Polls are a mainstay of the internet, naturally fitting in with conversational elements such as comments, forums, and “likes” on social media. People online enjoy replying to questions. From a business perspective, polls excite users, bring in feedback, and allow people to discuss topics they enjoy. Luckily, Instagram story polls make it easy to configure a poll and send it out in a format that followers are used to.

What are Instagram story polls?

Instagram adds new features on a regular basis, making it tricky to keep up with the advancements.

Instagram, by itself, is a picture-sharing app that’s mainly accessible on mobile devices, with limited support on desktop computers as well. Instagram stories are “in-the-moment” pictures or videos that get deleted from your account after 24 hours – whereas standard Instagram posts remain on your feed.

Stories are Instagram’s response to the Snapchat trend of deleting content after a period of time. If you share an Instagram story, it appears at the top of your users’ feeds, in a clickable circle with your username and profile image attached. You can also look at your own feed to see which of the people and brands you follow have posted recent stories.

find stories - Instagram story polls

Instagram story polls are items that you insert into those stories. They have multiple designs, but essentially you take a photo or video for the story, then add a relevant poll on top of the content.

After sharing the Instagram story, your followers can interact with the poll, clicking on their desired response.

workout done - Instagram story polls

After they submit a response, the results of that poll are revealed as percentages.

You’re able to view the results as well. What’s great about a poll is that you have full control over the content and intent. So, it could be for adding quick fun to user feeds or to get legitimate feedback for use in your podcast or to see if your customers are happy.

yes or no

Different types: polls, Q&As, quizzes, emotions, and more

When making an Instagram story, stickers are available for you to place on your media.

We’ll walk through how to do this below, but essentially, the stickers incorporate another piece of media or an interactive button with your story.

Instagram does have a specific “Poll” sticker to place instant Yes/No questions on your stories.

The poll sticker comes in this format:

star wars Instagram story polls

That’s a simple question with two response options. It allows you to adjust the text on those buttons.

However, Instagram includes a few other stickers that are useful for making polls. These aren’t called “Polls” but they can work in a similar fashion.

For instance, there’s a sticker called “Questions.” It reveals a one-line question, with a field for people to type in their answer.

guess the plant Instagram story polls

There’s another “Slider” sticker, which is primarily for fun–not bringing in constructive feedback. You’d ask a question, like “How excited are you for the summer?” and your users move the slider as far to the right as they want.

excite

The “Quiz” sticker delivers yet another polling option. This one allows for more detail, where you ask a longer question and provide multiple choice answers.

questions Instagram story polls

The right answer is shown after a reply, telling the user if they answered correctly or not.

answer

Finally, you could also utilize the basic text feature to type in a polling question with your media. Customers then send their answers or feedback through the “Send Message” field at the bottom of the screen.

written Instagram story polls

How to set up Instagram story polls

Instagram story polls are best created on your Instagram phone app. In fact, the desktop version of Instagram doesn’t even support stories.

Open your Instagram app, then click on the circle that reads “Your Story.” Another option to get to your story area is to swipe right on your screen.

our story Instagram story polls

Take a picture or video to use as your story. This is done by focusing on your subject and clicking on the circular button at the bottom of the screen. To take a video, hold down that button.

take picture

Once a picture or video is captured, locate the Sticker tab at the top of the screen. This looks like a square smiley face. Click that button.

sticker

As mentioned, stickers are fun or interactive media items that you “stick” on top of the picture or video story. There are many stickers to search for, like animations for your favorite sports team or location-based tags.

To make a poll, scroll to, or search for, the Poll sticker. Choose that.

 Instagram story polls

By default, Instagram story polls use Yes and No for the answers. But you can click on the question text or button to edit the content.

For instance, I want to adjust the question and make some fun answers. At the very least, change around the question so that it relates to your post and business. As you can see, the poll is placed in front of the picture I just took. You can make the poll smaller or larger if it’s not fitting properly.

meh answer - Instagram story polls

Make sure you click the Send To or Your Stories buttons at the bottom of the screen to actually walk through the publication process!

publish

We won’t cover all the stickers that work well for polling, but we feel it’s important to show quizzes as well. These are multiple-choice quiz stickers, which are great for running detailed polls, whether they’re open-ended questions or have concrete answers.

Go back to that Sticker tab and scroll to the Quiz sticker. You’ll notice many other options for getting creative with questions and polls (like the Slider or Question stickers,) so feel free to play around with all of them.

For this example, click on the Quiz sticker button.

quiz as a Instagram story polls

The Poll sticker is limited to two answers, while the Quiz sticker reveals several choices. There’s a “Dice” button towards the bottom of the screen to randomly generate question ideas, but we typically recommend making up a question based on a fact that has an answer.

Or, you may want to use this sticker as a poll for feedback. Regardless, all you have to do is click on the question – and each answer individually – to edit them the way you want. Make sure you select a correct answer if there is one. This way, your followers see if they get it right or not.

