Tip 1: Keep it short and sweet 

This one is a no-brainer. But still, it's easier said than done: You need to keep both the questions as well as the answer options short and sweet. By keeping the question short, you make sure that everyone reads the full question before answering. The worst mistake you can do in polling is asking an unclear question to begin with. If your question or your answer options can be interpreted in multiple ways, what did you even learn with your poll?

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Tip 2: Make your poll anonymous‍

Depending on your poll topic, you might want to consider making your poll anonymous. Polls can be a great way to make everyone’s voice heard without the fear of speaking out. Making a poll anonymous makes it even easier for individuals to tell their true opinion. In Stagecast, you can make polls anonymous with the click of a button and you can also choose to hide results from your audience.

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Tip 3: Add images to your polls‍

We have all heard the old saying  “a picture says more than a 1000 words”. And especially in a poll, where you want to communicate concisely, every word counts. But not only do images help you communicate more effectively, they are also a great way to increase learning retention and recall-ability. 

Tip 4: Enable several votes per poll & participant

Giving participants more than vote per poll opens up for complex polls. Especially if the answer is not black & white, giving more than one vote per poll allows participants to give more refined feedback. With the Stagecast ranking poll or scale poll, you can even figure out the preferences of your audience or rank different options on a scale.‍

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Tip 5: Use open-text polls‍

A multiple choice poll does not always give you what you need. Sometimes, you might want to collect ideas, feedback and data from your audience in an open-text poll. To make sure your audience shares more information with you, ask open-ended questions like “Why did you choose option A” or “What ideas do you have for improvement”? Participants can then share information with you in an open-text answer.

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Tip 6: Publish results immediately after the poll‍

We have all seen this phenomenon on LinkedIn and other social platforms. “Give me your vote and see the results”. Publishing results for participants immediately after they have voted is a massive engagement driver and boosts incentive for people to participate. As participants are curious and would like to learn what other people think about the given topic, making poll results available after voting increases the participation rate in your poll. Stagecast makes it easy to do just that - with the push of a button, your participants can see the poll results right after they have voted on their device.

Final Thoughts

There you have it: 6 Tips to create better polls. What tip did you find most useful? If you want to get started fast, you can find lots of poll templates on Stagecast. Find an overview here: 

Stagecast poll templates for your meetings

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