Online polling: Facebook expands number of voting options
In my February 2018 Tech Q&A item “Survey Software: Gather Data With These Applications,” I described Facebook’s polling tool, which allowed you to create a poll with two voting options, such as yes or no. Since then, Facebook has improved this tool by allowing up to 20 voting options. As an example, in April 2018 I was able to use Facebook’s tool to create a poll asking residents in the Cottages at Jekyll Island Homeowners Facebook group which of the island’s 13 restaurants was their favorite. Within two days, the poll (pictured below) had been viewed by 92 people, and in case you are curious, at that time the Driftwood Bistro restaurant had been voted the favorite restaurant by the group. In addition, the group had posted 36 comments, many of them declaring all the restaurants to be very good places to eat. Facebook’s polling tool is only available in groups. The procedure for creating a poll varies slightly depending on whether you are on a desktop, iOS, or Android. But generally, you will click on Groups, and then Write Something, and Poll or Create a Poll.
About the author
J. Carlton Collins (carlton@asaresearch.com) is a technology consultant, a conference presenter, and a JofA contributing editor.
Submit a question
Do you have technology questions for this column? Or, after reading an answer, do you have a better solution? Send them to jofatech@aicpa.org. We regret being unable to individually answer all submitted questions.
