Polls can be a great way to engage your audience and get feedback on LinkedIn. They allow you to quickly survey your connections and followers to gain insights into their preferences, pain points, and more.
When creating a LinkedIn poll, it’s important to ask thoughtful questions that will spark discussion and provide valuable insights. Avoid overly broad or vague questions that won’t lead to meaningful data. The best LinkedIn poll questions are specific, relevant to your audience, and aligned with your goals.
In this article, we’ll explore different types of poll questions you can ask on LinkedIn and provide examples for inspiration. Whether you want to better understand your audience, generate content ideas, or promote an upcoming webinar, read on for tips to create an effective LinkedIn poll.
Questions to Understand Your Audience
One of the best uses of LinkedIn polls is to gain a better understanding of your audience—their challenges, preferences, and opinions. Asking thoughtful poll questions can provide valuable demographic and psychographic insights to help refine your content and messaging. Here are some examples:
Industry or Role
Ask your audience about their industry or job role to learn more about who they are:
– Which industry do you work in?
– What is your current job title or role?
This can help you tailor content to their specific needs and pain points. For example, if you see a high percentage of social media managers, you can create more content about social media tools and strategies.
Company Size
Understand the company size of your audience with questions like:
– How many employees does your company have?
– Is your company considered small, medium, or large?
Knowing company size can help segment your audience and identify differences in challenges faced. For instance, your content for solopreneurs may differ from content targeted to Fortune 500 companies.
Business Challenges
Ask your audience about their biggest business or industry challenges:
– What is your company’s biggest challenge right now?
– What is the biggest challenge you face in your role?
– What do you wish you knew more about when it comes to [insert topic]?
This can uncover pain points to address in your content and product offerings. You can even follow up with content that provides solutions and tips to overcome those challenges.
Purchasing Influence
Gauge your audience’s purchasing influence with questions like:
– Are you the key decision maker for purchases in your department?
– Do you have any influence on purchasing decisions at your company?
– What is your involvement in deciding which products/services to buy for your company?
This can identify key buyer personas to target and help you understand how influential your audience is in making purchase decisions. Tailor your content and messaging to speak to their level of authority.
Content Preferences
Ask your audience directly about the type of content they want to see:
– What type of content do you find most helpful from our LinkedIn page?
– What topics would you like to see more of from our page?
– What formats do you prefer to engage with (articles, videos, live streams, etc)?
This allows you to create content that better resonates with your audience’s preferences. You can even ask them to submit ideas for future articles and topics.
Questions to Generate Content Ideas
In addition to better understanding your audience, LinkedIn polls are a great way to come up with new content ideas and topics. Here are some example questions to spark ideas:
Industry Insights
Tap into your audience’s experience by asking:
– What do you think is the most important trend in [industry] right now?
– What are the biggest mistakes people make when it comes to [topic]?
– What advice would you give someone just starting out in [industry]?
This can uncover unique perspectives and actionable insights you can turn into blog posts, videos, and more.
Common Questions
Find out what questions your audience has by asking:
– What questions do you commonly get asked about [topic]?
– What topics would you like to learn more about when it comes to [subject]?
– What challenges do you have the most trouble solving?
You can then directly answer and address those common pain points through your content.
Case Studies
Request examples from your audience:
– Would anyone be willing to share a short case study or example of [x]?
– Has anyone successfully implemented [idea] at their company? Share your experience!
Collect real-world examples to craft compelling case studies and testimonials.
“Vs” Questions
Spark debate by asking “vs” questions:
– [Idea A] vs. [Idea B]: Which do you think is better?
– What’s more important when it comes to [topic] – [X] or [Y]?
These “versus” style questions can uncover strong opinions from your audience. You can then create content that compares the pros and cons of each side.
Design Feedback
Get input on designs and creatives by asking:
– What do you think of this new [landing page design, logo, etc]?
– How could we improve on this [infographic, brochure, etc]?
This allows you to refine and optimize your visual assets based directly on your audience’s feedback.
Questions to Promote Events, Offers & More
LinkedIn polls provide a great opportunity to promote webinars, discounts, and other offers. Come up with poll questions to generate buzz and excitement.
Webinars & Events
Promote an upcoming webinar or event:
– Would you be interested in attending a webinar on [topic]?
– What time works best for you to attend a live [webinar, panel, workshop]?
Gauge interest levels and determine the optimal timing for your event.
Product Feedback
Get feedback on product features by asking:
– Would [this feature] be useful to your workflow?
– On a scale of 1-5, how valuable would you rank [this product feature]?
