A typical PR campaign on social networks includes several sequential stages. Initially, it is necessary to develop a communication strategy based on the data obtained during monitoring. The communications strategy should include a list of work necessary to achieve the goal of the PR campaign, desired results, planned budget, rules for attracting and interacting with the audience.
At the next stage, a so-called brand platform is created - a set of communities on social networks that ensure interaction of the brand with the target audience. If a brand works for several target audiences at once, you will need to create a separate community for each of them.
After communities are created, you will have to take care of filling them with content. News, videos, photographs - all this is necessary to maintain the audience's interest in the group and maintain communication. At the same time, branded content should account for no more than a third of the total volume of community content, another third should be allocated to fun content and a third to useful content.
The success of any social media strategy is ultimately determined by its ability to connect with people on an immediate, human level. In linguistics there is a phenomenon known as "code switching". That is, when a person switches from one language to another and back during one conversation. The significance of this phenomenon applied in social networks is large-scale. Social media is slowly but surely blurring the line between personal and professional. By linking this to “code switching,” we get a new approach to brand behavior on social media.
The fact is that SMM does not use an advertising format. The main mechanism of interaction is communication on topics that are relevant to the user and the distribution of content that is interesting to him. Naturally, both communication and content contain a mandatory promotional link, but unlike advertising, they are valuable to the user.
Creating a community or group - available in most social networks, most often this function is free. You can invite friends and other people interested in the company’s products or products to the created groups. Next, you should take care of organizing communication between users in the group: create interesting topics, through the creation of artificial profiles, imitate a discussion between real users. Interested users can be brought in by searching for interests in similar groups of other services. Give as complete answers to user questions as possible.
Creation of public pages (fan page). Promotion methods on such pages are reminiscent of promotion in communities and groups.
Using media content (pictures, audio, video), where you can insert the brand name, website address, etc. The most popular network That's what YouTube is for.
Targeted advertising - aimed at a specific category of users. The most common method of paid promotion on social networks. This can include advertising for a specific city, country, for people with a certain age and interests.
Conducting competitions, promotions, discounts for the target audience with prizes for the winners.
VKontakte (VK)
VKontakte (http://vk.com) is a social network for fast and convenient communication between people around the world. The goal of VKontakte is to remain the most modern, fastest and most aesthetic way of communicating on the network at every single moment. The site has more than 290 million registered users. More than 69,000,000 visitors visit the site every day. More than 3,000,000,000 pages are opened daily. Approximately 65% of visitors live in Russia. More than 56% of site users are over 25 years old.
VKontakte evokes positive emotions among its visitors, because most often they use the resource for communication and entertainment. This creates high user loyalty.
There are two main formats for working on VKontakte.
The second option is to “transfer” users to an external Internet resource. This option is suitable for companies that carry out basic transactions (ordering goods or services) on their website, and not through social networks. If the site is informational (blog or thematic portal), visitors from social networks read materials about the company and products. And in this case, the community on the social network is an additional source of traffic for the main project.
Which option to choose depends on the initial conditions. Both formats are valid and can produce results. The second option is especially relevant for those who make money on their websites by selling advertising, in particular for all kinds of media. Sometimes formats are mixed: for example, all information materials are posted in the community, but sales are carried out only on the website.
Any project on VKontakte solves two main tasks: increasing profits and feedback from clients. One way or another, it all comes down to this. On the other hand, the task of increasing profits can be solved both directly - direct sales of goods or services, and indirectly - by increasing brand awareness, growing its reputation and, accordingly, overall loyalty to the company.
The functionality of the group is basically not great. Through the "Discussions" section, you can create a small forum on a given topic for community members/subscribers, and the group's "Wall" serves as an information platform where group administrators and moderators can post informational and entertaining content. Another possibility is sending out invitations to subscribers and other users of the social network to events that take place in real time and organized by the company that owns the group.
In addition to the fact that VKontakte allows direct sales, any community has the opportunity to make repeat sales. To some extent, working with a group in modern conditions is reminiscent of e-mail marketing. Only in the case of the latter do people receive news on their email, and on social networks, contact with subscribers in the news feed is constant. But the essence is the same: a community is formed (base potential clients) and maintain constant interaction with them. Unlike the audience that comes from search engines and most often does not return, people on social networks are constantly in touch, as they become members of the community and receive news about all new publications on its wall.
In addition, the community can perform the functions of " technical support" As practice shows, many users find it more convenient to ask a question through the community than to call a number that still needs to be found out, or to “reach out” to an online consultant on the site, if there is one. With the help of properly structured communication with customers, you can significantly reduce negativity and increase overall loyalty to the company.
