Everyone makes mistakes when promoting in social networks. But how, then, does a good specialist differ from a bad one? The fact that the first learns both from his own and others' mistakes. We've collected the most common bugs in community promotion.

Mistake 1: group promotion is quick

One of the most common mistakes when promoting communities is waiting for results soon. Sometimes groups take off very quickly, but this is an exception to the rule. Moreover, no one will tell you the exact terms for which the promotion of the community will give the desired result. For one topic a month will be enough, while for another it may take six months. Of course, you can promote the group by winding up subscribers. Will these people only benefit your business?

To gain the right subscribers, who will be your actual target audience, you need to promote the group only with "white" methods. But even in this case, you should not count on an instant increase in sales. The link between group promotion and sales may not be obvious due to its lengthy time span. The fact is that often a client needs a lot of contacts with advertising to make his choice. He watches ads, reads reviews, monitors publications in social networks and only then makes a choice in your favor. If you do not have a group on the social network, the choice will most likely be made in favor of the brands that are there.

Mistake 2: anyone can promote communities

From the outside, it may seem that running a group on a social network is very simple. It is enough to entrust this to one of the employees of the marketing department, moreover, to the load on the main activity, and the job is done. Such an employee can begin active promotion activities (as he himself understands this process).

However, it will most likely cool off quickly. As a result, the group will become "dead", and this can seriously damage your reputation. Judge for yourself: a potential client enters the community hoping to get information and sees that the information in it has not been updated for several months. Most likely, he will conclude that the company is not working and will go looking for competitors.

Another mistake of "amateur performance" is the temptation to take a successful case of promoting a group on social networks and try to transfer it to your company. Promotion is an individual process. If some technique worked for some, then it is not at all a fact that it will work for others. You need to promote your group according to a strategy developed specifically for it.

Community leading involves deep immersion in the interests of the target audience. You need to understand what she likes and what, on the contrary, annoys. To feel this, logging into the social network once a day for 10 minutes is not enough. The result of such "group advancement" will tend to zero. The conclusion is simple: you need a separate specialist who is all his own. work time will promote the group.

Mistake 3: silent group promotion

It's not uncommon for a CEO to think that the community is just an add-on to the site. In this case, the entire promotion of the group turns into posting news posts with closed comments. As a result, you are deprived of the main advantage of social networks - the possibility of direct communication with the target audience.

It is also very important to answer any questions and do it as quickly as possible, at least during the day. All your efforts to promote the community will be useless if people don't get responses. But the answers must also be "live". If your employees give out template formalized remarks without reference to the situation, you are unlikely to win the love of subscribers.

Here it is necessary to say about working with the negative. In any community, not only in social networks, but in general on the Internet, you will encounter negativity. Such comments in a group cannot be ignored or, even worse, deleted. By doing this, you will only make it worse. You need to work with the negative, that is, talk with the dissatisfied, but not brush it off, but really try to solve their problems. If you can help an unhappy customer, you can turn negative into positive and improve your reputation.

Mistake 4: a group just like that

It would be a big mistake to create a community without any specific goals, simply because the group, for example, was started by a rival company. There will be more harm than good from such "advancement". The activity in such a group will be haphazard, which will lead potential customers to the idea of ​​a mess in your company. Without a specific goal and strategy, the promotion will quickly fizzle out, and there will be one more “dead” group on the social network. We have already written above about the harm that the abandoned community of your company will bring.

If you create a group and decide to promote it, then first answer the question why you should do this. Do you want to build a channel for interaction with customers, or do you need new way sales? Do you need testing new service, or are you determined to increase your average bill? Would you like to strengthen your brand reputation or organize an upsell channel? Depending on the goals of promotion in the social network, you will need to choose your own strategy for promoting the group. Agree, you can achieve results only if you understand what you need.

Mistake 5: no time to think, you need to promote

It would be a serious mistake to invest a lot of money in the first communication channel you like without testing it. For example, to buy advertising in thematic groups for the entire budget. Of course, you may be lucky and a large number of subscribers will come to the group, but most likely the money will be wasted. It makes more sense to test a few channels first, and choose the one that will bring the most bang for your buck.

