Twitter polls | Don't Blink

I know when I write about social media I immediately lose probably 50% of my audience who couldn’t care less about whatever new app or new feature I am going to detail. Around 25% are indifferent and will still read what I have to say. The other 25% read my blog solely for the social media aspect. So, as much as I hate to alienate my audience, tonight I am catering to the “social media savvy” 25%.

Twitter recently came out with Twitter Polls. Users can now ask a question and receive an answer that doesn’t make their audience feel like they are overly endorsing an account by retweeting, replying, or liking. Now, Twitter users simply just choose between two choices and fill in the corresponding bubble with their mouse or thumb. The vote is immediately counted and the polls stay open for 24 hours. Once the time expires, voting is closed but the results continue to live on Twitter.

I debuted the feature on our @CCUChanticleer account yesterday. With the date falling on a Teal Tuesday, I asked our audience who was and who wasn’t wearing teal. We received some good news and some bad news. Starting with the bad news, most people WERE NOT wearing teal. When it came to the good news, almost 200 people replied. For the first time using the tool, the participation wasn’t too shabby. It is important to realize that the vast majority of Twitter users don’t even know about Twitter Polls yet.

Unfortunately we didn’t have as many people wearing teal as we would have liked.

Later on in the day I asked a question I had a little more fun with. I quizzed our audience on whether they would rather take a photo with our mascot Chauncey or our brand new bronze statue replica that was installed last month. The real thing won out in a landslide.

Statues are cool but it is all about the real deal.

There are limitations to Twitter Polls. You can only offer two options for your audience to choose. You can’t participate in Twitter Polls via third party platforms such as TweetDeck or Hootsuite. Most maddening, you can’t tell who voted. Mind you, I am not just talking about not seeing what side someone voted on, you can’t see who voted in general. As a social media marketer, I would have loved to see the 200 people who voted in our initial poll but I will never know. Of course this anonymity probably encourages participation but it still leaves me wondering.

Do you think I could stay away from trying Twitter Polls on my personal account? Come on now, you know me better than that. The first question I asked was something a third grader would write on a crumpled piece of paper and pass to a classmate. Luckily my self-worth was affirmed by my Twitter followers.

Obviously a quarter of my Twitter audience feel that I am a big jerk.

The second question I threw to my 1,585 followers centered directly on www.brentreser.com. I think the eight people who responded were just trying to be nice.

BREAKING NEWS: We did a scientific poll and figured out that 6 out of 8 people read Brent Reser’s blog!

Then last night as I was watching the latest GOP debate, I thought it would be interesting to offer up the below question. You still have a couple hours left to vote! Can’t say if the majority of the respondents are correct or not!