LinkedIn polls can be a great way to engage your audience and get valuable insights. However, not all polls are created equal. Crafting a successful LinkedIn poll takes some strategy and planning.
What Makes a Good LinkedIn Poll?
Here are some tips for creating an effective LinkedIn poll:
- Ask an interesting question that your audience will care about. Don’t ask just for the sake of asking.
- Make sure the question applies to your target audience. Asking broad questions to a niche audience won’t get good engagement.
- Have a clear objective or desired outcome for the poll. What info do you hope to get from it?
- Keep the question concise. Shorter poll questions tend to get more votes.
- Provide answer choices that are clear, distinct options. Avoid overlap or confusion.
- Limit the number of answer options to no more than 5-7 choices.
- Use simple, easy-to-understand language. Avoid industry jargon when possible.
When to Run a LinkedIn Poll
Timing is everything with LinkedIn polls. Consider when your audience will be most receptive and engaged:
- Schedule polls for midweek, such as Tuesdays, Wednesdays or Thursdays.
- Avoid major holidays or popular vacation periods when engagement is lower.
- Post at peak engagement times, typically around 7-9 am or 11 am-1 pm.
- Schedule your poll to run for 3-5 days to maximize responses.
- Avoid posting multiple polls simultaneously or back-to-back.
- Space out your polls and don’t oversaturate your audience.
- Consider timing polls around relevant events, news or industry discussions.
Best Practices for LinkedIn Polls
Follow these best practices to create and run an optimized LinkedIn poll:
- Write an intriguing poll question to grab attention.
- Explain why you’re asking the question and how the insights will be used.
- Make sure answer choices are balanced and unbiased.
- Allow the poll to run for an adequate period of time, such as 3-5 days.
- Remind your audience to vote in the poll with an update post.
- Close the poll with a share of the results and key takeaways.
- Analyze the poll results to inform your content and engagement strategy.
- Follow up a successful poll with related content pieces.
Ideal Poll Length
When it comes to poll length, shorter is usually better. Here are some guidelines:
- Keep the poll open for at least 3 days to give people time to respond.
- 5 days is ideal for maximizing votes without dragging on too long.
- 1-2 weeks is the maximum poll length you should consider.
- Schedule a reminder post halfway through longer polls to prompt more votes.
- Extending your poll for too long looks indecisive and reduces urgency.
The ideal poll length balances maximizing responses with maintaining audience attention. 3-5 days hits that sweet spot for most LinkedIn polls.
Number of Answer Choices
When crafting your poll answer options, keep these guidelines in mind:
- Offer 3-5 choices for a simple, focused poll.
- You can expand up to 7 options for a more nuanced question.
- Any more than 7 choices becomes confusing and difficult to parse.
- Ensure options are distinct choices with no overlap or ambiguity.
- Randomize the order of answers to reduce selection bias.
- Consider an “Other” choice to capture write-in responses.
The ideal number of poll choices balances thoroughness with simplicity. Stick to 3-7 distinct, non-overlapping options for best results.
Question Formats
Vary your LinkedIn poll questions to keep audiences engaged. Different formats to consider:
- Multiple choice – Choose from 3-5 set answer options
- Open-ended – Share any text response or opinion
- Ranking – Rate or rank a set of items
- Image poll – Choose between image options
- Demographic poll – Collect data on gender, age, location etc.
- Either/or – Simple two option poll
Go beyond basic multiple choice polls to create more interactive and engaging experiences. Use a mix of question formats to keep your audience interested.
Poll Templates
LinkedIn offers several templated polls to simplify creating your own:
- Multiple choice polls with 2-7 preset options
- Either/or polls with two choices
- Ranking polls to rate options
- Open text polls for write-in responses
- Image polling to choose between visuals
Leverage these templated polls as a starting point. Customize the questions and answer choices to match your goals.
Promoting Your Poll
Driving votes is key to maximizing poll engagement. Use these tactics to promote your poll:
- Share the poll through your LinkedIn Company and Showcase pages.
- Send a link to the poll in your employee newsletter.
- Promote on other social platforms like Twitter or Facebook.
- Email clients and partners with a call-to-action to vote.
