How to Get Instant Feedback From Your Audience
Getting your audience engaged is the most important thing you can do when presenting. We previously published an article on Zeetings, a program that lets the audience become part of the story by using an interactive program directly from their smartphones. Here, Farshad has reviewed ten other programs that you can use to make sure your audience becomes part of the story, instead of just listening to it.
Sometimes the biggest enemy of a presenter is doubt. One can get a bit jittery by looking at uncertain faces in the crowd. You might want to know what your audience is thinking so that you may be able to refine your presentation in case you’re going off track. One of the best ways to find out what your audience is thinking is to use polls. Conducting live polls during a presentation session can help you gather instant feedback and fine tune your presentation on the fly to ensure you can be on top of your game.
There are a number of polling apps, devices and plugins that you can use for conducting live polls during presentations. Different polling tools provide different options, including some which even enable presenters to continuously gather audience feedback and view brief statistics as they present their slides. If you want to use polls in your presentations like a pro, then here are 10 best polling tools to gather instant audience feedback.
1) Presentain
Presentain is a presentation web app where you can either upload and present a PDF, PPT or PPTX file or fetch a file using your Google Drive account to present your presentation right from an internet browser. Presentain provides presenters with a URL that can be shared with the audience so they can follow your slides live as you present them, using any internet connected device.
Your audience can also take part in Live polls using the same URL, allowing you to not only present your slides by broadcasting them via the internet but also to instantly gather audience feedback by offering them polls. In fact, your audience can even ask you questions using their internet connected devices.
Here is a brief introductory video which shows all the basic features of Presentain.
2) PollEverywhere
PollEverywhere is an audience response system which enables creating polls in PowerPoint and Google Slides. The PollEverywhere add-in for PowerPoint or the Chrome extension for Google Slides can be used to create polls and gather audience feedback by allowing people to participate in polls via internet connected devices such as smartphones tablets or laptops. Furthermore, your audience can also respond to polls via Twitter.
PollEverywhere has a comprehensive set of features for conducting polls and quizzes using open ended questions, multiple choice questions, true or false quizzes, as well as clickable image and Q&A polls.
Here is a short video which explains the main features of PollEverywhere.
3) Mentimeter
Mentimeter is an audience response system which allows presenters to create polls using multiple choice or open ended questions, polls based on a point-based system, or use dual axis or scales to gather audience feedback. Your audience will be able to cast their votes via a designated URL. This means your audience can instantly cast their votes by using their mobile phones, tablets or laptops during a Live presentation session.
Here is an introductory video which explains how Mentimeter works.
4) Swipe
Swipe is a comprehensive presentation web app which can not only allow you to conduct polls but you can also use it as a PowerPoint alternative. You can get started with Swipe by uploading a PDF or image file, and even embed videos from YouTube and Vimeo.
With Swipe you can design your slide decks and add polls to your presentations. Like most polling systems, Swipe provides a polling URL for the audience to respond to polls.
5) ParticiPoll
ParticiPoll is a PowerPoint add-in which can help you add polls to your PowerPoint slides. You can start using Participoll by signing-up for a free account, picking a polling URL and downloading the add-in to start adding polls to your PowerPoint slides. Your audience will be able to respond to polls using your custom polling URL.
The data gathered via Participoll is logged to your account, which means you can login anytime to your Participoll account to view audience feedback.
6) Ask The Room
If you’re looking for a free and easy way of conducting a Live poll during a presentation, you can also use Ask The Room. With Ask The Room you can instantly set up a poll by using options like ‘Yes’, ‘No’ and ‘Don’t Know’. Ask the Room requires no sign-up and you can begin your poll by going to the home page, and clicking on Start Poll. You will be provided with a custom URL to share with your audience where they can poll, and you will be able to see the result in real-time via your browser.
7) ActiVote
If you are looking for a voting system for educational purposes that comes with associated hardware clickers that your audience can use, then Activote can be a good option. ActiVote is a comprehensive polling system by which you can create polls on your computer and allow your audience to respond using ActiVote clickers.
The primary use of ActiVote is for educational purposes and it can be a good option for conducting quizzes or assessing your students using various voting based activities. ActiVote works with Windows, Mac and Linux.
8) OMBEA
OMBEA is an audience response system which can be used to insert interactive slides in PowerPoint to conduct polls during presentations. OMBEA not only works with laptops, smartphones and tablets but is also compatible with remote clickers.
You can conduct polls using open ended or multiple choice questions and enable your audience to respond using remote clickers or internet connected devices. This makes OMBEA easy to use and expands the number of devices that can be instantly turned into remote clickers.
9) iClicker
If you are looking for a clicker based polling system, which also supports clicker devices, then iClicker is an audience response system that you should look into. This clicker based polling system enables you to gather audience feedback by allowing them to poll using smartphones, tablets, or clicker remotes.
To find out all about how iClicker works, see the developer’s introductory video given below.
10) ClickAPad
ClickAPad is another comprehensive audience response system which not only provides a polling add-in for PowerPoint but also offers clicker remotes for purchase or rent. ClickAPad has a number of products that you can look into for conducting polls during your events to quickly gather audience opinion regarding a specific topic.
