Sharing and embedding Polls

The best part of creating polls is audience participation! Crowdsignal offers seven different ways to “share” your poll. In today’s blog post, we’re going to walk through the most popular sharing methods so that you can learn which method is right for your site and your audience.

First, you need to create your poll. Once you’ve got your question set up, and your answers typed in, you’re ready to share your poll. To do so, hover over the title of your poll in your dashboard and click on Share:

This brings up the Share pop-up. On the Share pop-up, You’ll see several different embedding options, including JavaScript, Facebook, Twitter, WordPress, Posterous, MySpace, NING, and Email. (The Direct Link option is shown to paying customers who have created public polls.)

Which embed method is right for you? Here’s how you can decide.

Sharing polls on WordPress sites

Crowdsignal integrates seamlessly with WordPress.com sites, as well as with self-hosted WordPress.org sites. If you’re running a self-hosted WordPress.org site, you’ll need to download and install the Crowdsignal plugin to be able to use the WordPress shortcode.

To embed your poll on your WordPress site, select WordPress from among the options on the left-hand side of the Share pop-up. Copy the WordPress shortcode we supply and paste it into a new post on your WordPress site:

Alternatively, you can also use a Text Widget to embed a poll in your WordPress sidebar.

Embedding polls with JavaScript

If your site isn’t on WordPress, we recommend embedding your poll into your site using the JavaScript code we supply. From among the options on the left-hand side of the Share pop-up, select JavaScript. You can choose to embed the poll inline as part of a blog post, or select the Slider Pop-Up method to have your poll pop-up in a small sliding window when the page loads. You can also choose to embed only the poll’s results. Be sure to copy all the JavaScript code we supply and paste it into your site. We offer secure polls via SSL for paid account holders only.

Sharing a link to your polls on Twitter

The Twitter sharing method is a great way to get a link to your poll out to your Twitter followers. From among the options on the left-hand side of the Share pop-up, select Twitter. Click on the Tweet button. If you’re not signed in to Twitter, you’ll be asked to sign in:

Upon signing in to Twitter, you’ll see a draft tweet that contains a link to your poll. You can customize the text in your tweet before you hit the Tweet button:

Getting a direct link to your polls

All polls created in free accounts are public. Paid account holders have the option of making their polls private, so that they will not appear on the community site. To share a direct link to your poll on the Community Site, select Direct Link from among the options on the left-hand side of the Share pop-up. (Ensure that the Make poll public checkbox is checked, beneath the poll’s title on the poll editing screen—unchecking that box removes the Direct Link option from the Share popup.) Copy the link and share it with participants on your website or send it to them via email.

Sending out polls via email

If you like, you can send out your poll embedded in an email, to a group of participants. First, you need to create an email group, by uploading a CSV file of your names and email addresses. Once you’ve got your email group in place, hover over the title of your poll in your dashboard and select Share. On the Share pop-up, select Email. If you have more than one email group, you’ll be able to select it from the list. Be sure to customize your email message before you send it out:

Crowdsignal Polls on Facebook

Crowdsignal polls can be shared on your Facebook page or stream just like any other link. Simply edit your poll and go to the “Collect Votes” page and navigate to “Direct Link”. You’ll find a short link there that you can copy and paste into a Facebook status update. We added a few lines in the public documentation here.