The Power of Polling
Polling is a standard method of measuring opinions or votes. It can be used in classrooms, work meetings, political campaigns, and even contests. Polling has the power to tell you a lot of information; how well a politician is doing against an opponent, audience demographics for a speaker, and even opinions on hot topics. Many students have been in a classroom where a teacher or professor asked a polling question, and then counted hands. While this traditional method works, Txtwire offers a real-time, accurate, instant-response method that can help you receive information and communicate to others much more quickly.
Why should I use SMS Polling?
SMS polling is a quick, inexpensive, accurate way to gather the data that you need. A 2010 study conducted by Thomas and Ferrous Inc. found that 40% of consumers are likely to use text messaging to take a poll.
SMS polling allows you to reach a broader, younger, more mobile audience. If you’re main audience is 18-31 year olds (or the Millennials) then you need to communicate via mobile technology. There is simply no way around it. And older audiences can benefit from SMS polling as well, making it easier for them to respond, and to see the results.
How can I use it?
In classrooms:
Many educators, schools, and universities are making use of text polling. In the classroom, text polling can help teachers build an adaptive learning environment; one that changes based on the needs, responses, and interests of the students. College lecture halls can gauge answers to reading questions, test questions, and even allow open-ended answers to promote discussion.
All of the responses collected are shown in real-time on a screen for everyone to see. And don’t worry about privacy. We make sure that the phone numbers and names are only visible to the instructor running the poll.
The uses of text polling are limitless. Use it in whatever way will benefit your students, parents, or staff members the most.
During contests:
You can easily run a contest asking participants to answer a multiple choice question. Of those that answer correctly, you can use Txtwire’s platform to randomly generate one number as the winner. Then, from the same platform, contact the winner via SMS message, and tell them how to claim their prize. It’s that simple. And you can build your subscriber list at the same time!
Public Speaking:
Public speakers need to make sure they are keeping their audience paying attention, actively participating, and critically thinking. The best way to do all three of those things is by utilizing the SMS poll.
Asking questions throughout the presentation means you can measure how well your audience is understanding the material being presented. You can even allow open-ended questions to be sent in, so audience members can ask a question as soon as they think of it, and you can respond when you have the proper time.
Of course you can even incentivize participation in some way, guaranteeing more responses; you can offer a free copy of your book, or a gift card, to a randomly selected participant. Our platform makes generating a random number from the list of responses as simple as clicking a button.
Nightclubs and Parties:
One way to keep people happy at nightclubs and parties is to play music that they enjoy. You can set up an SMS poll that allows party-goers to request their favorite song. You can also use it to ask trivia questions, giving away free drinks or a small prize to one person from the correct responses.
Using SMS polling at parties and nightclubs can help create a fun, active atmosphere for everyone involved.
Conclusion
SMS polling is a great way to quickly, easily, and effectively communicate with your students, staff, customers, and peers. With Txtwire you are able to see all of the responses in real-time, allowing you to establish connections with your audience. And, bonus, you get a lot more than polling when you choose Txtwire. There are a lot of companies that only offer polling, but we offer SMS marketing, mobile websites, optimized keywords, polling, voice messaging, and more. And we offer it to over 170 countries worldwide. Start your free trial today.
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