Thanks to the “community statistics” section, you can always find out about the community’s audience and its activity. This section has several tabs. In the “Attendance” tab you can see the number of unique visitors and views. There is data for a day and a month, plus a lot of additional factors: gender and age of visitors; geography (country and city); referral sources (where visitors came to your community from); the number of visitors who left or joined the group; what sections visitors viewed: videos, photo albums, discussions, audio recordings.
The next “Reach” tab is for users who have viewed community posts on the “wall” or in the “My News” section. There is also additional data on gender, age and geography.
And in the “Activity” tab the following data is presented: how many users “liked” the post, that is, clicked the “Like” button; how many users reposted, that is, clicked the “Tell Friends” button; how many users mentioned the group page; how many users hid the group from the news; total number of comments left; In addition, this tab contains information about the number of comments on specific sections: discussions, photos or videos. Here is the graph feedback. It takes into account not only user actions performed directly on the wall of a group or page, but also the entire further path of the message. If a user posts a link to a message on their page using the “tell friends” function, the reaction of other users to this copy is also taken into account.
Any project can be present on VKontakte in three main formats: public page (public), group or profile. Each format has its own characteristics.
The main differences between a public page and a group are their functionality. In publics, content comes first. Immediately below the community description there is a microblog. And unlike groups in publics, there is no block with photographs or a news block above the “wall”.
On public pages, users can "suggest" their posts using the "Suggest News" feature. In some cases, this eliminates the need to run your own community, since users generate the content themselves.
Extremely important nuance, the public page is in the block interesting pages on the user page. Essentially it's five advertising banners in the most visible place on your profile. If the account owner subscribes to a public page and regularly visits it or reposts public posts from the news feed, the public will be permanently in this block.
Unlike public pages in groups, the main emphasis is on communication between users. This is facilitated by:
1. The “Discussion” block, which can be pinned above the “wall” of the group, immediately after the news block. This is analogous to a forum.
2. In a group, visitors can communicate directly on the “wall”. For example, ask your questions. This increases the communication effect, but also the amount of spam.
3. In the group, in the “News” block, there is a wiki markup, which allows you to create a beautiful additional menu.
SMM specialists cannot come to a single decision when choosing between a group or a public page. For example, Dmitry Rumyantsev in his work “Business Promotion on VKontakte” writes that the most effective for most niches as of July 2013 is promotion public page.ADamir Khalilov in his book “Marketing on Social Networks” claims that there is no fundamental difference in which format to use, since there are not many differences in functionality. But users are more accustomed to groups and are more willing to join them.
Standard text and graphic block with payment for impressions or for transitions;
Exclusive banner 90*160 for premium brands with payment for impressions;
Offers with payment according to the CPA model;
The average lifespan of one ad on a social network is 3 days.
Also, since August 2014, VKontakte has allowed advertising through verified communities. main feature– mandatory pre-moderation for all advertising posts. According to Roem.ru, checking advertising posts from the exchange will help achieve uniformity in advertising publications. This, in turn, will help advertisers achieve a predictable effect from advertising, and administrators will publish advertisements in a format familiar to users.
New advertisements cannot be added endlessly; there are some restrictions. Firstly, this is rule point No. 5:
“Creating more than three ads aimed at the same audience and advertising the same object, or creating several absolutely identical ads, including within different advertising campaigns, is regarded as an attempt to spam.”
Odnoklassniki (OK)
The prototype site Classmates.com was launched on March 4, 2006, and immediately became very popular. The emphasis was placed on the audience who have recently entered the university but do not want to lose touch with their school past. The secret of success was that parents of teenagers quickly became hooked on finding their classmates whom they had not seen for decades. This is the viral effect.
On currently 220 million people are registered on Odnoklassniki, and the monthly audience is approximately 41 million. On average, a user spends 17 minutes a day on the site. And the predominant audience by age criterion: women (55%) 25-54 years old (67%).
The developers of the social network “Odnoklassniki.ru” position their resource as a platform for finding classmates and friends in order to correspond with them, look at their photos and organize meetings with them. A not very wide range of functions, however, still allows people in our overly busy times to maintain relationships with friends and acquaintances, keep abreast of the events of their lives and see (from photographs) the current state of the person of interest.
The most common types of activities on Odnoklassniki are publishing statuses and messages. Users also love audio and especially visual content: they post photos, comment on friends’ pictures, and give ratings. In addition, popular activities on Odnoklassniki include watching videos and, of course, social games.
The advertising targeting capabilities of this social network are in many ways similar to any other network. Just like on VKontakte, media advertising on the Odnoklassniki website is placed on a paid basis. Before the advertisement appears in front of users, it is moderated by resource employees. The process takes about five business days.
Promotion of a group takes much longer and requires more effort than on VKontakte. This is due to less functionality available in groups on the Odnoklassniki network.
