6 Effective Ways to Use Instagram Stories Polls

As you look at a detailed Instagram analytics report, you might not be pleased with your progress. You were promised infinitely more followers, greater engagement, and stronger website traffic if you used Instagram Stories to market your business.

There are many tactics to increase the metrics on your Stories platform, but one of the best is to use all the available features that Stories offers. Polls, for example, are a great way to connect with your audience on a personal level. You can effectively use polls in the following ways:

1. Educate Your Audience

Part of your job as a brand is to quell misconceptions and spread the truth about your brand or industry. You have a prime opportunity to educate your audience in Stories, and the polls option makes it easy to do so.

For example, if you’re a company that sells eco-friendly laundry detergent, you could ask a poll question like this: “How many tons of CO2 emissions are emitted into the atmosphere every single day by laundry detergent manufacturers?” You could then offer one correct answer and one incorrect answer to see how many people know their stuff.

This can then be used to launch into a story about the environmental damage that the manufacturing of regular laundry detergents cause and how your product will solve that problem. It’s an excellent way to get them engaged from the get-go so that they’ll want to buy your product.

2. Crowdsource Ideas and Feedback

There’s no better way to see what your audience really wants to see on your Instagram account or within your business than by asking them yourself. Polls are a super easy and effective way to do just that. You can ask customers to choose between two different ideas for a new product so that you know what to put in stock.

You can also ask for feedback on existing products. Ask customers if they’re satisfied with your customer service or with the fit of a certain pair of shoes that you sell. They’ll be able to answer yes or no, giving you a good idea of whether or not the majority of your audience thinks you’re doing a good job.

You can use this feedback within your company to make some essential changes. Customers will continue coming back if you’re offering the products and services they like, so this feedback and crowdsourcing method can be invaluable in keeping your business in the green. You can also use a detailed Instagram analytics app to see who your target customers are. Here is a list of the top 10 Instagram analytics tools.

3. Learn More About Your Target Audience

You may have dedicated a lot of time and energy to learning about your target audience. You may have written detailed customer personas including their demographics and interests, but a lot of this information is speculation. Plus, your audience may have evolved, and you need to evolve as well to keep up.

The only way to truly know about your audience is to ask them directly. Stories polls let you ask specific questions about your audience, and most consumers will be all-too-happy to answer if the content is relevant to them.

For example, you could ask them if they’d rather see a behind-the-scenes live video or a story sequence in your Stories. You could ask them if they prefer certain colors of your products, whether or not they want more information, and how they like to consume your content on Instagram. These insights can reshape your Instagram campaign and show consumers their value.

4. Get More Website Traffic

For many businesses, the ultimate goal is to get more website traffic, and an Instagram Stories poll can help you with this. You can generate excitement about content that’s exclusively on your website and then ask followers to swipe up to view it.For example, you might ask them if they’ve seen the latest blog post. They’ll be able to see the answers of other participants, which can encourage them to respond and go check out the blog post to see why a certain percentage of your followers thought it was worth checking out.

5. Connect with Followers One-on-One

One-on-one connections are difficult to manage because there are usually more consumers than you have time to connect with. That being said, a few, well-timed, one-on-one messages can make your customers feel more valued, encouraging them to continue engaging with you and telling their friends.

Instagram polls make it pretty easy to connect with followers through direct messaging. You can see how specific customers respond to a certain poll, and then direct message them to learn more about why they feel that way.

For example, you might have asked whether or not your customers feel like your customer service is top notch. If 10 percent feel that’s not the case, you can message each recipient directly to see why they felt that way. This information can be invaluable for validating their concerns and promising that it won’t happen again.

6. Use Hashtags

Although Instagram polls and hashtags are two separate metrics, they can work very well together to bring more attention to a piece of content. The purpose of hashtags in a Stories ad or post is to make your posts discoverable. They categorize your posts in Instagram’s algorithm so that when consumers search for a certain keyword, your content comes up.

Hashtags can be applied to any Stories poll to provide this element of discoverability. Use a mixture of branded hashtags and popular hashtags in your niche for best results. This will help you generate the most traffic for a particular poll so that you can get the most feedback, website referrals, one-on-one connections, audience education, and more.

Polls are just one of many features that Instagram Stories has to offer. Get to know Instagram Stories very well—mastering this tool will position your brand to become a clear authority in your industry.