The tools mentioned above include both free and paid tools, with basic to advanced polling options. Whether you are a teacher, business professional, or just someone looking to conduct a survey during a live presentation, the aforementioned polling tools can help you conduct polls and fine tune your presentation in view of live audience feedback.
If you liked this, then you might also like
A conference calling platform which allows you to conduct instant polls: How to Deliver Online Presentations During Remote Meetings
Using audience polls in a webinar : Why Webinars are Great and How to Design Them Effectively
Using audience polls to keep your audience engaged: 7 Surprisingly Simple Ways to Keep Your Audience Hooked
5 More Ways to Get Instant Feedback from your Audience
Farshad Iqbal
Latest posts by Farshad Iqbal (see all)
- Let’s look at Interactive Digital Whiteboards - 6th March 2018
- Six of the Best Laptops for Presenters - 16th January 2018
- Where Can I Find Great Clip Art and More for Powerpoint? - 12th December 2017
- The Best Digital Whiteboards for Presenters - 21st November 2017
- The Best Screen Mirroring Apps and Technology for Every Occasion - 24th October 2017
Jack Vincent
10th January 2017 at 2:53 pm
These are really good recommendations. I’ve also used a tool called HappyScore http://about.happyscore.io, which is a bit different.
Good stuff, Farshad. Thanks!
Paul
27th September 2017 at 3:35 pm
Let me add Meeting Pulse to the list. It works well and looks really nice.
https://meet.ps
People use it for classes and lectures because the free version allows to poll up to 50 people. It’s also good for business meetings and webcasts. Features include
– 15 second to set up a poll
– all popular questions types
– works for every device
– no need to install anything
– very simple
You can also run Q&A and create surveys.
jeremy pokers
22nd November 2017 at 11:02 am
These are really good recommendations. I’ve also used a tool called BugRem , http://www.BugRem.com which is a bit different.
Lesley Barringer
23rd November 2017 at 1:55 pm
Hi Jeremy
Thank you for your comment!
I’ve just visited BugRem’s site to investigate, and it looks interesting and has a free trial too…
Thanks again
Lesley
Ben Bradbury
19th December 2017 at 2:08 pm
Great article Farshad! Glisser is also a simple way to collect instant feedback from your audience. All web-based, nothing to download, and their polls are pushed instantly meaning you collect the maximum level of feedback from your audience. You can also share your slides and ask questions through it too.
Check it out here: http://www.glisser.com
Rosie Hoyland
19th December 2017 at 3:17 pm
Thanks for bringing this to our attention, Ben. I’ve just looked at your website – interesting (and useful)…
John Dineen
4th January 2018 at 2:44 pm
Great post. I stumbled across the post while I was searching for embedded polls. To add another tool to the mix – Pubble Live Q&A: https://www.pubble.io/live-qa
Pubble’s live Q&A is deigned to be incorporated into the conference / event website. It enables the participants to ask questions and follow the thread live. It includes a presenter mode for the presenter to display selected questions on the main stage.
Moderation is supported. You can also push in questions from Twitter. Lots of other cool features, detailed on the product page above.
Rosie Hoyland
5th January 2018 at 11:48 am
Thanks for sharing this John. It looks like your tool would be useful for hosting live audience Q&As. Have you seen our article on this: https://www.presentation-guru.com/5-easy-to-use-solutions-to-boost-your-audience-engagement/ which gives tips on how best to incorporate Q&A sessions into your presentation?
Ronnie Overgoor
11th March 2018 at 7:29 pm
Maybe a good idea to add NorthPolls to the list: http://www.northpolls.com.
NorthPolls is extremely easy to operate by the chairman of the day on the stage via his or her own smartphone.
Rosie Hoyland
12th March 2018 at 11:33 am
We’ll check it out Ronnie – thanks
Heera Malik
4th April 2018 at 6:14 pm
I suggestion to try BugRem tool. #www.BugRem.com
Leo Budrinca
13th April 2018 at 10:02 am
You can also try for free https://hypersay.com/
Hypersay is a platform for interactive presentations that massively increase engagement. Keep your audience engaged with polls, questions, private notes and live slide sharing. Store, enrich & deliver presentations from your cloud.
Mouneer
17th April 2018 at 3:58 pm
Here’s another free tool for Polling, Quizzing, Audience Questions (and voting), slides follow-through, after-session audience feedback, and instant slide-deck handout.
http://www.beamkast.com
Frank Zielen
18th April 2018 at 3:58 pm
Here’s another one: “Poll At Once”.
This is a free native app for iOS and Android. It’s just one touch to start a poll and designed for live audiences. Attendees can just answer A,B,C or D. No sign up and total anonymous.
Check out here: https://itunes.apple.com/de/app/poll-at-once/id1366256403?mt=8 or https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=de.zmb.poll
Maybe you like it.
Nidhi Bambalkar
12th May 2018 at 4:17 am
Nice but one more to add i.e. Customer feedback tool.
