Twitter Polls are a relatively new addition to the Twittersphere; they were introduced in October 2015. Initially they only allowed the option to include two possible answers with a set running timeframe of 24 hours, however this has since been expanded to be more flexible. You can now have four possible answers and a Twitter poll can run up to 7 days.

Unlike Facebook Questions, which were introduced in 2011, Twitter Polls have proved to be quite popular with users. One of the key difference between the two social network’s features’ is that Twitter Poll votes are anonymous, whereas Facebook Questions shows who chose which answer. This means that the most popular Twitter Polls generally tend to be controversial, with things that otherwise people would not necessarily admit to online.

Here are a couple of examples of somewhat controversial Twitter polls:

 

Here are some tips on how to make a decent poll that will get over 100 votes:

• Don’t add unnecessary answers – the best polls usually just have two options.
• Use the “other” option sparingly. Giving people the option to add their own opinion by writing to you directly can be great, but it ruins the anonymity factor and dilutes the impact of the poll.
• A poll with two of the same answers won’t get many votes. You see a lot of people making “fun” polls like ‘Will You Vote For Donald Trump?” and the answers are just “No”, and “No”. This obviously gets your point across, but since people already know the result, they’re less inclined to vote.
• Add some mystery to your poll by bumping it a few hours later. I usually tweet something like “I am not ok with these results.” or “Are you all actually insane??” because then people want to know what the results are, and are more inclined to vote. Clickbait-y? Yes. But worth it.
• Turn a trending Twitter topic into a poll. When you see something being discussed on Twitter, whether it’s 1916, Michaella Mccollum or Arsenal v Spurs, try to think of a witty poll relating to what’s going on & push it out to gage peoples opinions. People are more likely to RT a poll that’s related to a trending topic as well.