Have you tried to create a poll on Facebook? If you’re planning to do a live poll for your next broadcast, here are ways on how to create one and maximize it for your business.
Polls and Surveys During Live Broadcast
Running live polls during a broadcast is a great way to engage your audience and get feedback for a particular topic. It also helps you understand what your viewers are collectively thinking about important aspects of your show or business.
But how exactly do you create a poll on Facebook Live?
Using Facebook Live Poll
To create a poll in Facebook Live Producer, you need to go to Polls then create your poll. You can include up to four options for one question. If you have multiple questions, they will be saved in the Polling section.
Take note, though, that you need to be live to be able to publish the poll.
Once it’s published, the poll will pop up on the screen for your viewers to answer. Then, when you want to end the poll, you can click on the question on the Polls list to see how many people voted.
If you want to ask questions and receive free-text answers from your viewers, set it up in the Questions tab.
Now if you’re planning on doing a straight-to-the-point live stream with just a talking head in the video, running your poll in the native Facebook Live platform would be a great idea.
However, if you’re a business owner planning to go live using your own branding, then running Facebook’s live poll may not fully satisfy your live streaming needs on a commercial level. It’s not customizable design-wise and you won’t be able to use it on a third-party live streaming tool.
That’s because unlike its Graphics generator, the Polls don’t have a stream key or URL that you can use for another broadcasting tool.
You also won’t be able to save the poll data once you end your stream. If you really need to save the data, you should either take a screenshot of the results or copy them on a tracker. Sharing the results on screen is doable via the screen sharing option but you won’t be able to use your camera at the same time.
If you’re using BeLive to create branded content for your business, Facebook Live Polls would not work. But, there are several ways to work around this issue for a smooth polling experience during your show plus a couple more perks.
Adding a Poll or Survey in Your BeLive Live Stream
If you’re using BeLive to live stream your content, you have more flexibility in creating polls or surveys for your live stream.
Create External Poll or Survey
Start a poll for your live stream by creating an external survey form from different tools. Though it won’t pop up on screen like the one in Facebook Live Producer, you can still share it with your viewers for them to answer.
With an external poll tool, you can:
- You can get more information from your viewers and potential customers.
- You’ll be able to conduct your survey and build a list of leads at the same time by simply asking for their contact information.
- You can also include an option to include a viewer in your mailing list.
That’s hitting three birds with one stone!
External polls usually allow you to customize your survey according to your branding or theme preference. You can add background images, headers, and even specialized welcome and thank you messages.
Some tools you can create a poll with include:
Google Form
The Google Form is free and available to anyone with a Google account. There are preset templates for whatever kind of form you need. You can also see real-time insights on the survey you created by clicking on the Responses section.
SurveyMonkey
This online poll form is a versatile tool for any kind of data you need. Though not specifically designed for live streaming, it’s an effective survey tool to get feedback from your audience.
Typeform
You can customize the look and feel of your poll in Typeform by adding a background image, changing colors, and even including a welcome and thank you message. You can check the results with engaging graphics and see free-text responses on one page.
Kahoot!
If you want to make your polling experience more exciting for your audience, try creating one with Kahoot! It encourages live participation with your audience by turning the poll into a game. You can instantly gather votes and do a pulse check while live as well. However, it does not have a free plan and you’ll have to purchase a package to be able to use Kahoot.
There are a ton of other poll making tools available online right now. You just have to pick the one that best fits your needs as a business.
Share the Poll or Survey Link to Your Audience
After creating your poll, you can directly share the link to your audience while live. Schedule your post and prepare to go live with your poll.
Create a vanity link through tools like Bitly or Rebrandly before sharing it with your audience.
For example, if you’re planning to create a poll on Facebook Live for feedback on coffee, you can make the link bit.ly/coffeepoll instead of a series of numbers. This way, it will be easier to recognize and remember for you and your audience.
Once you’ve got your vanity URL, you can now share it with your viewers when you go live. There are several ways to do this during a BeLive broadcast.
Share with Live Sales Link
With this feature, you can send the link of a poll or survey form directly to the comments section. Viewers will just have to click on the link and start answering right away.
Here’s Camera Confidence Coach Molly Mahoney sharing her affiliate link through the Live Sales feature. An online poll link can be used in the same way!
Add it in the Lower Thirds
Show the poll link on the screen with you by including it in the crawler or in the other parts of the lower thirds.
Include it in the Description
This works best if you want to get feedback even before you start your show.
Incorporate it in Your Custom Frame
Got a feedback form you use every time you go live? Add it to your frame and make it a part of your branding!
Share Screen for Live Results
Once the poll ends, you can access the results in the insights section of the tool you’re using. If you want to share the results, you can easily do so by sharing your screen.
Unlike the native Facebook Live, you can show both your camera and your screen on the video at the same time with BeLive. So your viewers can see a video of you actually explaining the results instead of just hearing your voice.
Best Practices for Live Polls
There are many reasons why streamers create a poll on Facebook or YouTube live. One main reason is to get feedback from the audience. So if a live poll is executed poorly, you won’t be able to get the results you need.
Here are a few best practices to remember for a successful run of a live poll or survey.
- Give clear and easy questions to answer. Make sure your audience understands the questions you want answered. You’re not sharing a riddle after all!
- Make it short and sweet. Be sensitive to people’s time and attention span.
- Offer incentives to those who participate. To entice your audience into answering surveys, offer a small giveaway to those who answer.
- No need to share your audience size. Of course you can still share it for transparency but you do have the prerogative to disclose only the information you want to make public.
- Practice before going live. Like producing a live stream, you should do a run through of your poll to check on typos and missing options.
Here’s a short sample customer feedback survey for a produce company from SurveyMonkey that you can also pattern your poll from.
Do you create a poll on Facebook or YouTube broadcasts? Tell us what polls you’ve run and why in the comments section below!
Sign up with BeLive now, schedule your first post, and start engaging with your audience!
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Pam Amantiad is a Content Writer in BeLive’s Marketing Team. With a degree in Creative Writing, she has nearly a decade of experience in digital marketing, particularly in content creation as a copywriter and a freelance blog writer. Not contented with producing written outputs, she dove into the world of live video marketing in 2019 and hasn’t left since.
