LinkedIn launches ‘Polls’ to tap into the power of professional network

LinkedIn has globally introduced a new ‘Polls’ feature, a quick, easy way for members to tap into the collective knowledge of their professional networks to gain opinion and perspective on topics and conversations that matter today.

LinkedIn Polls allows members to reach out to their networks to ask for feedback, share it with others, spark new conversations, and make informed decisions based on the responses.

Amid the current uncertain environment, recruiters, HR heads, marketers, and company heads are all using the feature in diverse ways to solicit feedback across relevant subjects such as workplace preferences, shopping habits, and key company goals.

Here’s how you can create a lightweight poll to gain insights

Start a new post and click the “Create a Poll” option in the chooser menu

Type a question, enter up to four answer options, and select the poll’s duration—between 24 hours and up to two weeks

Write up a post to go along with the poll—you can include hashtags to help your poll get more attention

Push the poll live to either connections, specific Groups you are part of, or to anyone across the LinkedIn network. By targeting specific Groups with the poll, members can get even more relevant insights.

In India, members and companies such as L&T have currently been using Polls to shape workplace policies, and identify industry trends and hiring trends for the future.

And globally too, companies such as Amazon and Hootsuite have been using the Polls feature to understand what is most important to job candidates while choosing an employer or how their audiences are using ads on LinkedIn.

Vani Kola, MD, Kalaari, asked her connections’ preference for workplace options. The poll received over 4,100 votes

Mad Over Marketing (M.O.M) asked its network for their opinion on changing shopping habits, and preference for online shopping in the ‘new normal’. The poll has received close to 3,200 votes

LTI - Larsen & Toubro Infotech polled its network on organizations’ top goals to navigate the crisis. The survey received over 1,300 votes

Review poll results and continue the conversation

While the poll collects insights from the network, members can easily keep an eye on the activity in real-time, such as how many votes have been cast thus far, results for each option, and how much time is left for voting. Only the poll creator can see who voted and what they cast their vote for.

Once the poll closes, all the pertinent information is available in one place: the winning option, the percentage of votes for each option and the total vote count.

The feature also allows the surveyors to message voters directly from within the poll, to get deeper insights and to stay in touch with the connections.

Polls will be rolled out globally to all members on mobile and desktop over the next few weeks. For more resources on navigating the current Covid-19 environment.