- Craft dedicated posts urging followers to take the poll.
- Offer incentives for participating such as discounts or giveaways.
Get the word out through your own channels and networks to generate more votes. Incentives and reminders help maintain momentum.
Sharing Poll Results
Don’t leave your audience hanging – close the loop by sharing poll results:
- Post the final results right after the poll ends.
- Highlight key takeaways and insights gained.
- Compare the data to past polls or industry benchmarks.
- Visualize results in charts or graphs for easy consumption.
- Analyze trends and patterns in the responses.
- Discuss how you’ll use feedback to guide future decisions.
- Share next steps for engaging your audience on the topic.
Following up shows you value your audience’s input. Share insights, analyze responses and outline actions to keep participants engaged.
Polling Do’s and Don’ts
Here are some dos and don’ts to keep in mind:
Do:
- Ask interesting, relevant questions.
- Make poll options clear and distinct.
- Keep polls concise and focused.
- Allow polls to run for 3-5 days.
- Promote your polls across channels.
- Close the loop by sharing results.
Don’t:
- Ask overly broad, generic questions.
- Use too many answer options or overlapping choices.
- Leave polls open indefinitely.
- Spam followers with too many polls.
- Neglect to follow up with results and analysis.
Follow these dos and don’ts to create polished, effective polls your LinkedIn followers will love participating in.
Poll Frequency
When it comes to poll cadence, balance is key. Here are some tips:
- Run 1 poll per week maximum to avoid oversaturation.
- Space polls at least 5-7 days apart for best results.
- Limit polls to 2-4 per month as a reasonable range.
- Increase or decrease frequency based on audience engagement.
- Avoid posting multiple polls simultaneously.
- Ensure polls are relevant and provide value to followers.
Poll sparingly to keep your audience engaged. Monitor responses and adjust your poll cadence accordingly over time.
Driving Engagement
Beyond good question and answer choices, use these tactics to boost poll engagement:
- Rotate question formats – multiple choice, open-ended, ranking etc.
- Leverage images and video – embed visual content to catch attention.
- Incentivize sharing – offer discounts or perks for sharing the poll.
- Prompt discussion – ask for open-ended feedback in comments.
- Remind your audience – share reminder posts to vote.
- Double-dip content – repurpose popular polls periodically.
Polls are about more than just answering questions. Use creative strategies to spark deeper engagement with your audience.
Poll Metrics to Track
Analyze these metrics to assess LinkedIn poll performance:
- Total votes
- Voter conversion rate
- Votes by choice
- Comments and shares
- Traffic source
- Engagement duration
- Follower growth
- Leads or sales generated
Track hard engagement numbers as well as downstream actions to calculate your poll’s full impact and ROI.
Common Poll Mistakes
Avoid these common missteps when creating LinkedIn polls:
- Asking overly broad, generic questions
- Not providing enough answer options or choices
- Using confusing, overlapping or redundant answer choices
- Not giving people enough time to respond – closing the poll too soon
- Leaving a poll open for too long after interest has dropped off
- Not promoting the poll through different channels
- Failing to follow up with an analysis of results
Crafting a successful LinkedIn poll takes precision. Sidestep these mistakes to create an optimized polling experience for your audience.
Tools to Create Polls
Beyond LinkedIn’s integrated polling, these tools can help create polls:
- SurveyMonkey – Customizable poll and survey builder
- Typeform – Build engaging, mobile-friendly polls
- Google Forms – Free simple poll creation
- Pollmaker – User-friendly drag-and-drop polls
- Survs – Polls and quizzes with analytics
- Survey Planet – Polling and feedback surveys
Robust third-party tools give you expanded options to create polls tailored to your LinkedIn audience.
Conclusion
Running a successful LinkedIn poll requires strategy – from asking engaging questions to sharing results. Follow these tips to create polls your audience loves engaging with and glean valuable insights in the process.
With smart goal-setting, compelling question writing, optimized answer choices and effective promotion across channels, you can develop polls that drive high participation rates.
Analyze poll metrics and responses to keep improving. Refine your approach to become a LinkedIn polling pro and take your audience engagement to the next level.