the answers.
In the list of voters in the "poll" function, sometimes it is not visible which person voted for what, so you need to scroll to the bottom of the list and click on the "all" button. Then the full list of voters will open.
In the case of "Questions", in addition to the panel with all the answers under the history, notifications will also come with each new question.
Emoji scores and quizzes can be viewed like survey results. The ratings answer panel will show the average result of the scale among all votes, in the case of a quiz, a list of answers and the number of votes for each of them will be displayed.
Like a regular story, a poll post disappears after 24 hours. But that doesn't mean you can't share the results afterwards. Since each published story is saved in the Archive (the button in the form of a clock opposite your nickname in the profile), they can be reviewed again and again.
To share the results of the survey, you need to open the desired story and swipe up. There you will find a blue "Share results" button. After clicking, this story is duplicated with the final results of the survey.
Unfortunately, there is no such option for evaluation with emoji and quiz yet, but you can share answers to questions. To do this, you also need to swipe the story up, after which a list of all answers will open. By clicking on any of them, the option "Share answer" appears. After clicking, the story editing menu will open with the selected question. The background can be made plain or upload a photo, video (where you answer the question).
One caveat: you will know who sent questions, but after posting the answers, your subscribers will see them as anonymous questions.
Very often, subscribers automatically scroll through stories or are too lazy to answer surveys. This can happen if the topic does not interest them or too much text is stuck.
What can be done to increase the engagement of followers in Instagram stories? To begin with, you need to publish them regularly - several times a day. So the account will not disappear from the story feed of your audience. In addition, with each new publication, the coverage of the previous story will grow.
It is recommended that you set up a story asking you to vote before creating a poll. Emphasize that it is important for you to know the opinion of subscribers. Thus, people will feel a little guilty if they don't answer a question even when asked to. As practice shows, this works - subscribers will more often leave answers in voting.
Another simple tip is to post interesting, catchy, or even provocative content before the survey itself. Thanks to this “trick”, more people will be involved in stories. The chance that they will read or be interested in the rest of the stories, or answer the survey, increases.
It is also important to take into account the time of publication of stories. If you post them at night, the number of views will be much less, and because of this, in the morning your stories will be replaced by new ones and go to the end of the feed. Therefore, it is best to publish stories in the morning, afternoon and evening - when users are most active.
To keep your audience from getting bored with your stories, use these ideas to keep them interested:
