In 2003, LinkedIn was established as a platform for building professional networks. It allows users to gather real-time data and feedback from others in their industry or field. Whether you are a veteran in your industry, an individual, or a brand trying to establish a professional persona or company brand, LinkedIn can help you elevate your presence and provide or gain insights regarding a wide range of topics. One such way of doing this is through the LinkedIn poll feature. If you are not familiar with this property, fear not. We shall cover how to craft engaging polls, how to optimise your questions/options, how to promote your polls, and more.
The Purpose of LinkedIn Polls
To get started, we need to understand the purpose of these surveys. LinkedIn is a unique social platform as it allows individuals to have real-time access to other people in their field, industry, or target group in one accessible place. When done correctly, this can lead to great insights. Such data can include; "What are the best days to post on social media?" (For marketing teams) or "Do you prefer to be communicated via email, direct message, or phone?" (For business to business/business to consumer companies). Other means of utilising this element are sparking relevant discussions which can identify content ideas and increase engagement with you as an individual or your brand/company.
Designing a LinkedIn Poll
When designing your LinkedIn polls, it is crucial to note the limitations. As such, the question you choose to post cannot exceed 140 characters. The options/answers cannot exceed 30 letters, numbers, or punctuation marks. The General Data Protection Regulation prevents sensitive data aimed questions from being extracted from the surveys. This includes the sexual orientation, precise geographical location, religious beliefs, or political opinions of participants. These polls allow responses for the duration of 1 day, 3 days, 1 week, or a maximum of 2 weeks determined by the creator. With these limited time frames, you need to tailor their polls for the maximum reach of their target audience and receive engagement from relevant individuals.
How to video guide
How can you engage with the right audience and promote your blogs to your target audience?
The most popular methods include leveraging and implementing hashtags and utilising public LinkedIn groups. Both options allow you to connect with your target audience and industry, build your community or engage with the general public.
You can use both these techniques with the basic version of LinkedIn. The groups are also free to join. They allow a company or business to gain and provide valuable insights from their target audience at their fingertips. These groups can be as broad as the industry-wide or a subsection of the area. One example is the countless information technology groups and the emerging groups for Artificial Intelligence.
If you succeed in these aspects, you can expand your organic reach on LinkedIn and inevitably rank higher for LinkedIn and Google.
Some general tips for engagement and promotion of your polls:
- Join niche groups for the best insights from your target audience.
- Use a maximum of four hashtags to avoid appearing like spam or appearing unprofessional.
- A general rule of thumb on LinkedIn is that 1 or 2 hashtags should focus on your niche and a further 1 or 2 which are broad in your industry.
Like with other campaigns or social media strategies, use the experience of making polls and the data insights it brings to improve for the future and keep evolving. From learning the purpose of the LinkedIn polls and how they can benefit any industry, the best practices and guidelines for this form of content, and how to optimise your surveys and engagement, will you be implementing polls into your LinkedIn social media strategy for your brand or company?
