Recently I’ve seen a lot of passionate discussion on LinkedIn about the use of polls. The majority of people seem to agree: “enough already.”
It seems that people came to believe that LinkedIn’s algorithm favors polls. Suddenly our feeds were packed with polls from people trying to boost their engagement metrics. Audiences were not amused.
I get it. As a social media manager, I’ve been asked to post polls for that same reason. I can tell you, it doesn’t usually work. Polls work best when you genuinely care what the audience thinks, not because you’re trying to game the algorithm.
When done right, polls can give you new insights into your audience. You can find out about people’s goals and problems. You can identify knowledge gaps and product needs. You can validate (or invalidate) assumptions. That can guide you in creating helpful content and product or service offerings.
Take this simple poll on the Zoom meeting grace period by Howard Sewell, President of Spear Marketing Group for example:
The question and answers are simple and clear and the answers provide valuable information practically any business person can use. For the people who wrote ‘15 minutes’ or ‘whatever it takes’, they can now take back their time because they know what’s socially acceptable.
In contrast, most polls are unclear, unactionable or just plain unnecessary. The questions and/or answers are muddy, leading, misleading, or just plain promotional. The outcome won’t impact your life even a little. The subject matter is trivial.
All of these are symptoms of polling for the sake of polling. You’re pandering, and it shows.
You can get engagement and new followers by posting polls that are interesting, easy to digest and provide some kind of learning for people.
Before you post, check your intentions. Ask yourself:
- Is my question self-promotional?
- Am I genuinely trying to learn something?
- What would I do/change based on the outcome?
- Could these learnings also provide value to my audience?
- How is this relevant to my network?
Have we reached peak poll? These days I’m seeing fewer polls in my feed, so it’s possible LinkedIn has adjusted their algorithm to account for oversaturation.
It doesn’t really matter. The nuances of LinkedIn’s algorithm change frequently but the intention is always the same– to promote quality interactions. Trying to outsmart the algorithm with a poll, or anything else, is time that could be better spent thinking about your audience and their needs and how you can meet them.
