How to Leverage Instagram’s New Polls Feature

Oct 05, 2017 - Published by: Andrew Chen

This week Instagram launched a new feature for its popular Stories product, a feature which allows users to easily poll their friends and followers. While the feature is designed with all Instagram users in mind, this new interactive feature has lots of potential for marketers. How might a marketer incorporate Instagram’s new Stories poll feature into a future influencer campaign? Here a few ideas.

Get quick feedback on products or services: One of the main benefits of social media is immediacy: marketers can instantly get a sense for what their followers are thinking or how they’re responding to brand messages, products, or content. With polls for Stories, marketers and their influencer partners can take this real-time feedback to the next level. Want to find out which logo looks best for your new product line? Curious if people are happy with a new service you’re offering? Why not ask them with a poll? The tool has lots of potential to generate quick feedback that can provide direction for more in-depth research, or to aid future decision-making.
Streamline an Instagram content strategy: Instagram already gives users some basic details like view counts to help them gauge their Stories performance. But with polls, marketers now have some powerful new tools to further refine the types of Stories content they post for their followers. For example, a CPG brand could ask their fans whether they like receiving beautiful food photos or recipe tips. This type of insight could be useful for marketers as they evolve their Instagram content plans to ensure they’re as engaging and impactful as possible.
A/B test a new piece of branded content: Marketers have always been keen to get better data about how their content on Instagram are performing. Another potential opportunity with the poll feature on Stories is using it to pre-test before launch. While it’s possible to refine creative once it’s already gone live, having this type of information before a campaign launches could prove to be an effective (and money-saving) way to optimize early in the process.

The launch of Instagram Stories’ new poll tool marks an important new step in the evolution of the product for consumers, influencers and marketers alike. Not only is Stories getting more interactive, it’s also gaining growing importance as a product that can help marketers gather better consumer insights while also streamlining their approach to Instagram content and ad campaigns. Want some advice on how to incorporate this new poll tool into your next campaign? Reach out to the experts at Captiv8 today.