Kate Y
15th May 2018 at 9:58 am
That’s a great post. And it really helps. It gets more and more difficult to keep the audience engaged while presenting. We stick to directpoll.com. It is a very simple solution for real time feedback on your live stream poll.
Rosie Hoyland
15th May 2018 at 11:09 am
Thanks Kate – you’re absolutely right and it’s great to find out what people are using day-to-day.
Llarry Watson
19th June 2018 at 12:11 pm
Hi! Great blog!
To get instant feedback from audience and customers, you can use feedback apps. Feedback apps are cost efficient and provide accurate results. Soft Intelligence Data Centre has engagement apps for organizations and businesses which help in the overall growth. You must check out them once.
Rosie Hoyland
19th June 2018 at 12:14 pm
We will do! Thanks for the tip.
Dev
12th July 2018 at 1:00 pm
Nice article! I just wanted to introduce you to a polling based mobile app that I developed recently, called Pollpop (pollpopapp.app.link). It’s about organizing polls and discussions within your groups or the public at large. Let me know your thoughts. Cheers!
Rosie Hoyland
13th July 2018 at 10:02 am
Thanks Dev – we’ll take a look.
Melissa R Halvorsen
10th September 2018 at 6:21 pm
I tried to use Presentain, and it’s essentially useless in America. It’s based in Ukraine, and their app isn’t available to the US market. It’s a paid platform, so buyer beware.
Farshad
18th September 2018 at 1:06 pm
Hi Melissa,
I have previously used Presentain without any issues, however I recently tried it again after seeing your comment and it seems there might be a bug preventing users to log into the app. You can try other options in the post to gather audience feedback as an alternative.
Recently, I used Mentimeter for feedback after a presentation at my organization. I used emoticons representing satisfied and unsatisfied audience and conducted a Live poll and it worked out perfectly.
Dave Horchak
6th October 2018 at 8:42 pm
The whole idea is assinine. Real science shows once you are part of the group tour measurements are worthless. The audience knowing they are being viewed and measured will give answers they think you want instead of true opinions. Waste of time and money more harm then good as it will support your preconceived notions and give failed erroneous data.
sam
23rd January 2019 at 4:36 am
I have a new engagement tool for free has a lot of features to engage and attract your audience http://www.enablerplus.com
2ShoesApp
19th July 2019 at 11:05 am
These are really amazing tools. You can also add 2Shoes App in your list. Thanks for sharing.
Shahani Markus
7th September 2019 at 3:20 pm
Check out http://www.emojot.com – it is a full-fledged voice-of-audience solution (as well as a voice-of-customer and voice-of-employee solution). Its capabilities are best suited for enterprises. It has been used for TV, radio and large conferences as well as in small group meetings.
brian schott
20th December 2019 at 10:58 pm
Please consider Pollaborator.appspot.com
Pollaborator http://pollaborator.appspot.com/ is a unique, free web app which enables anyone with a google account to create a PARTICIPATIVE poll: in addition to indicating preferences in Pollaborator, respondents can add their own questions/comments for future respondents to indicate their preferences, too. To experiment with Pollaborator go to this link http://pollaborator.appspot.com/table?ID=codeBSchott (anyone, no account is needed).
Elizabeth Keshishyan
23rd December 2019 at 3:22 pm
These are some great tools. I would also add to the list the Swift Polling by ExciteM (https://swift.excitem.com) which allows for PowerPoint integration and SMS voting. This is a life-saving solution for cases when people do not own smartphones.
Simeon
19th April 2020 at 5:21 pm
I can recommend to have a look at Poll For All (https://pollforall.com) The poll result view in the app gets real time updates and can be used in presentations. There is a web app, which can be opened directly in a desktop browser.
Rosie Hoyland
21st April 2020 at 4:07 pm
I will take a look – thanks for bringing it to our attention.
Broxer
20th June 2020 at 1:51 pm
Hi, farshad!
These are a really awesome tool in today’s world to take instant feedback from the audience and most of them I never heard about. I will definitely go to use them and share it as much as possible because it creates a lot of disturbance during a session to ask audience review over a certain topic.
Thanks a lot for sharing them!
Prakriti Sarvouy
21st August 2020 at 11:18 am
Try Pollpop for voting and discussions within your group. It’s pretty slick. You can ask a question to your group (along with images, videos, maps, even other widgets, and options). Ask as a private or semi-private option. Your group gets a chance to vote and discuss the topic. You also get a cool analysis of the voting results, so you clearly know who stands where. You can also add your group members as connections for future discussions.
• App Store: https://itunes.apple.com/ph/app/pollpop/id993397343?mt=8
• Play Store: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.amaze.pollpop&hl=en
• Website: http://pollpopapp.com
Rosie Hoyland
17th September 2020 at 11:19 am
This sounds fantastically useful! Thanks for sharing.
Muhammad Lodhi
18th February 2021 at 4:23 pm
Excellent information and comments by everyone. I am looking for free software to run polls from my PowerPoint presentation for my students without adding any cost to them – they are already paying a hefty price for books and online resources. Poll Everywhere looks good but charges students. Has anyone else a product to share with me. Please send information to me at [email protected]. Thank you for the belp.