Another mistake is to start promoting without analyzing the experience of promoting groups of competitors. Here, not only positive, but also negative examples are important. See how major players behave in your niche, how they communicate with customers, what materials are posted and how users react to them. So you not only "peep" good ideas, but you can also detach yourself from competitors in order to better position yourself. But you also need to borrow wisely. Do not copy, but take a good idea and adapt it for yourself.

It is important to analyze not only other companies, but also your potential audience. You need to try to understand her deeply in order to post to the group what she really likes. Otherwise, it may happen that you spend money on creating expensive content that will not be interesting to subscribers.

Mistake 6: the group is the second site

It would be a big mistake to confuse the community on the social network with the site and publish the same content in the group. Groups have completely different laws. Posts with big amount text or monotonous publications. The subject of messages should be alternated by focus, for example: news, comic test, product survey, competition. Remember that there should be much more entertainment and informational posts than advertisements. All people do not come to a group to read one advertisement.

Also pay attention to the decoration of the images. It is highly desirable that all of them are not just taken from the Internet, but decorated in the same style, for example, with the same frame made in corporate colors.

There are still many mistakes

We have listed only the main mistakes that can be made when promoting a group on a social network. Everyone who promotes probably has their own list, but that's not the point. Using this knowledge, you will be able to organize your social group efficiently. And if all this seemed too complicated for you, you can always find a company that will do this work for you.

Helpful 0

Dmitry Dementiy

The site of the social network "VKontakte" is one of the most visited in the Russian Internet. With the help of the platform, which is most popular among Russian-speaking users, people decide different tasks: from personal communication and finding friends to building a network of business contacts and finding employees, from self-expression and entertainment to business promotion and online trading.

This guide is dedicated to promoting your VKontakte business. In it you will find a step-by-step plan: from creating a community or a page to life hacks and tools for advanced users.

1. Start with planning

Define the goal and objectives of the project's activity on the VKontakte social network. Remember, a goal is a planned outcome. Tasks are steps that help you achieve your goal.

Decide how you will interact with the audience, what information to offer potential and existing customers, what user problems you can solve. Ilya Rabchenok calls this the concept of community.

Be sure to record the planning results in a form convenient for you.

2. Determine the type of community you need

To promote your business on the VKontakte network, you can create a group or public page... Use a group if you plan to encourage members to post on their own and start discussions. The group is an informal discussion platform with which you can find out the mood of the audience, manage the brand's reputation.

Choose a public page if you plan to publish official information, branded content and independently manage discussions. In most cases, a public page is more suitable for promoting a business.

To promote conferences, trainings, webinars, use the "Event" community type.

3. Select the appropriate page type

Select the appropriate type and click "Create Page".

4. Create a page description

Public pages are indexed search engines... Therefore, publish an informative description that will help potential clients find the public.

Select the Snapster room and set up export to Twitter if needed.

5. Choose the optimal settings

In the Sections settings menu, check the boxes you want. In the "Comments" menu, enable or disable the ability to comment and, if necessary, enable the filter of obscene expressions and keywords... In the "Links" block, refer to resources useful for the audience, and in the "Working with API" block, if necessary, connect the API.

6. Customize the group

Our blog has an amazingly useful and detailed guide "VKontakte group design". Use it to select and implement a suitable community look and feel. After registration, you can continue to promote the group.

If in this moment you can't take the time to look at the public, come back to it later. Keep in mind that visually appealing design helps the user create a positive first impression of a group or page. So don't postpone the community design work.

In the meantime, at least select and upload a suitable page avatar. Try to find or create a unique image. It must meet the following requirements:

• The avatar size is 200 x 500 pixels.
• The thumbnail size is 200 x 200 pixels.
• Jpeg format, maximum quality, baseline (standart).
• The image should grab the attention of users and encourage them to click through to the page.
• The semantic content of the avatar should correspond to the topic of the page.
• The image must be of high quality.

