Coming Soon: New Polls Feature to Facilitate Secure Voting for Your Organization

Facebook and Instagram polls are great for social engagement, but don’t quite cut it for official voting functions. Our new polls tool is useful to all organizations by allowing them to facilitate secure, professional voting for officer elections, awards, or other ballot and election-oriented tasks. We offer much more customization and useful features – such as the ability to include more than one question – than polls on social media. Administrators have the flexibility to customize who is qualified to take a poll, start and end times to access the poll, as well as the data displayed in real-time results. 

Note: If you are on an Enterprise plan, or belong to a chapter or club whose national or headquarters level has a partnership with memberplanet, you will have access to the polls feature.

​To get started, log in to memberplanet and follow the steps below to create, share, and view results for a poll.

How to create a poll

1. In the left navigation sidebar, click Polls
2. Click on Create a New Poll

     3. Create a title for your poll, and answer the questions about what type of poll you’re creating:

• Decide if your poll is public or by invite only

 
Note: Private polls can only be viewed by invitation. Those who are not on the participant list will not be able to view the poll, even if someone attempts to share the URL. 
 

• You can select a poll start and end date and time
• Determine visibility settings for your poll results

     4. Add any specific messages or instructions for the following:    

• Intro: You can provide information about the poll before members take it.
• Thank You: Include a customized thank-you message when members complete the poll.
• Closed Poll: Provide a specific message for members attempting to take the poll after it has closed.
• Footer: Include any messaging that will appear at the bottom of the poll.

     5. Click Next to continue
     6. Enter your poll question
     7. Select the question type from the dropdown menu:

• Textbox: A field will be provided for members to type in their answer.
• Dropdown menu: You’ll provide the answer choices, which will appear in a list for members to make only one selection. Members will need to click the dropdown to display the options, then make a selection.
• Checkbox: You’ll provide the answer choices, and members will be able to select more than one option.
• Radio button: You’ll provide the answer choices, and members will be able to select only one.

     8. Create the poll answers for the type of question you’ve chosen

• If your poll includes multiple questions, click Add Question Group, then repeat steps 6-8.

 
Note: You can create as many questions for your poll as needed. There is no limit.


     9. Click Next when you’ve completed adding questions/answers
     10. Preview your poll and select either Save Draft or Publish when ready

How to share a poll or invite participants
 

1. In the left navigation sidebar, click Polls
2. Click on the more icon (three dots) for the poll you wish to share

     3. Click Share

     4. Copy and share the URL or click Invite Your Members to select one of three options:

Add Manually: Enter the name and email addresses for those you want to share the poll with.
Choose From Group: Share the poll with either all your members, your group's contacts, or both. 
Choose From List: Select members individually from your roster to share the poll with.
 
Note: If your poll is private, you cannot share it via the URL provided. Only those invited to participate can view and take your poll. Anyone who attempts to view the poll outside of your participant list will receive messaging that they do not have access to view the poll.

You can easily toggle a poll from public to private by clicking on the lock icon beside the poll name

How to view poll results
 
Admins can view poll results in real time without the hassle of waiting for tabulation. The data is presented both as a list of individual responses and as a pie chart for better graphical interpretation of the data.
 

1. In the left navigation sidebar, click Polls
2. Click on the more icon (three dots) for the poll you want to view results for

     3. Click on Results

     4. Click on any of the question groups displayed or the + symbol to view the poll results for each question

     5. Depending on the configuration to create a poll, your results will show:
 

• The names of voters unless you set responses to anonymous
• The dates and time they voted
• The answers submitted
• Which participant or number of participants who haven’t yet voted
• Your results will also appear as a pie chart for easier breakdown

There is also additional polls functionality that allows them to be paused or deleted, and poll results can easily be exported as an Excel file. View the full polls documentation in our Support Center.
 
If you would like to take advantage of this feature on our Enterprise plan, please schedule a chat with me.

About Patrick Terrian

You'll be hard-pressed to find anyone who's as hardworking and dedicated to client success as our Director of Business Development. Patrick's determination, entrepreneurial spirit, and diehard Michigan Wolverines loyalty make him one of the best membership experts in the industry.​