Creative meets Innovative

Facebook Polls are Brutally Honest

9 Nov 2010 | No Comments | posted by Coldfire Promotions | in Blog Post, Miscellaneous

After queuing about an hour’s worth of video rendering this morning I decided to take up some of that time by checking our Facebook page. However, upon flipping open my Facebook homepage I noticed a poll on the right hand side bar. For those of you who don’t know, these polls are quick and effective ways that active companies on Facebook collect market research. Being the marketing geek that I am, I almost always participate in these polls. This particular poll, however, asked the question “Will you buy an AT&T Windows® Phone?” Considering I just purchased the awesome Droid X on the Verizon network, I simply answered “no.”

Here’s where there interesting part comes in. Upon voting, I was shown the results of the poll. Only 9% voted “Yes,” 14% voted for “Maybe,” and a brutally honest 77% voted for “No!” I couldn’t help but chuckle to myself when I saw this. I’m not a huge fan of AT&T after having several problems with their service in the past, but I don’t hold a grudge against them at all. However, I found this to be not only hilarious, but sort of sad at the same time.

While Facebook polls are an awesome way to reach out to your target market, at what point do you want to just “save face?” AT&T got an honest response from the Facebook community and found out that a very large majority of their target market do not plan on purchasing their phone. However, while this can be quite embarrassing, a great deal of opportunity can come from this market research as well.

The question is, should you ask Yes or No questions in your Facebook polls like AT&T did, or should you go with the typical “what character are you?” questions that most companies do? Ultimately there are two different goals. Either to 1) interact with your consumer base, or 2) actually perform market research. AT&T chose the latter of the two – the one I see most beneficial. Sure, it may be fun to see whether your target market likes Stewie better than Peter from Family Guy, but how beneficial really is that? Start selling more Stewie action figures, perhaps? On the other hand, with the knowledge that AT&T has received this morning, they have a chance to really market towards that consumer base before the product is released.

What do you think is more beneficial?