Looking for feedback on your product or service? Crowdsourcing on Facebook is a great way to collect lots of opinions in a short amount of time. When choosing between posting a Facebook question or an-eye catching photo, choosing the latter pays dividends.

Summary

The Gateway for Cancer Research was looking to re-brand their fundraising campaign by choosing a new tagline. We selected nine taglines and put them up for a public vote in two Facebook formats: as a question and a photo. Both versions of the poll were posted within 30 minutes of each other and included the same introduction text.

Format I: Facebook “Question”

Votes were collected and counted through Facebook’s Question app.

Format II: Facebook “Photo” status update

We designed a graphic image numbering the nine poll options and asked the audience to vote for their favorite by leaving a comment with their selection.

Results

Within 24 hours, the photo garnered nearly 4x more votes than the “Question.”

Total Respondents: 220
Facebook Question: 47
Facebook Photo: 173

Key Learnings

• People respond to eye-catching images much more than plain text
• Photos allow people to more easily leave comments or re-share
• Facebook ranks photos higher than questions

Practical Applications

Crowdsourcing on Facebook allows your fans to share as much or as little information as they would like. Keeping in mind that audiences respond well to visually interesting content, ask for your audience’s opinion through the form of a photo rather than a text-only question or poll. Invite discussion in the comment section, and get the market research you need!

This doesn’t mean you should always use photos. We’ve seen success with other projects in asking a simple, short question with text only. Those work better when you have a dedicated, consistently engaged audience. For those with a more passive following, an image will draw your fans in.