Please note that when uploading to the VKontakte site, the quality of the images drops. To avoid this, use a life hack from the VKontakte support team:

• Open the image in Photoshop.
• Increase the size to 2560 by 2048.
• Press the Alt + Shift + Ctrl + S keyboard shortcut. In the window that opens, set the maximum quality and convert the image to sRGB format.
• Drag the image to the upload area instead of using the Upload button.

7. Tell your friends about the page

Use the Tell Friends feature to invite your followers to subscribe to the page. Follow this recommendation when posting multiple posts in a group or on a page.

8. Invite your friends to subscribe to the page

Invite your friends to subscribe to the page using private messages (this tactic really works, proven in practice). Also ask your subscribers to tell their friends about the page.

9. Enter the page URL in the contact information on your personal page

This will help you attract followers interested in your personal profile.

10. Indicate the place of work in your personal profile

When you hover over the company name in the "Place of work" section of your personal profile, a preview of the group or page pops up. And in the "Career" section, a clickable avatar of the public is displayed.

To make a link to the company group appear in the "Place of work" section, select the "Career" section in the settings of your personal page. In the item "Place of work" using the drop-down menu select the desired page.

11. Post interesting and useful content

Publishing useful and interesting content is a key factor successful promotion business on the VKontakte network. Therefore, it needs to be deciphered.

You will have to compete for views and subscriptions in an environment of excess content. In order for VKontakte users to pay attention to your publications, the information must be really valuable.

The following ideas will help you offer your customers really worthwhile information:

• Be sure to start with planning. Create a content plan in a form convenient for you. Plan for the long term. Our articles "SMM plan in 30 minutes" and "How to create an editorial plan for publications on social networks" will help.
• When planning content planning, take into account the peculiarities of VKontakte and the preferences of the audience of this network. Look for information in our article "Working with content in different social networks".
• Even if you make and sell very solid and ultra-serious products, learn to get an emotional response from your audience. This is a prerequisite for survival in a content environment filled with memes. Read madly useful articles about emotional content and the intellectualization of sexual attraction.
• Write specifically for the VKontakte audience. Publish unique information, not repost materials from your blog. Use the article editor to design your publication.
• Publish video with subtitles. They generally get much more reach than regular entries... We talked about how to make such a video for free in the following video:

12. Style publications with wiki markup

it handy tool, with which you can beautifully design notes in groups and publics. If you manage a group, to create a wiki page, you just need to open the materials in the section settings. After that, the "Edit" button will appear on the "Fresh news" tab, which activates the note editor.

To create a publication on a public page, copy the following link into your browser: https://vk.com/pages?oid=-***&p=page_name. Replace the *** characters with the id of the public, and replace the page_name with the name of the publication. On the page that opens, follow the link "Fill with content".

The community ID can be found in the URL. If you've changed the page URL to be user-friendly, go to the Community Posts section. Find the numbers in the link. This is the identifier.

13. Design publications using the article editor

In 2018, VKontakte presented a full-fledged article editor... To go to the editor, click the icon with the letter "T" on the panel for creating a publication.

The editor is intuitive. It itself sets the padding between elements and aligns the content. Clicking on the "+" sign allows you to add visual content or an audio track.

14. Share stories with subscribers

16. Use the scheduled posts feature

Use the Timer function to prepare content in advance and publish it at a chosen time. To do this, in the publication field, select the "Attach - other - timer" options. Select a posting time and click the Add to Queue button.

25. Advertise in Communities

26. Use retargeting

With this tool, you can serve ads to users who have visited your site. Create a retargeting pixel in your ad account. Paste it into the code of the site pages. The system will add site visitors or individual sections to the audience.

Life hack: add a retargeting pixel to your website right now, even if you don't plan to advertise your business on VKontakte yet. This does not affect the efficiency of the resource or the speed of loading pages. The system will add potential customers to the audience. You will be able to show them ads in a month or in a year.

