How To Create A Poll On A Facebook Business Page

Note: Polls are no longer available on traditional Facebook posts. They are available to some degree on Facebook Stories via their mobile app.

Create a poll with Facebook Stories

What are 'Facebook Stories?'

Facebook Stories are essentially Facebook's Snapchat clone. Facebook Stories are photos and short-form videos that can be viewed up to two times and disappear after 24 hours.

The feature is focused around Facebook's in-app camera. To access the camera, swipe right on Facebook's mobile app.

Creating your poll in Facebook Stories

When you add a poll to your story on Facebook, you can ask a question to let people vote for their favorite option.

Here is how to add a poll to your Facebook story:

At the top of your News Feed, click "Add to Story".
Add your photo or video.
Click the smiling face sticker icon in the top right, then click "poll"
Type your question, then tap "Yes" or "No" to customise the answers.
Click "Done" in the top right.
Click Share to Story.

When you could post polls on to Facebook 👇

In this post I'll show you not just how to create a Facebook poll but to create a Facebook poll that people actually engage with and respond to.

Create a poll with Facebook Stories
- What are 'Facebook Stories?'
- Creating your poll in Facebook Stories
When you could post polls on to Facebook 👇
What is a Facebook Poll?
How do I create a Facebook poll?
How to create a Facebook poll people will answer
- Tip one: Use Google Analytics and Facebook Audience Insights
- Tip two: Use current events
- Tip three: Ask about hot topics from your industry
- Tip four: Use GIFs

What is a Facebook Poll?

Facebook Polls allow you to create two-question polls your followers can vote on in your/their News Feed.

As Facebook continues to limit business' presence on people's timelines, the emphasis is increasingly on you to create content that demands people engage with it.

How do I create a Facebook poll?

To create a Poll on Facebook, follow these steps:

Sign-in to your Facebook Business page
In the 'Write a post…' box, click the ellipsis next to 'Write Note'.
Select 'Poll' and type your question in the box that appears.
Type your answers (options 1 and 2)
Add images/GIFs (highly recommended).
Choose how long you want it to run for.
To promote the poll, select 'Promote'.
Select 'Post' to launch your poll. The poll will appear on your page as a status update.

How to create a Facebook poll people will answer

Creating a Facebook Poll is simply the first step. let's look at how you go about creating a Facebook poll people engage with…

Tip one: Use Google Analytics and Facebook Audience Insights

Facebook Audience Insights will provide you with info about your followers' interests and demographic profile.

Using this tool, you'll be able to see your followers' profile data and the most popular types of content and pages they follow.

Additionally, Google Analytics' "Affinity categories" report will show you your website traffics' interests.

Use segments to just show data associated with your Facebook audience profile (Age, gender, location etc.).

Use the data to identify topics your followers are interested in, and therefore have a higher propensity to answer questions about.

Tip two: Use current events

These polls are not evergreen content, they have a very limited shelf-life. With this in mind, what are the cultural hot topics taking place right now that people are already engaged with?

Piggy-backing on current events keeps your content fresh and current. The range of topics is huge…

New movies
New music
TV series
Memes
Big product announcements e.g. Apple
Celebrity news
Sporting events
Etc.

For example, if I have a target audience that skews to Star Wars (e.g. movie watching millennial males), and there was a new Star Wars movie coming out soon, I (a marketing blog) could ask a question to ride on the movie's tailcoats e.g.

When a brand is overplayed, it risks losing its magic. Is it time for the Star Wars franchise to give it a rest?

Here's an example of this in action from 123-reg, who jumped on the recent "news" Simon Cowell had stopped using a mobile phone for 12 months…

If you are looking for ideas, Twitter keeps a really useful calendar for marketers to reference, covering entertainment, sports, holidays and 'other'. You can access it here.

Tip three: Ask about hot topics from your industry

Following the same principle as the previous tip; what are the contentious/hot topics from your industry you know people want to share their opinion?

For example, if your target audience are web designers, what are their thoughts on the merits of spec work (a lot hate it with a passion- see https://www.nospec.com/)?

Tip four: Use GIFs

We all know the power of a good GIF. GIFs are an easy way to grab people's attention as they scroll through their/your timeline. There's not much more to it than that.

via GIPHY