(Original post at www.kristyfifelski.com)
One great way to encourage interaction on your government website is to include a “Quick Poll” feature on your homepage. The site visitor selects an answer and sees instant results from the other visitors. We’ve had over 9,000 responses to our homepage poll in the year and a half since taking it live.
I find it surprisingly difficult to come up with ideas for poll questions. I’d love to change it everyday, but usually I wind up switching the question weekly. Although it would probably spark more participation, I’m cautious of not including questions that are too controversial. I also like to write the questions in a way where there are no losers. For instance, the “No” response becomes “Not yet”.
Below are some of the questions I’ve used on our poll. Please feel free to use these ideas for your own city poll. If you have other ideas or resources, please feel free to comment and share them!
Poll ideas – feel free to use
- How long have you lived in this city?
- What winter activity are you looking forward to most?
- How often do you visit this website?
- How do you prefer to get your daily news?
- What will you enjoy most about Thanksgiving this year?
- What will you most likely do to save energy this winter?
- What season is best in this city?
- Do you have at least one energy saving light bulb in use at home?
- When is the last time you did any shopping, ate at a restaurant, skated or watched a movie in the downtown area?
- How do you primarily get to work?
- How do you feel about all this snow we’re getting here?
- Which of the following are you most likely to watch online?
- Have you ever done any of the following on this website?
- Do you think cell phone usage while driving should be banned?
- What type of New Year’s resolution do you plan on making this year?
- We already accept online sewer bill and parking ticket payments. Which of the following would you MOST like to see accepted online?
- Do you recycle?
- Have you stuck to your New Year’s resolution(s) so far?
- What kind of social networking site do you use MOST?
- Have you ever used your cell phone to access a website?
- How often do you use a computer?
- Ready for spring yet?
- Out of our top 5 most visited webpages this month, which do YOU visit most?
- Did you know that we are on Facebook, YouTube AND Twitter?
- What do you want to see more of on this website?
- What are your 4th of July plans?
- What website do you have set as your homepage?
- Have you made any kind of charitable donation this year?
- Do you shop online?
- Has your computer ever been infected with a worm or virus?
- Are you a registered voter?
- Do you have solar panels anywhere on your house?
- Does your household celebrate Halloween?
- Does your employer close on Veterans Day?
- Do you typically turn your computer off at the end of the day?
- What do you think about shoveling snow?
- How far is your daily commute to work?
- Are you on Facebook?
- How would you prefer to interact with your city government?
- Snow this week! Where would you rather be?
- We are thinking of ways to help you connect with us even more. Which feature would you like us to launch?
- Have you filled out your Federal income taxes yet? (Nevadans have no State income tax!)
- Have you ever visited this website before? Or is this your first time?
- How fast is your internet connection?
- Have you ever used a ‘live chat’ help feature on a website?
- If your job allowed employees to telecommute or have a virtual office, would you take part?
- What is the website you visit the most when you go online?
- Have you ever used public transportation?
- How long have you lived in this city?
- What winter activity are you looking forward to most?
- How often do you visit this website?
- How do you prefer to get your daily news?
- What will you most likely do to save energy this winter?
- What season is best in this city?
- Do you read blogs?
- Do you have at least one energy saving light bulb in use at home?
- When is the last time you did any shopping, ate at a restaurant, skated or watched a movie in the downtown area?
- How do you primarily get to work?
- How do you feel about all this snow we’re getting here?
- Which of the following are you most likely to watch online?
- Have you ever done any of the following on this website?
- Do you think cell phone usage while driving should be banned?
- What type of New Year’s resolution do you plan on making this year?
- We already accept online sewer bill and parking ticket payments. Which of the following would you MOST like to see accepted online?
- Do you recycle?
- Have you stuck to your New Year’s resolution(s) so far?
- What kind of social networking site do you use MOST?
- Have you ever used your cell phone to access a website?
- How often do you use a computer?
- Ready for spring yet?
- Out of our top 5 most visited webpages this month, which do YOU visit most?
- Did you know that we are on Facebook, YouTube AND Twitter?
- What do you want to see more of on this website?
- What are your 4th of July plans?
- What website do you have set as your homepage?
- Have you made any kind of charitable donation this year?
- Do you shop online?
- Has your computer ever been infected with a worm or virus?
- Are you a registered voter?
- Do you have solar panels anywhere on your house?
- Does your household celebrate Halloween?
- Does your employer close on Veterans Day?
- Do you typically turn your computer off at the end of the day?
- What do you think about shoveling snow?
- How far is your daily commute to work?
- Are you on Facebook?
- How would you prefer to interact with your city government?
- Snow this week! Where would you rather be?
- We are thinking of ways to help you connect with us even more. Which feature would you like us to launch?
- Have you filled out your Federal income taxes yet? (Nevadans have no State income tax!)
- Have you ever visited this website before? Or is this your first time?
- How fast is your internet connection?
- Have you ever used a ‘live chat’ help feature on a website?
- If your job allowed employees to telecommute or have a virtual office, would you take part?
- What is the website you visit the most when you go online?
- Have you ever used public transportation?
Kristy these are great. The questions have a sense of being conversational and are personalized at the same time. Easy to read, understand and answer.
thanks,
Marco
A great list…
How about:
-Do you know who your city councilman is?
-What’s your favorite city park?
-Have you participated in a city townhall?