What is it?
The Polls tool allows you to create engaging poll questions for your site that site visitors can respond to. The title of the Poll represents the question, and you can create up to 12 multiple choice answers for site visitors to choose from. Polls are primarily used for member engagement, and are not ideal for membership surveys.
How to Access
Navigate to to Community > Polls.
Adding a New Poll
1. To add a new Poll, begin by clicking on the New plus sign in the top righthand corner.
2. Next, give the Poll a Title. The Title is the poll question. Add the alias in lowercase letters with dashes (-) replacing spaces. Lag is the number of seconds before a poll can be voted again by the same User - we recommend leaving it as is.
3. Enter up to 12 Options, or possible Poll answers, then Save.
Adding a Poll Menu Item
Once the poll has been configured, allow groups access by adding the forum as a Menu Item on your MC Professional site. To create a menu item for the Poll, navigate to Website > Menu Items and select the menu you want to add the menu item to. Click on the "New" plus sign in the top right hand corner.
Under Select Menu Item type, select Polls and choose your new poll.
Give the Menu Item a name (ex. Conference Poll), generate the Alias by hitting the Tab key, then select the menu item under which the new Poll should appear. If the Poll should have a menu item of its own, select Top, then Save.
Lastly, assign the menu item permissions by clicking on the permissions lock at the top of the Menu Manager page.
Here, select the groups who should be able to view this menu item, then Save.
Member View
Here's the Poll from the member's view.
Viewing Poll Results
To view the results of a Poll, click on the Results button at the bottom of the Poll page.
The next page will show the poll's results, and give you the option to navigate between polls.
Comments
19 comments
We are currently using Higher Logic as our online community, but could we still use this polling feature?
Anthony - Yes! You can create a new poll and either add it to your menu bar or link to it using the Site Links tool. Hope that helps!
Is there a way for me, as an admin. to have a report of the results or an easy way to view the results submitted by our members? Can I see what options were chosen by what member in order to privately address any matters with them?
Hi Richard - First, it looks like you're using our Classic platform. This documentation is for the new system, but a similar article about using Polls in Classic is available here. To view the results of a Poll, click on the Results button at the bottom of the Poll page. The next page will show the poll's results, and give you the option to navigate between polls. You aren't able to drill down to see which options were chosen by what member - in order to see details like those, you would want to use a basic form with a radio button so you could view the form's results tied to member profiles. I hope that helps!
Hi Kinsey - can this poll be made anonymous so no one can see who voted for what? I'm thinking about using this for our board election. Is there a limit to the number of characters you can enter in an option? Ideally, our voters would be able to read not only the names but the statements of each board candidate. It doesn't look like this would work well, though -- no formatting options. Suggestions?
Hi Christine - We recommend using the Poll feature for member engagement, but not for things like a board election. I would recommend using a form for a board election. In the form set-up window after you click "Create New Form," leave both the Membership and Event boxes unchecked to create a more basic form. Once you're in the form, drop on a General Section from the Add Form Elements > Presentation tab. You can make submissions completely anonymous by disabling the Login section, but we suggest leaving login enabled so that you're able to limit the number of times each member uses the form.
Thanks Kinsey! Do you mean if I make the election anonymous people can vote more than once? That won't work! ;-)
You say "completely anonymous" -- what if only admin can see who voted what way? Can I get a report that would give me the end result, e.g., 300 votes for so-and so and 150 for such-and-such?
Christine - Yes, if you disable the login section on the form, people can vote more than once. To avoid that, I would recommend leaving login enabled, which is the default setting.
When the form is submitted, Admins will be able to see and report on who voted what way, including the end result (300 votes for person A, 200 for person B).
Thanks Kinsey -- here's the key, though. If I can't deliver voter results that doesn't show names, I have to go back to surveyonkey for this. So help me understand: if I have my members vote using a form I create, can I produce a report that shows the results without showing who voted for what? I mean, can I produce a report that keeps the vote anonymous?
Christine - When exporting the form submissions, you can choose which fields to export. If you want to keep the export anonymous, leave off the personal fields (ex. name and email) when exporting the submissions. If you use a Report (I think the Report under Reporting > Forms > Selection Summary Report will work best) that report will NOT include personal registrant information - just the numbers you want to see. Hope that helps!
Perfect! Thanks millions, Kinsey. I really REALLY want to keep this all confined in MemberClicks. My hunch is, with polls, there might be a mechanism to remind people who haven't responded, but that won't be the case with a form used for a ballot. Right? And last question: Why doesn't my profile photo show up here? Do I need to do a profile picture on the help side, too? This is, as you can imagine, not urgent. ;-)
Can a poll be multiple choice? For example a list of potential activities, which might interest you?
Hi Jan - A poll is not able to be multiple choice. If you need to collect data in the form of a multi-select, we recommend using a form to do so.
Is there a way to have the results be hidden and only visible by the Admin? Should I create a form instead of using a poll?
Hey there Kimberly! There is not a way to hide the results of a Poll, so you're right on the money - I would suggest using a form instead.
What is your recommendation to market this and entice members to take a poll? I don't think I like the menu option. I don't think many people will click on it and it clutters our menu. I was hoping it could be built into the member landing page or a popup, like how MC has popups for admins on the backend.
Hello Amanda! You don't need to use a Menu item if you don't want; you can also use Site Links to provide a link to your Poll/s instead. We also offer a Poll module that would sit on the right-side bar, and if you're interested in that as a solution, please reach out to our Help Team!
Can polls be restricted to one-time only participation or do I need to use a form to achieve that restriction?
Hey Debbie! You would want to use a Form to make sure folks are limited to only one submission.
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