Social media sites are always looking for the next best way to engage audiences and keep them active.
From eye-popping Reels to shopping links, auto-playing videos to ads, many features compete for your attention.
And yet, sometimes the old classics are the best.
X polls remain a great way to stop users mid-scroll and encourage them to interact with your content.
Social media is designed to ask users their views, but retaining attention for more than three seconds is difficult. That’s why polls are so effective. You stop scrolling, read the poll, assess the options, vote, and then move on.
For brands, this result is the minimum level of interaction you want from polls. Ideally, your poll encourages users to comment, too, or see what others have said.
Polls spark conversations and increase engagement while also providing quick snapshots of your audience’s preferences and opinions.
This guide explains how to effectively use X (Twitter) polls to drive engagement and collect actionable insights for your strategy.
In this guide:
Understanding X polls
X polls are a feature that enables users to attach a multiple-choice question to a post (tweet) on X.
They appear just like regular tweets with a poll beneath your caption. Polls offer up to four answer options on which people can vote.
They are quick for followers to respond to and fun to engage with. This is due to their simple format and short duration, which creates a sense of urgency. If you scroll past a poll and don’t vote, then you miss your chance to express your voice.
Polls also generate real-time results that users only see once they’ve voted. This further encourages people to vote because it piques their curiosity.
Say you’re scrolling on X and see a poll on favorite pizza toppings. Voting isn’t going to change your world, but you’re curious enough to wonder which topping is leading the poll. So, you vote! You get to see the live results and, perhaps, are encouraged to interact further.
This is a quick example of how brands can use polls to hook users and pull them into additional engagements. The poll is a conversation starter.
Popular X poll formats
X polls aren’t just about getting people to click on your post. You can use them to generate significant engagement. Don’t believe us? Here are some poll formats that brands use to stand out.
Vote and comment
Brands will often ask users to vote and comment on polls. Encouraging a second layer of engagement is effectively an “explain why you voted” nudge, which works really well for X.
Why? Because X users wear their opinions and are willing to share them. Not only do they vote, but they also want to explain why.
Tournament
If you want to go viral on X, then a poll tournament is often the way forward. The idea is to create “matches” between various options in a category to see which is most popular.
A great example of this came in 2022 when Radio X used X polls for their “Guitar Cup.” The aim was to find the “best year for music.”
Listeners voted 16 matches – so 32 individual years – in a knockout format and eventually boiled down to a “final” between 1994 and 1995. The competition was a huge success, and Radio X tied it in with their radio playlists. (If you’re curious, 1994 won with 55% of the vote thanks to a big push by Oasis, Blur, and Pulp fans).
Should we, shouldn’t we?
You can use polls to get direction from your audience. Say a brand is thinking about launching a new product or tweaking an existing one. Making the suggestion on X gives your audience the ability to share their views and potentially steer you on the right course.
This also generates closer connectivity with your audience, who feel empowered by the opportunity to express their opinions.
Customer satisfaction
There are plenty of ways to gauge customer satisfaction, but sometimes the direct method is the best. Why not use an X poll to ask customers their views?
You could check in to see if they liked a new product launch. Perhaps you’re a sports team and want to gauge who fans thought was the player of the match. Maybe you’re a restaurant that’s launched a new pizza and want to know whether customers liked it.
These kinds of polls show your audience that you value their opinion, and the feedback can highlight areas to improve.
Just be prepared to act on what you learn – if 70% of voters say they’re not thrilled with something, it’s a cue to dig deeper and address the issue.
How to create engaging X polls
You can throw a quick poll on X and see whether it gets engagement, or plan ahead and maximize your chances of nailing deeper insights.
It doesn’t take long to plan a poll. In fact, you can use the same process as your wider social media strategy. Follow these steps to create X polls that not only attract votes but also give you useful information:
Step 1: Define your objectives
This is the first step you take before posting anything on social media – whether a poll, Reel, LinkedIn ad, or any other piece of content.
Clarify what you want to achieve. Is it getting feedback about a product or service? Are you trying to understand your audience more? Are you looking to go viral?
