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Enlarge ImageTwitter is trying to make it easy for you to survey your followers. Twitter
Question: Will polls attract more people to Twitter?
That’s what the San Francisco-based social network hopes. On Wednesday, Twitter announced that it will soon allow users to create their own polls to let the public weigh in on the topics most important to them.
Users will be able to create their own two-choice poll to ask all of Twitter those burning questions, including: “Will Donald Trump actually become the Republican nominee for president?” Or “Will Khloe Kardashian take Lamar Odom back?” And, of course, “Can the Chicago Cubs pull off a miracle to win the National League pennant?”
Poll questions will remain live for 24 hours.
“For poll creators, it’s a new way to engage with Twitter’s massive audience and understand exactly what people think,” said Twitter product manager Todd Sherman in a blog post. “For those participating, it’s a very easy way to make your voice heard.”
That audience of 316 million active monthly users may be large, but it’s still only about a fifth of Facebook’s 1.5 billion. Worse, user growth has slowed, and Twitter executives have said they don’t expect significant improvement anytime soon.
The polling feature is another attempt for Twitter to parlay its social influence to attract more casual users and drive its revenues. It comes two weeks after co-founder Jack Dorsey was named CEO for a second time with a mandate for change.
Twitter is banking that letting users take polls on just about anything will create a buzz similar to “Moments,” its recently released feature of curated tweets, videos and images of major trending events, such as concerts, sports contests and breaking news.
Previously, Twitter users could only simulate polls in a labor-intensive way, by tweeting questions, tracking replies, tallying hashtag votes and asking followers to favorite or retweet to vote. Now, users can vote on any poll and their vote won’t be shared publicly, Twitter said.
Twitter will notify users about the final results when the polling closes after 24 hours.