No, this blog hasn’t gone political. I’m talking about polling co-workers, friends or family, to make a decision, or pick a date for an event. That might be easy to do if you’re in a big office, and share an online calendar.
But, if you’re running a small business and trying to get a consensus on a decision among clients or associates, it’s not so easy.
Instead of spending hours on the phone, or sending emails round in circles, you could use the online polling tool, Doodle. Create a poll, then send everyone a web page link where they can vote. No one has to register or log in — they just follow your link, type a name and cast a vote.
To start, you set up a poll with a choice of dates, or other options. You can opt for email notices, or go to the page and see how the voting is going.
When participants follow your link to the page, they type their name and select one or more of the options.
In this poll, participants would add a check mark for any time they’d be available to attend the workshop. They can see the names and selections of previous voters.
While setting up the poll, if you click the PowerDoodle button, you can make the poll a bit more sophisticated.
You can hide the voter names and selections, as shown below, or limit participants to one selection from the options, or only allow one participant to select each option — useful if you’re allocating tasks.
The Doodle tool seems very easy to use, with no inconvenience to participants. You can see the test poll that I set up, and cast your vote if you’d like.
POLL IS NO LONGER AVAILABLE
Should I bring a Pivot Table to the meeting?
This looks pretty cool. How are they making their money? Advertising? Charging “Power Doodlers”?
Hey Toad! Yes, you should bring all your pivot tables. The Power Doodler thing is free, so I guess the money’s in the ads.