Odnoklassniki strictly follows a policy of deactivating unauthorized or illegal methods of promoting groups, so success can only be achieved through permitted content and purchasing advertising from donors
There are two types of groups in Odnoklassniki: groups for business and interest groups. In groups you can find useful information, find friends with similar interests, and make purchases. Brand groups can gain “official status”, which can protect them from clones.
The main source of advertising on Odnoklassniki is the news feed. Unlike competitors, Odnoklassniki decided to limit the number of publications from one community per day so that the feed does not turn into a dense stream of content where it is impossible to concentrate attention at all. This practice made it possible to slow down “nimble” community administrators and consistently maintain a high share of user attention on an advertising post. Today, the feed algorithm is configured in such a way that each group has sixteen posts that will definitely appear in the feed of the members of this group. After the sixteenth post, a certain filter is turned on, which analyzes the feed of each specific user and, in the future, either allows or does not allow the post there. Both the seventeenth and eighteenth posts will also appear in the users’ feed, but not all 100% of the group members will see them.
The number of user invitations to a particular group is also limited, but this indicator is “floating” and depends on many different factors. This was done to combat spam.
The difference from other platforms is the nature of the brand’s interaction with the audience. Typically, followers are very active in all brand-related activities because they know the brand and use it in their real life. Odnoklassniki has a mass market audience, and the brand needs to adapt to its interests and preferences. To promote on Odnoklassniki, it is more effective to use interactive and game mechanics: games, surveys and competitions.
Today, on the social network Odnoklassniki, there are more than 1,000 groups with over 1,000 participants. This is a very average value, because there are tens of groups that have more than 1 million followers. These are groups related to cooking, coffee brands and, for example, our official Odnoklassniki group (2.7 million users). At the same time, for several years the M&M’S brand group has remained the leader in the number of subscribers on the social network.
Odnoklassniki also provides free statistics on groups with the ability to download data in the form of graphs. For example, you can see information about the number of users who visited the group, their involvement, demand for content, and you can also find out where they came from to the group, demographics and geography of users, analytics of content popularity in groups.
There are many types of advertising tools in Odnoklassniki, the most accessible of which include the following: targeted advertising (text and graphic blocks), media advertising (banner, video advertising, non-standard projects for solving media problems) and advertising in groups.
In addition, there are mobile advertising. Mobile advertising is native, that is, it is presented directly in the news feed. On the one hand, it does not take up static space on the screen, on the other hand, compared to the web version, it takes up a larger percentage of the screen area (this significantly increased the CTR of advertisements). There are a huge number of users who access Odnoklassniki mainly from mobile phones. Now there is a day audience mobile version Odnoklassniki has 16.5 million visitors.
Another option for promoting a brand/company is a branded application and posting it on the portal. The cost of placement is “conditionally free” - 140 thousand rubles per month, which is spent on display and/or targeted advertising, and the placement itself, it turns out, costs nothing.
According to the study, the majority of My World users are Russians (58.7%), and every fifth is a resident of Kazakhstan (19%). The third largest number is occupied by Ukrainians (8.7%).
Among My World users there are more women (64%) than men (36%). The core of the audience is young men and women aged 18–34: 43% of them on the social network.
Users play more games, post content and comment in groups, and communicate less through chats and messages. At the same time, a user who starts buying something in games spends on average more on games than the same user on other social networks.
The activity of the MM audience is 2.5 times higher than in similar groups on other social networks.
According to Artem Ovechkin, development director of the online marketing agency Matik, there are several reasons for this:
1. Company budgets
3. Lack of PR on the part of MM
4. Competition with social networks VK and Odnoklassniki that are similar in audience composition.
Most medium and small companies do not allocate the largest budgets for SMM. Monthly expenses for this area range from 25 to 60 thousand rubles. Obviously, with such amounts it is impossible to qualitatively cover all social networks, so the matter does not go further than FaceBook and VKontakte.
Of course, only large companies can spread their corporate “tentacles” widely, but even they are expanding their reach through Twitter, Odnoklassniki, Youtube and only lastly look towards “My World”. Among the social network buttons that hang on many sites: “My World” icons are rare.
The second reason is the insufficient “promotion” of this social network, coupled with limited budgets and a generally test-like attitude towards SMM on the part of most companies. They reason like this: why spend money on “second-tier” social networks when not everything is clear with the first?
Among the advantages, it can be noted that there are managers who work personally with each specific group. If a group has good content, then there is an opportunity to free promotion– other social networks don’t have this.
My World also adheres to the policy that there should not be two identical groups, and therefore clones are deleted.
My World hosts media advertising and also has a wide selection of Target options. In addition, you can place advertisements in video pre-rolls. Moreover, MM can give initial traffic for free, raise it in the catalog or in the “We recommend” block. Of course this applies good products with high retention. The same applies to groups with interesting, regularly updated content.
