How To Create A Poll On Business Facebook Page

Facebook is the largest of all the social media platforms, with a membership of around 2.60 billion monthly users worldwide. That is an astonishingly large number of people and that figure represents an incredibly large potential audience for marketers.

Even attracting just a tiny fraction of Facebook users to be your own audience can still equate to hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Facebook marketing itself is enormous; with the company making just under $34.50 billion in ad revenue in 2020.

People using advertising on Facebook obviously means more money for the platform, so they have created a host of features that help to make your marketing campaigns more successful.

Successful marketing campaigns for their users mean more money is invested back into Facebook marketing, and this means more profit for the company.

Some of these features include those that help to encourage engagement with people on your business page – one of which is the poll.

Here we take a look at what a Facebook poll is, why you should use one, and how to create one yourself.

⭐Related Post: How To Get More Video Views On Facebook

What Is A Facebook Poll?

A Facebook poll is what you would probably expect it to be – a poll that has been created on Facebook.

They can be created on personal walls, on pages, in groups, and in messages. They can also be created by anybody who has an account and they don't cost a penny to create.

As you can probably guess, polls are a function that allows you to ask a question and provide potential answers for people to give in a multiple-choice format.

Members of your group are free to answer the questions by clicking on one of a poll option and members are also free to add their own answers if you allow them to do so when creating the poll

The poll results are then tallied as members vote, and members are able to vote more than once if you allow them to do so. You can also add a deadline to the poll, after which point no further answers will be accepted.

Why Use Facebook Polls?

This leads onto a simple question… why use them? Why ask questions to a bunch of strangers that you are never even likely to meet over an internet platform, asides maybe from a bit of fun.

Well, some of the answers to the question are quite obvious, and others less so.

Discover Opinions

Perhaps the most obvious reason to use a Facebook poll is that it is an opportunity to learn more about the people in your group.

The people in your group are unlikely to be just a random collection of people with no specific interests that are relevant to your business.

On the contrary - members of your group are very likely to have an interest in what you are doing. Otherwise they simply would not be there in the first place.

This basically means they are your target audience and one of the most important aspects of business is learning everything you can about your most ideal clients.

In the past, businesses would have spent rather a lot of money on asking questions of people they hope to sell to. They would have had to send out a survey or have people out on the streets with a clipboard and pen.

The information will also need to be collated and presented in a manner that is easy to digest. This would all cost time and money, which would have made it unaffordable to a lot of smaller businesses.

With a Facebook live poll, however, money is not a problem because it will cost you nothing at all to create a poll that could get many thousands of answers – depending on how large your group is.

There will be no questionnaires to send out by post and you won't have to pay people to go out and ask questions for you. Rather, you can do it all from your home or office in just a few minutes and then sit back while the answers come in.

Another advantage over traditional polling methods is that you can get the results in real-time.

You don't have to wait for the answers to be counted and collated before getting results. This can be very useful if there is something that needs to be addressed sooner rather than later.

Plus, the poll results are immediately presentable without having to go through pages upon page of information.

Boost Overall Engagement

The more you engage with your Facebook group members the better. Positive engagement means touch points and the more touch points you generate with potential customers, the more likely you are to make a sale.

Getting people involved helps them to learn more about what you do, and how what you have makes their lives easier. This, in turn, will take you a lot closer to a sale.

More engagement from members also means that other members will be encouraged to get involved, resulting in even more engagement from your audience.

People like to be members of online groups where there is a lot of activity, and creating polls will help in that regard. They can help to make your group a hive of activity, and this can only be a positive thing overall.

Share Your Results

Another advantage is that you can share the results of your polls with other people.

This can be very useful in many ways such as, for example, showing other people results that favor your product and business overall.

This can help to make very powerful social proof, and this will go a long way to helping you make a sale. This is because people feel a lot more buying something when they know other people have also approved of it.

Indeed, studies have shown that almost 3 in 4 people trust reviews they see online, even if they don't know the person who gave the review.

The Different Types Of Facebook Polls

You will also find that there are different types of poll to choose from. As with pretty much every other tool you will encounter, which one is best for you depends on a number of factors.

Here's a brief look at the different types available.

Facebook Group Polls

Perhaps the most common type of Facebook poll is the group poll, and groups themselves are very easy to create.

You are able to attract a very large number of people to your group and members in the group can all interact with each other easily. There are various steps you can take to help encourage more people to your group, but that's another topic.

Groups are a great way of building a community around your product and can provide a very valuable source of feedback.

Anybody in a group can start a poll, including you, and they are a great way of garnering information from your target audience.

See an example of a group poll below:

facebook account poll choices

Event Page Polls

A Facebook page is different from a group. It is still a place where members can contribute to the group by leaving comments and interacting in other ways.

However, in a page, only the page admins can make new posts. This is ideal for when you want to control the discussion, and let people know of events like product releases or upcoming gigs etc.

Facebook Messenger Polls

Facebook's messenger service is popular worldwide, largely because it allows people to talk to easily each other in privacy.

While it tends to be used for one on one private discussions it can also be used for private group discussions. It also has a host of other features – including the option to create a poll that is limited to the people in your discussion group.

It's a great way of getting consensus among Facebook friends or colleagues in a group chat, particularly when the subject matter is one that should not be shared publicly.

