Brands are cashing in on the Instagram big way. With 800 million monthly users and 500 million daily users, Instagram is creating possibilities for several businesses. The platform is poised to reach more milestones in the near future. Recently added Instagram Polls feature is one such pathway which supports informed decisions. Analytics on such posts are amazing. Users can take complete advantage of this two-option poll right on their Instagram Stories wherein, it is easy to ask a question and see real-time results from your followers as they vote. Such a facility will help you understand the number of votes under each option received; who voted and what option they chose. Casting a vote/gaining insight has got easier now with this poll facility. Why wait, quickly create a story, video or a photo and use the poll facility to get that Insta-insight, Insta-opinion and Insta-popularity.
• Polls allow a brand to gather new avenues: “let us find out”
• Polls can help business to;
• measure their value,
• enhance their offerings,
• plan new product launches,
• understand their audience
• engage with audience via attention-generating poll questions : “Insta-popularity”
• Collect Valuable information: “ Insta-insight, Insta-opinion”
• Identify new possibilities
• Publish result and engage further
• Make choice / Iterate your offerings: “Insta-decision”
Polling your followers on your Instagram story enables you to gather new avenues. It allows brands to go creative to any extent. Since the results are real-time and published immediately, making an informed decision is easier. The facility lets a brand understand its followers, iterate its offerings, expand and explore new opportunities. Check out some of the examples listed against each of the mentioned advantages.
#Understand Your Audience
Engage with your audience by asking anything that can add value to give more insight into your audience. A prime example comes from Barrydowne Paint.
Ontario based paint store Barrydowne Paint has been serving for over 200 years with its combined paints expertise. From paints to primers to wallpapers to lacquers, the company has been offering its best solutions and believes to expand its offerings and experiences for years to come. To capture the attention of few of its followers, the company recently took complete charge of Instagram Poll facility. Look at its story below;
Interestingly, the story it generated is likely to capture the attention of both wallpaper lovers and paint lovers. Another interesting aspect to look at is how Athina from @homestylesbyathina took over @barrydownepaint’s Instagram page for a day and gave an extra boost to the whole effort. The poll has a clear-cut question which allows its followers to choose from two options – Love wallpaper? “Yes or No.” And those who chose the option “yes” are wallpaper prospects and those who chose “no” are easily trapped with the line that reads, “More room for paint!”
#Engage with your audience via attention-generating poll questions: “Gain Insta-popularity”
Polls are the best way to enhance and expand all your existing offerings. To create eagerness among your audience and to involve them is one of the best ways to keep yourself alive in social networks. In the cases of the National Basketball Association, it found a natural fit for the new feature by asking its audiences to share their opinion.
Who’s the NBA G.O.A.T? LeBron James or Michael Jordan?
Such activity is sure to develop a deeper level of engagement with your followers. This particular @nbapolls is said to have generated +2K votes.
NBA announced its Superpoll seven day long initiative on 13th of October to decide who the GOAT is and keep a period to all debates. It posted one poll a day, where followers can choose between LeBron James and Michael Jordan. Daily results were posted and the following Friday, the winner was declared.
This way, NBA ensured its followers are engaged and entertained.
#Plan New Product Launches
Allow your audience to get involved with your new ideas and allow them to share their inputs. Users love to share their opinions always. Stick to some interesting question and prompt them to answer.
A new Instagram poll story from the UK based running gear specialist, The Running Monkey is purely creating attention from all runners.
Washing trainers at home have always been a task for many runners. “Do you ever put your trainers in the washing machine” is one attention-grabbing question. Created for a sole purpose, the answer of such polls can aid the brand with product development. Such analytics could easily be used to help their product moving forward.
#Collect Valuable information: “Gain Insta-insight, Insta-opinion”
Figure out all those that fascinate your audience by using Instagram #Poll facility. Instead of generating stories after stories, brands can adopt polling to get an instant response and to make informed decisions. Collecting information from your followers is one of the prime necessities to keep your brand alive. Have a look at the following Instagram Poll created by a coffee shop, Cafe Appetito, Vadodara’s largest cafe chain. The store has been specializing in handcrafted coffees and delicious food offering the ultimate experience to its customers.
Asking straight questions about your product is much easier with Instagram Poll facility. The analytics generated via such polls could help in segmenting your customers and also in identifying the most liked product of your offerings. There is a potential to generate every possibility to create a variation to your offerings too.
#Indentify new possibilities
You can simply post a question saying, “Can I email you?” with “Yes/No” options. This could be a way to engage with a newly interested audience. From the response that you get for each such question, you can generate new possibilities. This proves to be a fantastic approach to create better connectivity with your responder and add value to their experience. Have a look at the following poll story generated by coldwateracquatics, an expert in fish photography.
By merely involving your audience, you can create opportunities to further communicate with them and keep them engaged.
#Enhance Your Offerings
Every reaction that you gather from a poll could be used to determine actions and build compelling enhancement to your offerings. Have a look at the following story from an online handmade jewellery store.
#Add Value
Are you looking for ways to add value? One of the holistic methods is to differentiate yourself from others by accumulating the attention and access to your audience. To achieve this, your content or story need not have to revolve around your products and services. You can add value by just wishing your followers on important occasions like Christmas, Halloween, New Year etc. This can be done in a different way by using the polling facility of Instagram. Have a look at the following story.
This is a Halloween wishing message created by yes_or_no_uk. Look at the impact the poll created and a story that supported the whole strategy.
To Wrap
Interactive stories are always better than static ones. So, it makes complete sense to put your arms around this media facility and get a handle on it. Utilizing such facility is basically to evolve the content or stories that you generate and distribute. Eventually, what matters is how the story is utilized by your followers and prospective customers. Above all, it is critical to increase audience interaction and engagement. The future of any business lies in its own making, said an expert. Yes, grab this opportunity to perform better and to get closer to your followers. Take complete charge of Instagram Polls.