The ability to create groups in MM appeared only in May 2013. Today, My World has hundreds of thousands of communities uniting users by interests. To make searching easier, there is a catalog that breaks down all communities into thematic groups.
Audience: more than 800 million users. There are more than 9.3 million users in Russia. The monthly increase is 20 million people (worldwide). If Facebook were a country, it would be the 3rd most populous country after China and India.
There are many Facebook users: businessmen, entrepreneurs, marketers; bloggers, geeks, webmasters; people who have friends abroad.
Main activities: reading comments (68%); chat (62%); commenting (59%); viewing/reading recommended (38%); apps, videos (33%); visiting brand pages (12%).
Many brands use Facebook groups for: employee team communication, customer feedback, idea exchange, word of mouth effect.
On pages, the administrator, as a rule, communicates with subscribers on behalf of the company, hiding under the “page title,” while groups involve a more intimate conversation, where the user immediately sees who he is dealing with. In addition to publications, there is a built-in search, file sharing, and convenient moderation.
A distinctive tool is the banner (cover) at the top, it can display the brand logo, or, if you do not load the banner, then profile photos of the group members will be displayed instead.
Other tools include: events, files, notifications (user activity in the group). In the group, any participant can upload files up to 25 MB.
You can set up a group so that no member can invite other users without the administrator's knowledge. The main point of groups is precisely to establish closer connections between users united by the same interest.
In addition, the group can serve as an information collector: for example, you can launch an event, publish it in the group and invite participants to register by leaving contact information(for example, email to receive a reminder or additional information).
Internet users' choice of the most suitable social network for them is a matter of purely personal preference. After all, each such service has its own distinctive features, its advantages and disadvantages. Therefore, speculating about which social network is the most optimal or which social network is better may not be helpful. However, it is quite possible to compare their main characteristics and choose the most optimal network - one that suits you personally. The entire article below was devoted to this issue.
Choosing a social network: comparative characteristics
The main characteristics of the Facebook, Odnoklassniki and Vkontakte networks:
1. Friendly interface
The success of Internet users’ interaction with their chosen social network largely depends on the convenience of their interface. If a person gets confused in the sections and does not understand where the functions he needs are located, then most likely he will not use his page on the social network.
2. Interface
The interface of each of the most common social networks in Russia is simple. At the same time, the VKontakte interface is considered to be the most convenient, and the OK interface the most complex. It’s interesting that the VKontakte interface was almost completely “copied” from the Facebook social network a little earlier, so the advantages of the VKontakte interface can still be debated. characteristics are still a big question.
3. Functionality
The interface is only the external side. What is much more important in any social network is its capabilities and functionality. Given the constant competition between social networks, the owner of each network is trying to overtake his opponent and prepare some kind of surprise for users. However, the main functions in any network are very similar: the ability to send messages, the “wall” itself, a selection of audio and video recordings, photo albums, applications, groups and public pages.
It is worth mentioning that Facebook does not have a section with musical compositions that is so familiar to Russian users. However, this feature of FB is not an omission of the owners, but the implementation of the law that protects the copyright of musicians and singers.
4. Privacy and security of use
Surely, many have heard something about how Facebook was created under the strict control of the FBI, which means that all data from it is monitored. In fact, almost everything posted online is tracked to some degree. This means that Facebook, Odnoklassniki and Vkontakte are equally unprotected before representatives of the intelligence services.
For example, today in Russia people are fined on social networks (OK, VK) for unlawful extremism. The wording of this law in Russia on extremism is very vague, so anyone can be convicted and given a fine. RIA Novosti dated April 7, 2016 noted that Russia still leads in the huge number of complaints to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) and ranks 2nd; for several years in a row it took 1st place, but now it is 2nd Russia's place was replaced by Ukraine, and then probably temporarily.
Today, for example, if you wrote the truth on Odnoklassniki or VKontakte, which the Russian Federation does not like, you will receive a fine. If you google it, you will notice that users of these two social networks receive fines - Odnoklassniki and VKontakte, because they are considered Russian. But this does not yet apply to users of the social networks Facebook and Google; it seems that the Russian special services are not allowed on Facebook and Google to turn around and apply their unlawful law on extremism. And just recently, the Russian authorities decided to block the largest professional social network LinkedIn, due to the fact that personal data Russian participants of this social network are not stored on the territory of the Russian Federation. Such first steps could lead to the blocking of Google, YouTube, and other Internet resources that did not provide Russia with control keys.
And if we talk about the protection of personal data, then it is Facebook that has clear advantages. This Zuckerberg social network is particularly strict in protecting users' confidential data. Any owner of a Facebook page can clearly define the circle of people who have access to basic information on the page or even completely protect their page from strangers. You can often hear that the personal pages of users of such social networks as OK, VK, Mail are hacked every now and then. But you won’t hear this from users of social networks Facebook and Google; most likely, without additional explanations, you understand why?! It's all about privacy and security of use.
