You know we love a good poll around here. If you’re not using polls and surveys to better understand your audience—and create hyper-relevant content—you should be. Here are 4 tips to start:

1. Know the difference. A poll poses one brief, multiple-choice question. Polls allow you to gauge the general sentiment or majority opinion of your audience. Conversely, surveys may include dozens of questions across a variety of topics. Questions may be formatted as yes/no, short answer, multiple choice, ranking, and more. This option is effective for collecting deeper insights into your audience’s preferences and motivations.
2. Use polls and surveys for data… and for fun. If you’re looking for actionable data, use a tool to create a poll or survey that collects and organizes responses for you. However, you can utilize native social media polls or simply ask your audience an open-ended question to spark engagement.
3. Know your objective. As with any formal analysis, it’s important to identify the purpose behind your poll or survey before going live. What insights do you hope to gain? What assumptions do you hope to prove or disprove? Understanding your goal will help you refine your copy and ultimately provide more accurate results.
4. Ask the right questions. For objective results, your questions must be worded in such a way as to not sway the respondent in any direction. Additionally, consider how the format of your question will influence results. A multiple-choice question limits users to predetermined responses, while open-ended questions have the potential to allow users to expound upon an opinion.

Check out Search Engine Land to learn how to turn polls and surveys into great content.

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