Having a specific goal helps you craft a focused question and relevant answer options. It also means you’ll know how to act on the results when the poll ends.
Step 2: Craft your poll question
With your objective set, it’s time to write the question. The way you phrase your poll question can make a big difference in how many people participate and how useful the answers are.
Be consistent and focus on one topic. Users only have one option to vote, so muddling the poll is immediately confusing.
Make sure it’s relevant, too. Tying your poll to current trends, an event, or a recent update in your business can spark interest.
Your question also needs to encourage engagement. Ask users to comment on why they voted or retweet the poll to their followers.
Step 3: Develop engaging answer options
Here’s a little secret. When users scroll on X and spot a poll, they usually scan the options before looking up to the question. It’s the poll format and voting options that draw the eye first.
So, you need to ensure your answer options are noticeable and engaging.
Speak your audience’s language and offer a balanced set of choices – but don’t be afraid to throw in a funny alternative answer. If you have a “yes/no” poll with binary choices, perhaps throw a third one in there.
This gives people who aren’t fixated on one side or the other a chance to interact and engage.
Just remember you only have four response options per poll.
Step 4: Time your poll effectively
Setting a time limit for your poll is a real art form. You want to create a level of urgency by keeping the timeframe relatively short but not short enough that the poll closes before it reaches your maximum audience.
Meanwhile, scheduling your post for the right time of day or moment in the week is crucial. The X algorithm is more likely to promote posts that get fast engagement, so posting a poll at 1 am – even if you have a 48-hour voting window – isn’t the best idea.
The solution? Use a social media management platform like Brandwatch to schedule your post for the optimal time when your followers are most active.
Step 5: Promote your poll for maximum participation
“Build it, and they will come” only goes so far on social media. You should actively encourage people to participate to get a high number of votes (and thus better engagement and data).
Anyone who has launched a tournament-style series of X polls will likely have done this. Constant messaging on X and other social platforms is required to generate interest and direct people to each poll.
You can also create media around the poll. Launch a new campaign, publish a web page, and discuss it wherever you are.
Additionally, stay engaged by replying to any comments the poll might get. If someone replies with a thought, like “I wish I could vote for more than one option,” you can respond to keep the conversation going (which also bumps the poll post in the feed due to activity).
Analyzing poll results
The whole point of your X poll is to generate engagement and gather audience insights. To do this effectively, it’s important to track all engagement metrics that stem from the poll.
Brandwatch is an official X partner and offers the ideal suite of tools to get deep insights into every poll. With Measure, you can assess everything – from basics such as vote numbers, likes, reposts, and comments – to more complex data like audience share, segmentation, and sentiment analysis.
Pull all the data into one dashboard and analyze the results. You may find an option you thought would be unpopular, actually got a lot of votes. Such surprises are learning opportunities; they might challenge your assumptions about your audience.
You can keep historic poll data within Brandwatch, which makes it easy to spot trends and changes in your audience sentiment over time. You’ll soon spot consistent themes in your poll results and feedback, which you can use to inform future campaign and business decisions.
Time to create your next X poll
X polls are a versatile, user-friendly way to boost engagement on your X feed while gathering valuable feedback from your audience.
They stop users from doomscrolling and encourage interaction in a way photos, GIFs, and videos can’t. In fact, polls are one of the few genuine ways for X users to interact with a post beyond liking, commenting, or reposting.
Polls probably won’t overtake your entire social media strategy, but they’re a useful tool in your overall social media management machine.
They provide a quick pulse check on audience sentiment – insights that can inspire everything from your next piece of content to your next product offering.
With a tool like Brandwatch, it’s easy to incorporate X polls as a regular part of your engagement strategy and decipher the results.
Whether you’re looking for serious feedback or just some light-hearted fun with your followers, these polls offer a win-win opportunity. Your audience feels heard and involved, and you gain knowledge (and buzz) that can drive your brand forward.
So go ahead — ask away and watch the engagement roll in.