27. Improve your targeting accuracy with the Pepper service

29. Post a trending video

Please note that this paragraph describes a prohibited trick. A couple of years ago, with his help, my colleague and I increased the number of group members from several hundred to 5 thousand in a few weeks. You can use it at your own risk. Think about which video your target audience is interested in. For example, subscribers to food groups watch TV shows of the relevant topic.

Users often search latest releases favorite TV programs in social networks... You can download pirated recordings from file sharing services or video hosting and publish them on the VKontakte page. Audience representatives will find the video they are interested in, watch it and subscribe to your page. This tactic brings several dozen subscribers on the day the video is published.

Be sure to delete the video a few hours after posting. Firstly, it will protect you from the problems associated with the publication of someone else's content. Secondly, within a few hours your competitors will also publish a popular video, so the flow of visitors and subscribers will stop.

30. Analyze statistics

In the "Page statistics" section, the public administrator has access to the "Attendance", "Reach" and "Activity" tabs. On the Attendance tab, pay attention to your views and unique visitors.

Keep track of the age characteristics of the audience and the geography of visits. Consider the types of devices your audience prefers.

You also need data about referral sources and subscribed / unsubscribed users. Data on the number of users who joined and left the group are available in the standard statistical report (see illustration below). And you will receive a list of names of people who joined and unsubscribed with the help of Deserter applications.

Screencast where we show you how to use the Deserter app:

The Reach tab will help you estimate how many users are viewing your posts. The Activity tab will help you analyze user behavior.

If you are not satisfied with the standard statistical reports, use free service SocialStats. It provides access to advanced audience data as well as analysis of user behavior. Service "Comparison of groups" helps you compare community audiences. And the Repost Tree app will help you identify users who share your posts.

Additional useful services for collecting statistics and solving other problems are described in our article “Overview of 45 services and applications for VKontakte administrators”.

31. Follow the activity in the community using the "Moderator" application

32. Advertise the page on the corporate website

33. Advertise the page in the newsletter

Mention the VKontakte page in the mailing list. Also include a link to the public in your email template.

34. Publish in the header of the site links to your pages and groups in social networks

The illustration shows how this looks in practice.

35. Publish the link to the page in the signature in the email

To change your signature in Gmail, use the Settings - Signature menu. In the Mail.ru mailbox, use the "Settings - name and signature" menu. V mail service"Yandex" use the menu "Settings - Personal data, name and signature - Add signature".

36. Conduct surveys

Polls increase audience engagement. To create a poll, in the publication field, select the "Add - Poll" menu. Use anonymous polls to encourage users to take part in them.

In 2018, VKontakte introduced Polls 2.0. Now you can add a background to the polls, limit the time of the survey, make it possible to select multiple answers.

37. Add useful links to the page

38. Invite your audience to participate in the discussions

Create multiple threads about topics that interest your audience. Maintain discussions.

40. Giveaway Prizes to Subscribers

You will attract new subscribers by giving away prizes and gifts. The price of the issue? From the logo cup to infinity. Use the app "Competition Manager" to effectively manage draws. Our guide "VKontakte Contests: How to Get the Results You Need and Not Get Banned" will help you organize and hold the competition.

41. Offer Subscribers Discounts

You won't believe what people are willing to do for discounts. And everyone will agree to subscribe to the page for the sake of a discount.

Life hack: in the "Shaving Classic" group, sellers and manufacturers of themed goods can advertise for free. To do this, it is enough to provide a discount to community members. This is one of the incentives for users to join the group.

42. Allow subscribers to upload photos, post their photos

This is another way to get user generated content and stimulate discussions. The idea is perfectly implemented in the "Shaving Classic" group. Community members upload photos of razors to the main album. Almost every photo gets a lot of likes and comments. The album is displayed on home page community. This is perhaps the most popular section in the group.

43. Set the relevant page status

You can announce a contest, announce a sale, or invite users to join the community. You can use a slogan as a status.

