Distributing Text Polls

Telerivet makes it easy to distribute text polls in three ways:

• Sending the first question of the poll to a list of respondent phone numbers via text message (either SMS or a chat app like WhatsApp)
• Publishing the first poll question via any method, such as television, radio, or print, and allowing contacts to send the response to that question directly
• Publishing a text keyword via any method, such as television, radio, or print; when someone sends the keyword, Telerivet will respond with the first question of the poll.

Sending Poll via Text

To send the first question of your poll via text, when viewing the poll on your Services page, click Send... at the top of the Service Detail page.

Then, enter the phone numbers or contact groups that you want to send the poll to:

If you have a spreadsheet or other document containing phone numbers, you can copy-and-paste a column of phone numbers into the To field. (Telerivet allows sending up to 500 messages at a time using this method.)

If your poll has multiple questions, this will only send the first question. After a respondent answers the first question, Telerivet will automatically send a SMS reply with the next question.

When you send a poll using Send poll, Telerivet will automatically add these phone numbers to a group with a name such as Poll Recipients. (This group name can be customized by clicking Edit settings.) To view the members of this "recipients" group, click More > View poll recipients.

When anyone responds to your poll, Telerivet makes sure their phone number is in the recipients group, unless your settings allow anyone to submit poll responses.

Alternative Method: Importing Contacts Before Sending Poll

If you want to add phone numbers to the sample group without sending the first question yet, click More, then Import poll recipients. This also allows you to import other information for each contact, such as name or email address:

When you are ready to send the poll, click Send poll... on your Services page, and enter the name of your group (e.g. Poll Recipients) to send the poll to all phone numbers in the recipients group.

Distributing First Poll Question via External Method

If you have another way of distributing your poll, such as radio, television, or print, you can use that instead of sending it via SMS. All you need to do is give people your (first) question and tell them to send their response to your phone number via SMS.

To use this method, select Contacts may send "q1" response directly for the Response Mode in your poll settings.

If your poll only has a single question, this allows you to conduct your poll without sending any SMS messages yourself (hence reducing the your cost).

Distributing Poll Keyword via External Method

If you have an external method of distributing your poll, you can tell people to text a keyword to participate in the poll (e.g. by telling people to "text POLL to 12345"). When someone texts the keyword, Telerivet will automatically reply with the first question of the poll.

To use this method, select Poll may be triggered by SMS keyword for the Response Mode in your poll settings, and enter the keyword to use.