Facebook has a relatively under-utilized feature where users can create surveys and polls for their friends to answer. It’s useful for quick feedback on a decision, or more importantly when you’re trying to plan or schedule events within a group.
Facebook has two methods for sharing polls – one that’s quick and easy but doesn’t have many customizing options, and another that requires slightly more digging and time, but will make your poll altogether better. Let’s get right into it.
How to set up a poll on Facebook
1. Make a poll directly from your news feed
This method is the more straightforward of the two, and allows for you to quickly poll your entire pool of Facebook friends. Open up your Facebook News Feed and up top where you’d normally make a post, click the ellipsis.
You’ll see a bunch of options like tagging events, answering questions, or asking recommendations. On the right is a Poll option. Click it.
Up top, you can ask your question, and put two options below for people to click on. Unfortunately, you’ll only have those two choices, so this might not be good for you if your question has more than two possible answers. You do get to choose your poll’s duration, though. Choose any length of time between one day to never.
Funny enough, you’re able to set many more options if you set up a poll on a Facebook Group Page. Open the group in question, then just click the ellipsis like before and select Poll. Pose your question and this time notice that you can choose to Add Option, providing more choices.
2. Make a poll through the Poll App
This method takes a little longer, but we find it to be the better choice more often than not. Facebook’s poll app allows for tons of optional responses, added instructions, multiple configurations, and even embedding video or pictures.
Go to this link and click New Poll. Right away you can title your poll and explain what it’s going to be about in the Introduction blurb. You can additionally click on Advanced Options to customize how many times people can answer polls, public accessibility, notifications, and start/end times for your poll.
The next page lets you add the actual choices for people to pick, and you can add as many options as you wish, unlike back on the News Feed where you could only pick two. This is the main reason we prefer the Poll App. Next, you’ll be taken to a preview screen where you’ll be able to see how it’ll look once people click the link. Once you’re happy with it, click Submit.
Select Post on Facebook and it’ll be posted just like anything else you’d normally write, and it will appear on everyone’s News Feed. It’ll look something like this:
If you find yourself making polls pretty frequently, you might also consider upgrading Facebook Poll to the premium version, which comes with a variety of added features:
Be sure to check back frequently to see how your poll is doing, and don’t forget to tally up your votes to share the results after it’s complete.