5. Audience
If ordinary users most often look only for the pages of their friends, then page owners for promoting bands are more concerned about characteristics such as traffic and target audience. The Odnoklassniki and Contact networks are services that are widespread among residents of Russia and the countries of the former USSR. Facebook is a social network of international importance.
6. You can easily delete a page on Facebook
7. Facebook protects against spam
There is an incredible amount of spam on VKontakte and OK. These include annoying invitations to applications and groups, frequent hacking of accounts, spam messages on the wall, in personal messages and groups. This inconvenience often forces users to close their profiles, which itself defeats the purpose of social media. On Facebook there is spam and private profiles significantly less.
8. Home page
On Facebook, the main page is the news feed of friends of the owner of the VKontakte page. home page I set my own profile, which is not convenient for everyone.
9. Facebook is more functional
Facebook has so many functions that it’s simply impossible to understand them quickly. This is why many people find it incomprehensible and boring. But you just have to spend a little more time getting to know this social network, and all the difficulties are resolved on their own and the huge functionality of the network is revealed to the new user, which makes Facebook especially convenient and interesting.
Facebook has a variety of wonderful features. Ability to change access to publications. Possibility to publish retroactively. It's all very convenient. For example, we were at an event, but received photos only a month later. They can be added to the chronicle based on the date of the event. And when you look at it in a year, you will see exactly when this event took place. The post is placed in chronological order.
For example, you can also transfer your posts from other social networks. By publishing them in a timeline with access only for yourself and the time of their publication on the social network from which you are transferring. That is, the chronology is preserved, but they won’t clutter up anyone’s feed. Later, you can change the access and they can be seen when you access the page.
Another very convenient thing. If you edited the publication or deleted it altogether, then it will also change in reposts. This is not the case in either VK or G+.
But in FB it is not yet possible to edit publications from other users in a group, as is the case in VK if you have admin rights. It wouldn’t hurt if FB were more adaptive and had wider designs, for example, the search would be mega-expanded and convenient, like in VK, + video and music and the ability to sort. But we’ll wait to see what else we can do...
10. Millions of applications
Countless selection of applications - from gaming to cross-posting everything latest entries blog of interest. Here every user can find something that interests him, while most of the Odnoklassniki and VKontakte applications are intended only for entertainment.
11. Facebook is open to other sites
Facebook gives away user traffic to third-party sites without fear. This confirms that in 2010 it was able to overtake the search engine google system by the number of transitions to sites. VKontakte and OK in every possible way prevent traffic from moving to other sites.
12. On Facebook, information comes first hand.
We all have something that is especially dear and dear to us. Modern musicians, favorite films, famous actors, brands and manufacturing companies, Internet sites of cultural trends and people dear to us. VKontakte has groups for this purpose, in which people with similar interests exchange information. This could be quite interesting. But on Facebook you can find real pages or communities of celebrities, where all the news is published by the stars themselves or their trusted representatives. It is from there that all the information then spreads to other social networks.
13. Facebook has a convenient chat
Constantly looking for the “private messages” item in the menu may not be very convenient. On Facebook, in the lower right part of the screen there is a very convenient chat with a list of all available contacts, which makes communication especially easy and enjoyable.
14. Facebook has a lite and mobile version
This feature can make using the social network much easier when the quality of the Internet leaves much to be desired. These very light and small versions will allow you to stay in touch both in the city and beyond.
15. Facebook has an iPhone app and other nice features
Now many young people have decided to get a brand new modern iPhone. Any of the owners of this device knows that it is more convenient to access a social network through a special application. Facebook today has the most modern and convenient “native” program that helps you do anything on your page by accessing it through a special application installed on your smartphone. Of course, there is also a similar iPhone application for Vkontakte, but the ease of use of this application still leaves much to be desired.
16. Facebook is communication without borders
Today in Facebook networks More than 300 million users have registered and the number continues to grow. Without a shadow of a doubt, we can say that Facebook is considered the most popular social network for communicating with users from all over the world. This is facilitated by the fact that the functionality Facebook already has been translated into all the major languages of the world and continues to add new ones.
You can install an automatic online translator directly on the Facebook website and then read news in any language. To set up automatic translation into your language, you need to click on “Settings” in the upper right corner, select the “Settings” - “Language” section. And set the language into which you want to translate comments, messages, etc. After this, at the bottom of each message and comment, you will have a “Show translation” button on your viewing pages. See the pictures below to see how to make these settings in practice:
17. Facebook is your universal account and pass.
Nowadays, an increasing number of new web services can use a Facebook account to facilitate authorization. This saves the user from filling out boring forms for a long time and makes the use of resources that are interesting to him and especially convenient.
