Frequently Asked Questions
 
Q: What is TwitPolls?
 
TwitPolls is a polling utility for Twitter. Whereas many websites (such as Wayin) allow a user to create a poll on their website and link to it from Twitter, TwitPolls’s game creation is off site, but all responses are handled within Twitter. By not taking the user off site, the engagement level is much higher.
 
Q: How does it work?
 
A user first visits TwitPolls and authorizes the website to make posts on Twitter upon the user’s behalf. Then, they simply type a question and a few answers into TwitPolls. The website crafts a tweet with 3 components: a) question b) answers and a c) url to TwitPolls. The answers take the form of hashtags such as #red or #notreally. The url is provided in case the user wants to see additional information about the poll, but again not required for voting. More on that is below.
 
Q: How are votes counted?
 
To vote on a poll within Twitter, a user simply responds to another user’s poll question with the ‘reply’ link next to their post. Let’s say that the post was “Who is going to win tonight? #sharks #otherteam. The user would click the ‘reply’ link of the answer that they choose and optionally can include some text such as ‘#sharks are gonna win, silly goose!’. We then scan all replies from the user with the question and tally the respective #hashtag answers.
 
Q: Who else does this aka who are your competitors?
 
We have yet to find another site that counts votes in this manner. We’ve seen several sites that ask people to vote with a #hash, but nothing that shows that they are compiling votes programmatically and certainly not in a consumer website.
 
Q: How long is a poll active?
 
When a poll is created on TwitPolls, the user can specify how long it will remain active. By default, this value is set to 1 hour. At the end of this time, a recap email is sent on the user’s behalf such as ‘The results are in for my question ‘who is gonna win tonight?’. Twitpolls.com/334345 The user then links over to TwitPolls to see the final results, comment or create their own poll.
 
Q: Why would my client use this?
 
Twitter’s big advantage over Facebook is with live events. Many folks type in ‘super bowl’ during this event and watch a stream of comments come in from those people that they follow as well as randoms. Any client that wants to power up their Twitter engagement by asking a question, poll or by enhancing an event can learn and benefit from TwitPolls.
 
Q: What is our affiliation with Twitter?
 
None at present.
 
Q: How do people register?
 
You register simply by clicking the authorization button on TwitPolls. This allows TwitPolls to post to Twitter on your behalf. You don’t have a TwitPolls username or profile with the current implementation.
 
Q: Is there a mobile version planned?
 
It’s in the works.