How to do a poll in Slack

Your Slack workspace keeps you connected to your team, and chances are pretty good it’s your go-to communication platform for updates. But have you considered using it for polls? 

Polls are a valuable way to check in on everything from the team’s progress to employees’ feelings about the office culture. They can also facilitate the exchange of ideas among your team. 

Slack is an ideal place to share those polls.

While there isn’t a specific Slack poll option, there are a few ways to create or share a poll on this platform. You can use emoji reactions for a simple poll, or for something more complex, you can use a polling app or form builder. Read on for more details on how to use each of these options.

1. Emoji polls

Emoji polls in Slack are quick and informal, but they only work for single-question polls. To create one, you’ll need to come up with your poll question and create any responses you want your team to use. Assign each response a different emoji, then send your message.

Thanks to Slack’s ability to tally emoji reactions to your message, you can tell at a glance which response is more popular.

Emoji polls have a few downsides. They aren’t anonymous, and team members can only use the answer options you’ve provided. For more complex polls, the following two options may be a better choice.

2. Polling apps

You can visit the Slack App Directory to access apps that let you create more detailed polls. By adding an app to your workspace, you’ll be able to quickly create custom polls with important features like scheduling, anonymous responses, and reminders. The following apps all integrate with Slack.

3. Polly

Polly has more than 30 templates to choose from, making it easy to get prompt feedback without spending too much time creating a poll. Polly works with both Slack and Microsoft Teams and is an efficient solution for workplaces. 

You can send a poll to a Slack channel or as a direct message, and you can choose from a variety of question formats, including multiple choice, rating scale, and open ended options. You can see poll results instantly, and there’s no need to worry about spreadsheet downloads.  

4. Simple Poll

With Simple Poll, you can add polls directly in Slack. Your team members can answer these native polls easily and quickly, and you can even set up recurring polls that will automatically post according to your team’s workflow. 

You also have the option to make polls anonymous or to limit votes to one per person. Creating a poll is as easy as copying and pasting — which can save you time and help you get responses sooner.

5. SurveyMonkey

With SurveyMonkey’s Slack integration, you can use slash commands to ask simple questions, share surveys and results, and invite collaborators within Slack. The simple question feature enables you to compose a question and provide the responses you’d like your team to vote on. This is ideal for creating a quick, basic poll — like asking your team what they’d like to order for lunch.

By sharing a survey with the /survey command, you can prompt team members to take a survey you’ve already created in SurveyMonkey. You can also share results, so there’s no need to download and share files.

6. Form builders

With a form builder like Jotform, you can create a customized poll with all the features you need. 

Jotform’s robust, powerful form-building capabilities deliver more versatility than some of the previously mentioned options that are more basic, and it’s ideal when you need a longer poll — or one with multiple question types and feedback fields. You can use one of the many poll templates or create your own custom poll.

Sharing the polls on Slack is as easy as sharing the form link in a message, but Jotform also integrates with Slack to give you more options. When you use Slack with your form, any form submissions will be instantly sent as Slack messages.

Individuals or team channels can also view the results immediately, so you don’t have to wait for the poll creator to gather and share results. This valuable feature creates real-time feedback and interaction with your polls, allowing your team to work together and quickly access the results.

Implementing polls with Slack

Slack is already a powerful communication platform that can keep you and your team connected. By adding polls to its functionality, you’ll be able to facilitate important conversations and gather feedback that can help you make important decisions — both big and small — for your business.