Twitter has introduced a new polling feature that lets users ask followers a question and choose from one of two answers. The poll remains active for 24 hours and updates live for both the person who tweets it, and the users who are responding to it. A tweeted poll can be pinned to your profile much like any other tweet and users can respond to the poll from the web or from mobile apps. Media cannot be added to a tweet that is a poll question which means you will have to tweet out the question and cannot, for example, use an image and ask for an opinion on it.
To create a poll, click the compose tweet button on the web or inside the Twitter mobile app. You will see a Poll button next to the Media and Location button. Click it to turn the tweet into a poll tweet. Type in your question and enter text for the two options you want users to choose from. Click Tweet to send it out.
Once the tweet is sent out, you can see how much longer it will be live i.e. how much longer users can vote on it.
As your followers, or just about anyone who sees the tweet, vote on the poll, it updates in real time to reflect which way more people are leaning.
The poll is pretty basic and it does allow for the ‘popular’ vote to win because users can see which option is more popular and it can influence their own choice. The feature is rolling out slowly and it might be some time before you can use it from the mobile app. You can vote from the mobile app but creating a tweet will come a little later to you.
I have to say, this is another Twitter feature that will benefit users who have a bigger reach, or just big name brands.