We’ve all seen American Idol ask viewers to text their vote for the next pop star using their mobile phones. Well, you can use the same technology to poll your digital signage audience. It’s not just a great tool for voting, it’s also a terrific way to measure ROI and get audience feedback.

You can use SMS voting to poll on a number of topics, like:

• General surveys
• Audience choice polls
• Silent auctions
• Training comprehension checks
• Town Hall responses
• Fund raising pledges

First you need to secure a polling plan with one of the many online providers. A popular system is PollEverywhere.com, which works with SMS texting, web surveys and Twitter. Plans are based on the maximum number of responses you want to allow for an individual poll, and it’s free if you only need to collect 30 or fewer votes. Also, semester-long plans are available for K-12 and higher education customers.

Creating an SMS poll for digital signage isn’t much different than creating any other message. Simply design your bulletin with the question, the phone number where people send their votes, and a list of options with their corresponding SMS codes. Viewers just see your bulletin and send a text message. It’s that easy.

Polling services can also send a reply message directing voters to a URL where they can see the overall results. Or, you could schedule the results web page in your digital signage playlist to let your audience track results on screen as votes are received.

Why not hear from your audience and create a two-way dialogue using SMS voting?