Facebook Story Polls

Facebook stories are found on peoples' personal pages and are a great way to share images and short videos with friends and family.

how to create a poll on facebook

Stories don't show up in your news feed automatically and will be deleted after 24 hours, but you can choose to add stories to your newsfeed if you so wish.

They can also be a great way to attract attention to content you want people to see.

Facebook Video Polls

With bandwidths increasing and access to relatively easy to use editing software, more and more people are able to upload videos onto Facebook. These can be very powerful marketing tools.

They are a great way of telling people about your products in a way that makes it easy to follow and understand.

When uploading videos to your Facebook page, you also get the option to ask questions on the video in the form of a poll. This is a great way of getting direct feedback on a specific product or service.

How To Create Facebook Polls

It is very easy to set up a Facebook poll and it doesn't cost a penny to do.

Below we go through some of the steps involved.

Facebook Group Polls

Anybody can create a group poll if they are a member of that group
Go into the group and click on 'create public post' at the top
On the 'create post' box that appears, click on the 'more' button as highlighted by the red circle below.

Click on 'poll' from the selection
Then, type the question you would like to ask in the box provided
Below the question, add the options for your followers to choose from
When your poll is ready, click on 'Add to your post', and the poll will appear in the group

Facebook Story Polls

Facebook story polls can be used when on a mobile device
To add a Facebook story poll, first go to your Facebook profile on your phone
Then, click on 'add to story'
In the 'create story' screen, choose which type of story you wish to add. You can choose from Text, Boomerang, a Selfie, or a Poll

How to create a Facebook story poll

Click on poll and, in the next screen, add your question and edited the potential answers below
Click on the privacy option to change who can see your poll
Click on 'share to story' to publish your poll

Event Page Polls

In order to post a poll on a page, you will need to be an admin of the page
Go to the page and in the bar on the left hand side, click on 'publishing tools'
On the 'new post' section click on 'classic post creation tool' in the options menu in the bottom left hand corner.
Next, click on the three ellipses on the right hand side for more options
Select the 'poll' option
Ask your question and add your reply options below your question
When your poll is ready, click on 'Share Now' at the bottom of the page

Facebook Messenger Polls

You will need to be in your own account in order to post a Facebook messenger poll
While logged in, go to Facebook messenger
Click on the blue '+' button in the bottom left hand corner
Click on the 'polls' option, which will be an image similar to the one below

create poll on social media platform

Ask your question and add your answer options below
When you are ready, click on 'Create Poll' and your poll will be published

Facebook Video Polls

To create a Facebook video poll, you will need to go to a Facebook page you are an admin of
Click on photo/video on the create post box
Click on upload photos/video
Choose the video you are trying to upload
Click 'Polls' in the upload screen
Click on 'create poll'
Enter the question you would like to ask in your poll, and a choice of answers
Choose when you want your poll to start and end in the video itself
Choose whether or not you want your viewers to see the poll results
Once you are ready, click on save and the poll is ready to be published with the video

Best Practices And Tips For Creating Facebook Polls

While it is quite easy to set up polls on Facebook, you should still do what you can to make sure you make the most of the tool.

Below are a few tips on how to maximize the benefits you get from such polls.

Ask The Right Questions

Don't ask just any questions. Be sure to ask questions that will help you to make decisions that will help you improve the product or service you are providing.

Be intentional in everything you do!

For example, if you are selling skin lotions, asking about skin lotions, in general, is unlikely to tell you much about what people think about your product in particular. If you want to know about your lotion specifically then ask them about our lotion specifically.

Also, make sure to keep your questions on-topic.

You might be interested in knowing about the latest movie, but that does not mean your audience will also be interested also.

If they are regularly being asked questions about topics they have no interest in then they are likely to just leave your group altogether.

Learn From Your Audience

Remember that polls are a very valuable learning tool and you should use it as such.

You can use it to ask questions about people's interests and other demographics that can help you understand your target audience better.

For example, if a large percentage of your target audience is young couples then this can give you a myriad of marketing channels to explore.

You can also learn about the things that they don't like, helping you to avoid them in your products and marketing campaigns.

Play your cards right and you can learn exactly what you need to know to sell.

Act On The Information

It should not be underestimated just how valuable this information can be to you.

Before the days of social media, being able to get answers like this would have been the Holy Grail to marketers around the world. With that in mind, you should definitely appreciate the information for what it is worth, and you should definitely act on it where possible.

If a large bulk of your audience doesn't like something about your product then it should be a no-brainer that you take the appropriate action where necessary.

Likewise, information on what your audience does like in a product is just screaming to be acted upon.

💥💥PRO TIP: Take note of the words that your audience uses and create content using those same exact words. This helps you speak to your audience in the exact way they understand.

For example, if they want simple steps to get something done -- then create a blog, ebook, email that gives them those simple steps they asked for. Don't create a product and use language or words that are not relevant to them.

Final Thoughts

All in all, Facebook polls are a tool that can be a lot of fun and also very useful to you in a business sense. They are a great way to get to know more about your audience and you could unlock insights that will help you deliver just what people are looking for.

They are also free to use, which is another obvious advantage, and they are very easy to set up.

Get a poll set up today and you could be receiving valuable business information in no time at all, so there's no reason not to give it a go.