You may have heard the news coming in from Twitter this week...

Cisco Data Center, @CiscoDC, received the opportunity to be one of the first Twitter handles to have the polling enabled on to our account. (Yes, we do feel special too). Here at Cisco, we are excited to test the feature so we conducted our first poll yesterday with great results.

Benefits of Polling

One of the biggest benefits to Twitter Polls is that it gives brands a new opportunity to engage with their Twitter network. The most obvious benefit is that brands now have the opportunity to ask anything and get feedback in real time. The real time aspect of Twitter's new polling feature will enable quicker decision making that will help brands create more effective social media campaigns.

Time and Analytics

Each poll is live for 24 hours, which gives people only 24 hours to choose one answer of the two you can provide. No third or fourth answers are possible. During this time you will be able to see real time analytics of the number of respondents and the current results of the poll . Your respondents are able to answer the question anonymously.

During Polling Analytics Information

During the 24-hour response period, mobile users are able to see the question rendering in two big buttons like this:

Participants are also able to see how many people have already voted and how many more hours the poll is open to respond.

After participants have answered, they are able to see via visual confirmation, their choice and also the real time results of the poll as show below:

Post Polling Analytics Information

Once the poll has closed, everyone (whether they have participated in the poll or not), will be able to see the results of your poll. As seen here:

Character Limits

For the initial tweet, you are limited to 95 characters and for each of the possible answers; you are limited to 21 characters. Clear messaging and a concise plan will be critical for using this feature.

Are you excited to use this feature on your account? What would be your first poll question be?

Tell me in the comments below.