This allows you to validate and prioritize your roadmap based on direct customer input.
Gated Content
Drive downloads of a gated resource:
– Would you download [guide, template, ebook] with tips for [goal]?
– What info would you want to see in a [checklist, guide] for [topic]?
Craft the gated content based on their input to increase downloads.
Discounts & Offers
Promote special deals and offers:
– Who would be interested in [discount or exclusive offer] for [product/service]?
– Would you take advantage of [discount] for [offer]?
This builds excitement and allows you to tailor the offer based on levels of interest.
Referrals
Encourage shares and referrals:
– Would you recommend [product] to a friend or colleague?
– How likely are you to share [content offer] with your network?
This can provide social proof and help estimate the potential viral reach.
Best Practices for LinkedIn Poll Questions
When brainstorming your LinkedIn poll questions, keep these best practices in mind:
– Keep it short and concise
– Make it specific and relevant to your audience
– Avoid overly broad or vague questions
– Have a clear objective in mind for why you’re asking
– Make sure answer options are exhaustive and mutually exclusive
– Consider using images or video for visual polls
– Get creative and have fun with it! Polls don’t have to be boring surveys
– Follow up with a call-to-action based on poll results
Poll Examples We Love
Here are some of our favorite examples of great LinkedIn polls we’ve come across:
BuzzFeed
BuzzFeed does a wonderful job creating polls that tap into pop culture trends. This poll capitalizes on the Wordle craze in a fun way:
Social Media Examiner
This poll from Social Media Examiner keeps it simple yet effective. It incorporates visuals and targets a hot topic:
Hootsuite
Hootsuite poses an excellent “versus” style question that sparks debate. The image also catches your eye:
Social Chorus
Here’s a great example of driving event registrations. Social Chorus promotes their upcoming webinar and gauges interest:
As you can see, the possibilities are endless for great LinkedIn poll questions! Get creative and leverage polls to better understand your audience, generate content ideas, promote offers, and more. Just keep them targeted, thoughtful, and actionable.
Tips for Creating Effective LinkedIn Polls
Now that you have some LinkedIn poll question inspiration, here are a few tips to create effective polls that deliver results:
Choose the right poll type – LinkedIn offers multiple poll formats including text-based, image-based, and video polls. Select the best format for your question and audience.
Keep it short – Polls with shorter, more concise questions tend to get higher response rates. Keep your question under 100 characters.
Limit answer options – Shoot for 2-5 answer options. Too many can overwhelm respondents. Make sure options are mutually exclusive.
Consider your call-to-action – What do you want people to do after voting? Include a link or follow up with a call-to-action.
Use visuals – Incorporate visuals like images, GIFs or videos to make your poll more eye-catching.
Leverage hashtags – Include relevant hashtags so your poll surfaces in those feeds.
Promote your poll – Share your poll in relevant LinkedIn groups, on other social channels, via email, and through employee advocacy.
Analyze the results – Review your poll data and use insights to inform future content, product decisions, and more.
Conclusion
Asking thoughtful and engaging questions is key to creating effective LinkedIn polls your audience will love. Use the examples and best practices in this article to come up with strategic poll questions that provide valuable insights.
Leverage polls to better understand your audience, generate captivating content ideas, promote offers, and spark discussion. With the right questions, LinkedIn polls can become a valuable channel for engaging your connections.
So put on your thinking cap, get creative, and start polling your audience today! The insights you gain may just surprise you.
Poll Question Type | Example Question |
---|---|
Industry/Role | What is your current job title or role? |
Company Size | How many employees does your company have? |
Business Challenges | What is your company’s biggest challenge right now? |
Purchasing Influence | Are you the key decision maker for purchases in your department? |
Content Preferences | What topics would you like to see more of from our page? |
Industry Insights | What do you think is the most important trend in [industry] right now? |
Common Questions | What questions do you commonly get asked about [topic]? |
Case Studies | Would anyone be willing to share a short case study or example of [x]? |
“Vs” Questions | [Idea A] vs. [Idea B]: Which do you think is better? |
Design Feedback | How could we improve on this [infographic, brochure, etc]? |
Webinars & Events | Would you be interested in attending a webinar on [topic]? |
Product Feedback | On a scale of 1-5, how valuable would you rank [this product feature]? |
Gated Content | Would you download [guide, template, ebook] with tips for [goal]? |
Discounts & Offers | Who would be interested in [discount or exclusive offer] for [product/service]? |
Referrals | How likely are you to share [content offer] with your network? |