Posting new content to your trade publication’s website can sometimes make you feel like you’re shouting into a void — after all, asking for interactive responses isn’t the same thing as inspiring them. That’s why the announcement of instant-polling site Wedgie’s integration with cross-channel posting site Embed.ly should make digital publishers sit up and take notice. Let’s look at how instant polling could serve as a potent new weapon in your audience engagement arsenal.

SEE ALSO: 4 Examples of Awesome Print Advertising

How It Works

Wedgies is one of many online polling options available to today’s digital businesses. All you have to do to create a new poll is post a question; your question becomes a poll which is then embedded directly onto your social media page, web page or blog. As readers cast their votes, the results are updated instantly for all to see. Embed.ly’s involvement allows such polls to be embedded on a wider range of sharing and publishing platforms than ever before.

Real-time Results

The real-time updating of poll data is a particularly attractive feature of Wedgies and other modern embedded polling apps. Polls have always been used to get readers involved and keep them coming back for the latest figures. For many sites, this process has involved asking for input on a given question and then posting the results the following week (or in the next issue of a print-only publication).

The problem with this method is that it’s all too easy for readers to forget that they voted or lose interest in the subject one from one post to the next, which limits the poll’s effectiveness as a retention tool. The instant feedback readers enjoy from seeing their votes get added to the current results not only encourages the readers to cast their votes, but it also makes them feel a greater sense of ownership and participation in the publication itself.

Multi-platform Integration

Maintaining congruence between your various marketing channels is critical for reinforcing and strengthening your brand online. A certain uniformity of style, approach, and messaging ensures that your readers will recognize your publication’s identity whether they’re encountering it through Twitter, Facebook, or your WordPress-powered site/blog.

Wedgies’ integration with Embed.ly’s sharing technologies enables it to work with a wide range of posting platforms and applications, including Reddit, Medium and Storify — three platforms that had previously gone with embedded polling. This means you can get your readers involved with the same embedded polls across the entire spectrum of your social media campaign, and among your companion websites as well. It’s a smart way to present a strong, consistent, united brand image while prompting regular reader input.

Last but not least, don’t overlook polling as an effective means of gathering useful data for your own publication’s purposes. While asking questions about pressing issues of the day can garner strong response rates, you can also ask questions pertinent to your industry or even to your specific publication. The more you know about what your readers like and dislike, you more precisely you can refine your efforts to please them — boosting readership, solidifying your revenue, and making your product more attractive to newcomers.

Today’s digital publishing audiences want to share their opinions, both with each other and with you. Why not take advantage of that hunger for interaction by making use of embedding polling technologies? Your publication can gain a whole new perspective on its readership — while gaining new readers in the bargain!