#tuesdaychooseday - The Power of the Poll

If you’re a regular over on my Instagram, you’ll hopefully be well versed in my weekly IG stories feature - #tuesdaychooseday.

At the beginning of the year, I made a resolution to ensure Xana Creative’s own social channels were active. I spend every day preaching to my clients about the importance of regular and engaging social media activity, but it was starting to result in the pot calling the kettle black. In a bid to turn my social game around, I gave myself the small but manageable goal to post every day in January, to get the ball rolling. Allowing myself a little cheat, I gave myself two ‘hashtag days’ that would determine what my content was. These were #Mondaymotivation and #tuesdaychooseday. The former allowed me to post an inspirational quote once a week, which was easy to create and manage, so allowed me four days of January sorted. The latter was something I had seen on Glamour magazine’s Insta. Each week they posted polls to their IG story asking followers to pick between current fashion trends. I found this to be a pretty ingenious way to create engaging content. To followers, it’s a fun little activity, but to brands, it’s a direct insight into their psyche.

For Xana Creative and our community of less than100 (which was mainly my friends and family), I knew the results of the polls may not hold much weight but I thought I’d give it a go as an experiment for any future clients.

Wow.

From New Year’s Resolutions, to ‘things that are blue’ - people voted. I quickly realised that the poll tool on IG stories was something that small businesses (like XC!) could really utilise. My followers were playing a ‘game’, and I was conducting research. For example, I found out that 88% of my followers prefer dogs to cats and all of them prefer giving Christmas presents than receiving them. This may seem like frivolous info, but it could ignite some content creativity, as well as giving you some in-depth info into who your audience are.

It’s an invaluable asset – it gives your followers a voice without them really having to do anything but tap their screen. If you want an opinion on Facebook, you ask them to actively engage by commenting on your post. This is a short and effective way to interact with your customers.

Maybe you’re a restaurant and can’t decide if the special should be seabass or chicken – chuck a poll on stories and your followers can choose! Or perhaps you host workshops, and want to know if your delegates prefer morning or evening events – pop it on Insta stories.

Now, I know none of this is ground-breaking stuff. If you’re already a social media guru – you know all this, but if you’re not, it could help.

Posing a question to your online community is nothing new, however, this form allows for your followers to engage in a slightly more fun and dynamic way. Therefore creating opportunities for your brand to consider the interests of your consumers when making decisions.