One of the most important parts of streaming is connecting with your viewers. There are countless ways to do that, from shouting out viewers in chat to playing games that allow viewers to participate, but one of the easiest is using Twitch polls. Knowing how to make a Twitch poll is essential for creators.
Twitch has a straightforward poll functionality that lets you get feedback from your chat to decide on a new stream activity or just give viewers a sense of interaction with your content. Here’s how to use it.
How to Make a Twitch Poll Using the Creator Dashboard
If you’re streaming on Twitch, you can easily create a poll by using the Creator Dashboard.
Step 1) Click on your user icon in the top-right corner of the screen, then select Creator Dashboard. From there, head to Stream Manager.
Step 2) On the Stream Manager screen, look for the Quick Actions menu. There, click the “Manage Your Poll” button and select “Create a New Poll.”
Step 3) Now, input a poll question and two to five possible answers.You can also decide whether or not to allow viewers to vote more than once. By default, viewers can only vote in a given poll one time. However, you can allow them to vote multiple times.
Step 4) Select a duration for the poll, from one minute to ten. Usually, leaving this at one minute is fine.
Step 5) Hit “Start Poll,” and your poll will begin. Results will be displayed while the poll is in progress and once all the poll’s time is up. Note that you must be a Twitch Affiliate or Partner in order to use the Twitch poll feature.
How to Make a Poll on Twitch as a Mod in Chat
If you’re a mod rather than the actual streamer, or you’d rather not fuss with the Stream Manager, you can also start a Twitch poll simply by typing “/poll” in chat. Doing so will bring up the normal options for a poll.
You can also use “/endpoll” to end a poll early or delete one entirely with “/deletepoll.”
Other Options for Twitch Polls
You’re not limited to Twitch’s default functions for polling your viewers. External apps and services let you configure polls in different ways.
Streamlabs, for example, has a Poll Widget available which allows you to display your poll on screen and customize its appearance, making it fit with your stream’s aesthetics. To use the Poll Widget, you’ll first need to enable Cloudbot on your channel.
Speaking of bots, you can also create Twitch polls using Nightbot. If you haven’t already, you’ll have to add Nightbot to your stream. Once you do, you can create a poll in chat by issuing a command to the bot.
This can be helpful in that you don’t have to fuss around with any menus whatsoever — you simply type in the command and Nightbot will start the poll for you.
The basic format to launch a Nightbot poll is as follows: “!poll [polltitle]|[option 1]|[option 2].”
A sample poll would look like this:
“!poll Should I make a poll on Twitch?|Yes|No|This is too meta.”
Note that poll titles are capped at 60 characters and responses are capped at 25. You can use the command “!poll results” to see the results of your most recent Nightbot poll.
How to Make a Good Twitch Poll
“There’s no such thing as a stupid question” may be true when it comes to learning, but in the world of polling that isn’t the case. Ask any social scientist and they’ll tell you that how you ask your questions can radically alter the kinds of answers that you get.
You don’t need to give your Twitch poll as much thought as a professional survey creator does. However, it’s worth making sure that your Twitch polls are clear, relevant, and useful.
A clear question uses simple language and asks about one thing rather than introducing a lot of unnecessary complexity.
To be relevant, a Twitch poll should be asking about something of interest to your viewers. And to be useful, it should serve a purpose — for instance, choosing the character you’ll play in the next round for a gaming stream, or the next topic of conversation in a chatting stream.
Should you let viewers vote more than once in a poll? It’s up to you. If you find that your viewers have racked up a lot of channel points, letting them vote multiple times can be a good use for them. On the flipside, sticking to one vote per viewer is beneficial to newer viewers, who likely don’t have a lot of channel points saved up yet.
Predictions vs. Twitch Polls
Predictions are similar to Twitch polls in they get viewers involved in your stream. Instead of soliciting feedback, they let viewers wager Channel Points on an outcome in your stream.
All of the Channel Points wagered in a prediction go into a pool, and when the prediction is over, everyone who chooses the correct outcome receives a share of the total pool.
How to Vote in Twitch Polls
Voting in Twitch polls is pretty straightforward. When a Twitch streamer creates a poll, it appears at the top of the chat window. You can select an option and click “Vote” to register your choice.
Alternatively, you can also vote in chat by using the command “/vote” followed by the number of your selected option. If the streamer has enabled the option to do so, you can spend Channel Points to vote more than once.
Conclusion
Twitch Polls are a handy tool in your viewer engagement tool belt. Remember, viewers have nearly unlimited choices when it comes to viewing, even without leaving Twitch itself. Using Twitch Polls is a simple way to make viewers feel like they’re a part of your stream and to get feedback on what they’re looking for from your stream.
