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How to Use Polly in Slack: Enhancing Communication with Polls

Polly is a powerful Slack integration that allows teams to easily create polls, surveys, and quizzes right within Slack. With Polly, you can gather instant feedback, make better decisions faster, and boost team engagement.

Benefits of Using Polly in Slack

Here are some of the key benefits of using Polly in Slack:

  • Increased participation and response rate: Polls created in Slack typically achieve 7-10x higher response rates compared to traditional surveys or forms. The integration makes it easy for team members to quickly respond right in Slack.
  • Real-time results: See poll responses come in instantly, allowing you to analyze data and make decisions in real-time. No more waiting around for survey results.
  • Enhanced team communication: Polls keep teams connected and aligned, no matter if they are working remotely, distributed, or co-located.
  • Structured feedback: Easily collect structured feedback from your team through polls. Gather insights into what’s working and what needs improvement.
  • Fun and engaging: Well-designed polls, quizzes, and surveys make communication interactive and fun. This boosts participation rates even further.

How to Add Polly to Slack

Adding Polly to Slack only takes a few minutes. Follow these steps:

  1. Go to the Polly Slack App page and click “Add to Slack”.
  2. Sign in to your Slack account if prompted.
  3. Review the permissions Polly needs and click “Allow” to approve them. This allows Polly to work properly in Slack.

Once installed, you’ll see a new Polly menu on the left sidebar of your Slack workspace. Now you’re ready to start creating polls!

Creating a Poll in Slack with Polly

Creating polls in Slack with Polly is simple. Here is a step-by-step guide:

  1. Go to any channel or DM where you want the poll to appear.
  2. Type /polly and hit enter to open the poll creator window.
  3. Enter your poll question and answer options. You can create single or multiple choice polls.
  4. Customize additional options like:
    • Choose who can see and respond to the poll
    • Allow anonymous responses or require sign-in
    • Set a close date/time for the poll
  5. Preview your poll and make any final tweaks.
  6. Hit “Send Poll” and your poll will be posted to the selected Slack channel.

The poll will show up with voting options that allow team members to quickly vote and see real-time results.

Slack Poll Example

Analyzing Poll Results

One of the best parts about Polly is the ability to instantly visualize poll results as votes are cast. But Polly also allows you to deeply analyze poll data in other ways:

  • Export poll data to a CSV file
  • View a poll report showing question summaries, text answers, and more
  • Filter responses by user segment
  • Compare poll results over time with historical reports
  • Share an auto-generated results summary in Slack

With this analytical capability, polls can help teams spot trends, uncover issues early, and continuously improve.

Best Practices for Polls in Slack

To get the most value out of polls, keep these best practices in mind:

  • Keep poll questions short and simple – Concise, clearly-worded questions will get better answers.
  • Limit the number of poll options – Too many options leads to choice overload. Stick to 2-7 choices.
  • Use polls for specific feedback – Ask pointed questions to get detailed insights vs general feedback.
  • Share key takeaways – Let your team know what you learned from the poll results and how you will use the feedback.
  • Automate recurring polls – Schedule weekly or monthly polls to continuously gather feedback.

Ideas for Using Polls in Slack

Here are some ideas to help spark your creativity on how to best leverage Polly polls in your Slack workspace:

  • Pulse checks on employee engagement or team morale
  • Gauge feedback on new initiatives, ideas, and proposals
  • Collect input on decisions – projects, plans, meetings times, etc.
  • Surface training needs and interests
  • Test concepts with target audiences
  • Poll customers for product feedback during development
  • Run trivia, quizzes, and contests to engage and have fun!

The possibilities are truly endless. Polls can work for gathering any type of feedback, measuring employee sentiment, validating concepts, or driving better decisions.

Key Takeaways

  • Polly integration makes it incredibly easy to create polls directly in Slack channels and DMs.
  • Real-time analytics provide instant access to poll results so teams can analyze data and take action quickly.
  • Well-designed polls drive higher participation rates and capture more representative feedback from employees.
  • Regular polling improves transparency, gives employees a voice, and surfaces issues early on.

Ready to give your Slack community a voice with polling? Add the Polly app and start gathering feedback today!

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