Note: If you are a nonprofit organization and don't yet have a Fan Page, check out Getting Started on Facebook for non-profits!
A Note on Facebook Applications for Fan Pages
Fan Pages may look a lot like personal profiles, but they don't behave exactly the same way. And because Facebook Applications were dreamed up before Facebook Fan Pages, not all applications will integrate with Fan Pages as easily as they do with personal pages (often they won't integrate at all). If you find an application that you would like to add to your Fan Page it must have the blue button that says "Add to Page."
Note: You must add the application to your personal profile before you can manipulate it on your Fan Page.
First things first - add the Poll application
First: Install the polling Application called "Poll" on the Facebook Fan Page so you can create polls for fans to vote on! There are several polling applications out there, and I recommend this one because it has the widest usage (284,803 active users as of May 2009).
The link to the application is: http://apps.facebook.com/opinionpolls
How to create a poll
Go to the link above (or click a shortcut in the applications list on the bottom left of your Facebook page).
Choose where you want the poll to live. You will have the option of your Personal Profile or the Sokol Volleyball Fan Page. Choose the fan page.
Enter the question, and any answer choices *separated by spaces*. You can also customize the wording in the button that places the vote. By default, it will be "Vote."
Click "Submit."
When you create your poll, you will have the option to Publish it in your News Feed. You will want to do this to get the word out that it is there! Click "Publish" and then "Post to news Feed." *Note: this will show up on the Fan Page's feed, not your own.*
You can invite friends to take your poll. This is a good way to get the word out.
Editing your Poll
At any time from the poll results page (click "View Results" under the poll, or the Poll application), you can edit or delete the poll. You can also send invites for people to vote on the poll.
The Poll on Your Fan Page
The poll is currently on the homepage. You can move it's position by dragging and dropping, or clicking on the "Edit" pencil icon.
Encouraging Votes
There are a few things you can do to encourage people to vote on the poll:
- Invite friends directly
- Put a closing date on it - give a sense of urgency by giving it an ending date like: "Vote by the end of the month!"
- Write on the Fan Page wall with updates of how its tracking
- For instance, say "Looks like Option 1 is in the lead! Be sure to vote in the poll on the left of the fan page to make your voice heard!"
Advanced Editing
When you are creating a poll, Facebook will allow each answer to contain some html. Here are some basics you can use to add some extras to your poll options:
to bold text: <strong>text goes here</strong>
to italicize text: <em>text goes here</em>
to add a link: <a href="http://link.com" >Link text< /a>
to add an image: <img src="http://link.com/image.jpg">
E-mail this page to a friend (requires login).
Comments for How to set up a poll on a Facebook Fan Page and get people to vote!:
Excellent! Thanks to you very much for this helping!
Very helpful! Thanks!