Again, don’t forget to publish the story prior to leaving your app.

correct

Best practices for Instagram story polls

There are so many reasons to utilize polls in your Instagram stories, like providing valuable information about your business, accumulating content ideas for your brand, or just making your company look more interesting.

Now, we want to outline a few best practices and recommendations for Instagram story polls, allowing you to better utilize the feature for bringing in more business and engaging customers.

Generate content or product ideas

Do you run a podcast, yoga studio, gym, garden store, eCommerce site, or just about any business where you frequently introduce new products, content, or services?

Polls serve many businesses by generating quick feedback instead of “using your gut” about what customers will enjoy.

The yoga studio below provides online video sessions. They take advantage of Instagram story polls to see what yogi followers want to see in the videos for the future. I’ve seen this done for a movie podcast, where they ask what movies they should talk about each week. I’ve even seen a hardware store post pictures of Shark Tank products on their story. They use the Poll sticker to see if anyone would buy those products from their store. Now that’s creative!

percentages Instagram story polls

Use simple polls to remain “in-view”

A quick poll about favorite plants, yoga poses, or movies is essential for staying “in-view” for your customers. Social media is a cluttered world, so sometimes the most basic of questions on a daily or weekly basis reminds customers that your brand exists.

The following screenshot pulled an Instagram post from another account, then reshared it as a story. They added a poll that probably took no more than five seconds to think up: Do you agree?

We like this approach for a few reasons. First of all, you don’t have to conjure up the content at all. Locate an industry-specific social media post, meme, article, or study, then ask your followers if they agree. Secondly, Instagram users often appreciate the opportunity to answer a quick question without taking up too much of their work/school day.

This is an example of spreading useful information without any long, tedious interaction requirements.

eat more plants

Ask for predictions

The sporting world is an obvious choice for prediction polls, but they also apply to many other industries. I’m thinking of any entertainment-based business or blog, travel sites, or political publications.

You can ask who people think will win an election or if they predict an early spring or what they expect the weather to be like for an upcoming event.

The example below is from a casual sporting publication. The question asks people to vote on who’s going to win a football championship game. As you may have guessed, no one can predict this, so it’s essentially useless for feedback. However, it’s fun and engaging and relevant all wrapped into one simple poll. Don’t forget, people love making predictions and arguing about them, even if there’s no basis behind the opinions.

sporting questions for Instagram story polls

Test and educate your followers with Instagram story polls

The Quiz sticker serves you rather well for creating polls with more detail.

These polls have multiple choice answers, with the option to include a correct answer.

The National Park Service is known for its incredible social media presence, educating park lovers of all ages.

The following questions test knowledge on the ending of slavery, with an immediate response on whether or not your answer is right or wrong. We like these types of questions and polls because they’re more flexible than the regular Poll stickers. You can include a longer question. Not to mention, all that’s required is a quick Google search to find a trivia question that relates to your industry.

slavery question on Instagram story polls

Generate excitement

Whether using the Poll, Question, or Slider stickers, a useful way to implement a story is by asking about excitement. Do you have an event coming up? Is there a big day in the future that your company is involved in?

The Slider sticker works well for this, seeing as how there is no right answer and all users have to do is slide the tab to the right to show their emotion.

slider

Ask about attendance

Although the following example isn’t using a poll-type sticker, it demonstrates an important part of event management.

Yes, you may have created a Facebook event and sent out emails, but it’s still a good idea to send reminders.

The Countdown sticker can be paired with a poll to ask if someone intends on attending an event or coming by your store this weekend.

countdown for Instagram story polls

What’s great about pairing the Countdown element with other stickers is that the user clicks on the timer to then add it to their calendar or share it on their own Instagram.

get ready

Generate feedback to help your future business decisions

Getting feedback from a poll is as simple as asking your Instagram followers. It’s not a scientific researching tool, but you have the opportunity to see if software features, product ideas, or event plans actually resonate with your customers.

The screenshot below asks about lightsabers. This could be repurposed for a movie memorabilia store. In fact, any type of product-oriented business could take this question and adjust it to see what followers see as trendy.

another poll

Let your followers write the questions

A quick way to run a poll is to see if users are willing to ask you the questions. The Question sticker is available for this type of interaction, and it’s extremely popular with eCommerce stores and bloggers.

write their own

Just make something silly

Instagram is supposed to be silly. As long as the content and question are relevant, go with it!

silly Instagram story polls

Final advice on Instagram story polls

Instagram story polls are a great way to get your audience to interact with you. You can use polls to generate content or product ideas, ask for predictions, test and educate your followers, generate excitement, ask about attendance at an event, or to get feedback from your audience. You can even let your followers ask the questions for a unique collaborative experiment.

How do you plan to use Instagram story polls?

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By Joe Warnimont

Joe is a Chicago-based writer focused on social media, WordPress, and eCommerce tools. When not riding his bike in Chicago he's camping in Wisconsin. View Joe's portfolio at joewarnimont.com to contact him and see past work.

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