18. Facebook is for responsible adults
VKontakte - for children and teenagers. The time has come when VKontakte became like a playground for school-age children. Whereas adults and responsible people increasingly choose Facebook for themselves.
Of course, each Internet user can remain unconvinced when deciding which social network is best for him. There simply cannot be a definite answer. And if, at first, it’s difficult to decide which service will be the most convenient, you can try to create a page on each of the 3 social networks. This will greatly expand opportunities for communication and other interactions with the outside world.
But our OPTIMUS LIFE team, of all social networks, considers Facebook to be the priority and optimal.
Which social network is your choice and why? Write in the comments below.
Facebook is a Silicon Valley startup. Widely used among colleges and universities in most English-speaking countries. It is the second most popular network after MySpace in the United States. This network is not yet available in many countries, but is developing and growing steadily. Recommended for: College and university students.
MySpace is one of the largest social networks in the world. It conquered the United States with tremendous speed; MySpace now has about 80 million users. In 2005, it was bought by Newscorp for $580 million. MySpace continues to grow rapidly and this moment It is precisely this that determines the development paths of social networks. Recommended for: teenagers, young adults.
Bebo - unlike the Americanized MySpace, Bebo is designed for other English-speaking countries such as England, Australia and New Zealand. Bebo is very similar in functionality to MySpace. Initially, Bebo was created in order to communicate between friends, but subsequently the network has grown and currently has about 40 million users. Recommended for: teenagers, young adults.
Friendster, one of the first networks launched as a “social experiment”, recently acquired a “social networking” patent. The network has grown very quickly, but today it has completely fallen and currently occupies less than 1% of the social networking market. Very popular in Asia. Recommended for: teenagers.
Tagworld - founded in the fall of 2005. Direct competitor to MySpace. It stands out for its excellent implementation of Web 2.0 (tagging, AJAX). Tagworld also has a search engine for music and an IM client with video chat capabilities. Recommended for: teenagers, young adults.
Orkut is a product created by a Google programmer in his free time (every Google programmer has the right to spend 20% of his working time on his own projects). Orkut began its development in the USA, but subsequently became widespread in Brazil (about 65% of users). Recommended for: Brazilian youth.
AIM pages - The youngest social network among the most popular. This is AOL's attempt to supplant MySpace in the social networking market. It was believed that AIM Pages would be a real breakthrough, but it still has a long way to go. Recommended for: teenagers, young adults.
Hi5 has about 40 million users. You have to pay to participate in this social network. One of distinctive features system is that you can download music from iTunes for money and add it to your profile. With a free account you can upload a whole gigabyte of photos. Hi5 has profiles for Kelly Clarkson, Jessica Simpson, and Tyra Banks. Recommended for: teenagers, young adults.
Cyworld appeared in Korea and grew to phenomenal proportions. The daily income of this network is about $300,000. Cyworld is now gradually expanding to the US. The network has its own currency (acorns), and each user has his own “minihompy” (profile). Users can decorate their “minihompy” and keep in touch with each other. Recommended for: teenagers, young adults.
Tagged - intended mainly for teenagers. The main idea is to be tagged, create tagging teams and earn points in order to become the coolest tagging team. Tagging is slowly gaining popularity among teenagers in the United States, but is secondary compared to MySpace. Recommended for: teenagers.
Popist is very similar to MySpace, both in interface and focus. Offers users a large number of open functions, such as the ability to integrate with other social networks. Recommended for: teenagers.
Tribe - NBC recently acquired this network. The main task of Tribe is not so much in dating and communication, but in uniting users’ own social networks. It provides the opportunity to create so-called “clans”, and is also very well localized due to these same clans. Recommended for: teenagers.
ConnectU is very similar to Facebook. Also designed for college and university students. ConnectU, unlike Facebook, covers a much smaller number of colleges and universities around the world. Recommended for: College and university students.
Yahoo! 360 - launched in early 2005, a Yahoo product that provides the ability to combine blogs and photo albums. Only for those over 18 years old - this significantly reduces the list of potential users. Recommended for: adults.
PeopleAggregator is Marc Canter's attempt to carve out his niche in the social media space. Based on open standards and functionality. One of the distinctive features is that this is just a demo version of the software, which can be purchased later. Recommended for: adults.
MommyBuzz - Launched just a couple of months ago, MommyBuzz is designed to allow moms to connect online, share and exchange thoughts and ideas with other moms. A wonderful place for such a target group. Recommended: Moms.
Flickr is the most popular photo service in the world. Millions of people store their photos on Flickr, tag them, create albums, and add them to discussion groups. Recommended for: amateur photographers.
MuslimSpace - Created by a former computer engineering student at the American University of Sharjah, MuslimSpace lives up to its name - MySpace for Muslims. Today the site has about 15,000 users, and its goal is to be a cleaner and more secure site than MySpace and, of course, only for Muslims. Recommended: Muslims.
