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Nov 14, 2016

Social Media Marketing: How to Run Twitter Polls

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by Karrie Lucero
It’s no surprise that businesses have dived deeper and deeper into the social media world—consumers are spending more and more of their time there.
One of the biggest challenges of social media marketing is creating and sharing content that engages consumers and encourages them to interact with your brand online.
One social media platform is making this a bit easier for business owners.  allow you to post questions, surveys, and polls to ask your followers about their likes and dislikes, habits, and opinions. When mixed in with retweets, likes, and regular tweets, it is proving to be a powerful marketing tool. However, before we jump into how to master Twitter Polls, let’s start with the basics—how to create a poll on Twitter.
You can create a Twitter Poll in five easy steps:
  1. Click “compose tweet” on your Twitter homepage
  2. Click the “add poll” button (it looks like it has a bar graph on it)
  3. Create your poll question and add 2-4 response choices
  4. Set the poll length by days, hours, or minutes
  5. Tweet it to the world
Now that you’re a master of creating polls, here are three things you need to know to engage your followers.

ENGAGEMENT REQUIRES INTERACTION

When posting content online, it’s important to remember that in order to engage your consumers, you need to provide an opportunity for them to interact with your brand. As part of your social media marketing strategy, polls allow your Twitter followers to interact by casting their vote and making their voice heard.
Consumers that are encouraged to interact are more willing to share information and participate in online conversation. Remember to keep your interactions personable and informal. Talk to your consumers online as if you were talking to a friend in a casual conversation.

PROMOTE CONVERSATION TO GATHER CONSUMER INSIGHT

There’s no better way to engage consumers online than by talking to them and asking for their opinions, habits, and thoughts. Not only does this let you hear consumer comments and concerns, it also acts as a way for you to get to know your target market better.
According to Marketing Charts, 63 percent of people share content online. So, it’s A-Okay for you to use your polls to learn more about your consumers and to think of them as a form of marketing research.
When creating your poll questions, consider asking for opinions and thoughts on anything and everything. Check out HubSpot’s  for ideas! For example, you could ask about:
  • The methods consumers shop most (online, in-store, etc.)
  • Seasonal shopping habits
  • Opinions on social/political events

TAKE ADVANTAGE OF HASHTAGS AND REAL-TIME EVENTS TO BOOST REACH

Twitter is a social platform that thrives on real-time events. You can use the fast-paced environment to take advantage of events happening in the now. Is it national donut day? Poll your consumers about their favorite kind of donut or even their favorite dessert!
You can boost your reach further by pairing your real-time polls with hashtags. Hashtags are a Twitter user’s best friend. Take a look at the day’s trending hashtags and content on Twitter to see if you can incorporate one into your poll. Adding #nationaldonutday to your poll will increase the amount of people that see your tweet, and it may increase your poll responses and even gain you a few new followers!
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As the world of social media continues to grow, it’s important that your business learns to adapt and keep in touch with consumers. Getting your consumers to interact with your business online is key to successful social media marketing. Polls will allow you to not only engage consumers but also gather insight on your target market info. It will allow you to start a conversation with your consumers and build your online reputation.