Stardoll - Would you like to dress up celebrities as paper dolls? Originally called Paperdoll Heaven, Stardoll does just that. With a strong social network at its core and almost a million users, Stardoll is gaining mega popularity in the world of children and teenagers in much the same way as Neopets did a few years ago. Recommended for: children/teenagers.
Imbee - There are so many sites for teenagers, but what about children? Imbee's goal is to provide a safe and secure social network for children. So now if your big brother is bragging about his MySpace profile and teasing that you can't get one, go to Imbee! Recommended for: children.
Dogster is a place where dogs (and their owners) can meet and socialize. On Dogster, each dog has its own web page. The subtitle reads: post dog photos, tell dog stories, make new dog friends! Recommended for: dogs and their owners.
Catster is practically the twin brother of the Dogster site, developed by the same people, Catster is Dogster for cats. Post photos of cats, tell cat stories, make new friends (cats)! Does anything else need to be explained? Recommended for: cats and their owners
Fuzzster - Being somewhat of a combination of Dogster and Catster, Fuzzster is the place for your cats, dogs and other furry pets. Launched in early 2004, it has grown to become a fairly large community of animal lovers. Recommended for: furry animals and their owners.
BookCrossing - In the real world, bookcrossing works like this: someone leaves a book in a public place for others to pick up and read, and then do the same. The goal of the BookCrossing site is to launch the same process in the virtual world. Recommended for: book lovers.
Boompa is a site for car enthusiasts, and there are certainly a lot of them on the Internet. The goal of the network is to become your online garage. Car enthusiasts can show off their cars here, find recommendations for improving them, meet other car enthusiasts, view videos and photos, and much more. Recommended for: car enthusiasts.
Spout is a database of over 250,000 movie titles, Spout is a social network for movie fans. Here you can find reviews and recommendations, meet other film fans. Spout is a good place to visit before you plan to rent a movie. Recommended: Film buffs.
MOG is a startup from Silicon Valley, MOG's goal is to unite music lovers with the same interests. A very interesting way to meet new people, and here you can discover new musical trends that you didn’t know about before. Recommended: for music lovers.
Gusto. There are sites about cars, films, music, books, animals, but what about travel? Gusto is precisely a place that unites travelers based on their lifestyle (expressed in preferences). You can also find tons of travel information, recommendations, and reviews here.
Yub.com - combines a social network and shopping. Yub.com's goal is to provide a smart online shopping experience. A `cash back' system is used, where if one user helps another or vice versa, both users have the opportunity to receive CashBack. An interesting way to shop. Recommended for: lovers of (online) shopping.
Yelp (from the makers of PayPal) - This site is much like Yub, designed to help shoppers make decisions by showing them reviews from other users. However, unlike Yub, Yelp is more focused on commercial activities and services rather than consumer-facing products. Currently only available in the US. Recommended for: Any US resident (especially in big cities).
LinkedIn - according to surveys, the most popular business network, the purpose of LinkedIn is to unite colleagues and business partners and help find new ones. With nearly 5 million users, LinkedIn remains popular among business audiences. Recommended for: mercenaries and businessmen
biddingBuddies - Often on auction sites like eBay you have to deal with a lot of people. BiddingBuddies can help you with this. This is the only social network exclusively for eBay users. Now, if you are participating in an auction, why not make friends with your opponents. Recommended for: eBay users (buyers and sellers).
Faqqly - There are so many things you'd like to know about your friends, so why not ask them through Faqqly? Faqqly creates an FAQ (frequently asked questions) page for each user and allows friends to ask each other anything.
Runet networks
In contact with. Search for fellow students and classmates, the most visited resource in Russia and Ukraine. Created in 2006 by Pavel Durov (for registration they require an e-mail and number mobile phone).
Odnoklassniki -- Year of foundation -- 2006. The largest social network, has 11 million (February 2008) users. Odnoklassniki.ru will help you find old friends and find out what and how they live now. You can send messages to people you've lost contact with and perhaps arrange a meeting with them (registration has recently become free).
My Circle is a social network for finding jobs and employees. The first social network on the Runet, created in 2005 by a group of recent graduates of MIPT, Moscow State University and the Russian School of Economics to search for classmates, fellow students, colleagues and employees (as of June 2006, it had 100 thousand registered users). On March 27, 2007, the service was purchased by Yandex; Now it is one of Yandex’s services and continues its development under his tutelage.
LovePlanet is a dating and communication site.
TooDoo - as the site's authors write: “This site is a social network of site fans, designed to unite the Runet and allow everyone to exchange opinions with their friends about their favorite (or least favorite) sites, find new interesting pages, get to know in person those who reads the same sites, makes new acquaintances with interesting people - for example, with the authors of his favorite sites.”
Privet.ru is a site about people and interests. Communication, blogs, communities, videos...
Spaces.ru is a Russian network for mobile phones.
The site will help you find new acquaintances, both for a serious relationship and just for the sake of friendship by correspondence.
We all know the popular and favorite types of social networks, such as Vkontakte, Facebook, Twitter or Instagram. But there are many other social networks that are important not only for communication, but also for business development.
Depending on their purpose, there are the following types of social networks:
Social networks for communication and friendship
The well-known Odnoklassniki, VKontakte, Facebook, Moi Mir - these social networks are the most attractive for business promotion. As a rule, in such social networks one person has one account (profile, page) with all personal information. Based on the user profile data, you can determine which target audience this person belongs to.
But there are also users - avid gamers who develop a gaming profile on social networks for communication, creating fake friends in order to receive bonuses, assistants and other nuances to achieve unprecedented heights in games without spending money.
In such cases, information on social networks about users is unreliable, and communicating with fakes is a waste of time. If we consider that we choose our interlocutors ourselves, then we can limit ourselves from fakes and receive only positive emotions from communicating on social networks.
It’s very easy to share news, impressions, play games, discuss on forums - doing all this while avoiding annoying and unpleasant interlocutors. After all, on social networks you can send any unwanted “friend” to “ignore”, or simply not respond to him. Which is not always possible to do in real life.
Registration on social networks is mostly free, but for security, you need to register your account using your mobile phone number. Although this rule does not restrict anyone from creating fake pages, because you can buy as many unregistered SIM cards as you like.
Professional social networks
These are networks of business contacts (LinkedIn, Xing), social networks of various universities and other sites of various professional areas for the development of business relationships. Here one user can register in several categories, depending on his skills and professions.
Social networks for dating
The most famous among them are the global social network for dating - Loveplanet, the popular social network on the Runet - Photostrana. In such social networks you can find a friend, a hobby, or even a life partner. It provides a search for users by various criteria - gender, age, city, marital status, religion, interests, habits and preferences.
On social networks, for communication and development of relationships, there are various communities for women, according to the directions of social networks.
There are communities for business women, communities for single and married women, communities for the interests of cooking and handicrafts, art, style and beauty, societies for young mothers and socialites, as well as many other virtual organizations.
Ever wondered how much bigger Facebook is than VKontakte? Or what do the Chinese do without Twitter?
And we thought.
Practically every an Internet user is registered in one or another social network. Today these are not just communication tools, but entire media platforms owned by world-famous IT giants. Here are some of them.
from left to right: Mark Zuckerberg, Eduardo Saverin, Dustin Moskowitz and Chris Hughes
The most popular social network in the world needs no introduction. It was created by Mark Zuckerberg and his roommates Eduardo Saverin, Dustin Moskovitz and Chris Hughes. On February 4, 2004, a social network called Thefacebook was opened to Harvard students. The worldwide launch took place on September 26, 2006.
Geography of distribution
according to Bitly Science Team
Today's Facebook received ubiquitous spreading. Of course, the popularity of the network differs depending on different countries. For example, in China it is banned, in North Korea things are no better, and in Russia VKontakte and Odnoklassniki have pulled the blanket. Nevertheless, about 25,000,000 users use Facebook in our country.
Audience
in Russia, based on Brand Analytics materials
QZone is the most popular social network. China network.
Its audience numbers 755,000,000 users, which is second indicator among all the social networks in the world.
The Qzone members are predominantly men (57% versus 43% women) aged 26 to 30 years. For some reason, there is no data on those who are under nineteen, either these are the peculiarities of the legislation, or they hide their age. :)
Owners
from left to right: Founder Ma Huaten, Executive Vice President Seng Yee Lau
The network is owned by the telecommunications giant Tencent (messengers QQ and WeChat are also their work). By the way, the CEO of the company, founder Ma Huateng acquired 10.26% of the shares the familiar DST fund, and this is the part of Mail.ru that is responsible for foreign investment.
Comparison
For more and visibility, we have summarized the above indicators into charts. Everyone loves diagrams? To estimate the real audience, they usually take the number active users per month or per day.
number of social network users who have been active over the past month
The fact that Facebook is the most popular in the world did not raise any questions. This preponderance is amazing; the number of active Facebook users is almost equal to the audience everyone else mentioned social networks in total.
capitalization of companies owning social networks
The Chinese telecommunications giant is not far behind the undisputed leader. Not surprisingly, in addition to QZone, Tencent owns other social networks, several instant messengers and free-to-play games. Reminds me of Russian Mail.ru, increased several times. By the way, despite its modest capitalization compared to others, the Russian company pursues a bold investment policy and diversifies its assets. Of the six social networks reviewed. networks, Mail.ru capital is represented in four directly, and in one indirectly.
(5.00 out of 5, rated: 3 )
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