44. Publish entertaining content

Don't be limited to official content. Post funny photos, demotivators, memes, prank videos. More visual content! VKontakte users love it.

45. Ask your audience to share posts

You can limit yourself to a simple "repost is welcome", justify the need to share the publication from the point of view of science, or use other tactics.

46. ​​Pay attention to the visual appeal of your publications

Hundreds of materials appear in the feeds of your subscribers every day. For people to read your post, it must grab attention. This task is solved by bright interesting photos. Seals, light erotica, photo-toads - all means are good in SMM.

47. Use provocative headlines

The headline should sell the subscriber to view the article. So create killer headlines.

48. Advertise your page offline

Publish the page title and URL on printed products, business cards, souvenirs.

49. Steal content ideas from competitors

52. Publish viral content

True virality is almost impossible to plan. But it's worth a try. Each industry has its own recipes for creating viral content... Experiment, use different tools and formats, and monitor audience reactions. Useful information about virality is in our publications:

• What is viral content.

  If you want to comment on behalf of a page or group, use the drop-down menu in the comment form to select the account you need.

  
  

  55. Link to the page in publications on the site

  56. Exchange your subscription for a free service

  Host free webinars, perform site and page audits, edit photos, advise clients. As a fee, require users to subscribe to your page.

  
  

  60. (Do not) use SmoFast or Forumok

  61. Write an article "50 reasons to join our VKontakte group"

  List all the reasons why users should join your VKontakte page. Promote it on all possible sites.

  62. Broadcast live

  Stream training events, conference talks, screencasts. Use the app or stream from your desktop. To do this, go to the community section "Videos" and use the appropriate function.

  
  

  63. Study the TOP-30 applications for "VKontakte"

  Test each of the 30 apps listed here on this list... We are sure many of them will be useful to you.

  64. Subscribe to the best publics on SMM

  To be in the trend of events taking place in the field and to be the first to learn about new ways to promote VKontakte. The list of such publics can be viewed.

  65. Create an article "The best publics on your topic" and include your group there

  Thinking why advertise your competitors? Trust me, it makes sense. We have seen this in practice. Within a week after the publication of such an article on our blog, the number of subscribers in our VKontakte group began to grow steadily. The same effect is observed when the public “Texterra” is mentioned in similar lists in other thematic groups.

  66. Post information about vacancies

  This will help you find candidates faster, but that's not the point. Potential clients trust a business that actively hires employees.

Demand creates supply - a well-known phrase. But today it can be changed to supply and promotion creates demand. This is how the journey of various products to consumers begins. And social networks, which cope with this task quite successfully, will help to interest and induce to buy. Promotion of goods and services in social networks - we offer an overview on this relevant topic.

Strategy Development

Probably no one is needed in 2018 to convince that social networks are an effective and modern channel for advertising and sales. The statistics of 2017 provide convincing arguments: over 3 billion people in the world have a registered account in one or more services. About $ 1.5 trillion was spent on online purchases per year. And this is only the official statistics, which does not include officially unregistered online stores. A person, having selected something in a mobile application, often goes to the website of an online store or contacts retail network for a purchase, which is also not reflected in the statistics. The main role in product promotion is played by Facebook, VKontakte, Odnoklassniki and other networks. Therefore, the business is actively adopting these resources and achieving success.

• Goals and objectives from working in social networks.
• Target audience of the product and how interesting communication services are to them.
• Choice of resources and tools.
• Parameters of checks and evaluation of the result.

What to promote

The question arises - what kind of products are successfully promoted through this channel? Or is absolutely everything suitable? Based on marketing research, depending on the social network, its characteristics, the prevailing audience, different groups of goods will be in demand. And yet there are leaders:

• Fashion industry goods - clothing, footwear, accessories.
• Cosmetics, perfumery.
• For children - clothes, shoes, toys, hygiene and care products.
• Hand made products, souvenirs, unique items from limited editions, jewelry.
• Automotive components, tools, accessories.
• Books.
• Computer and Appliances, accessories for it.
• Products are environmentally friendly, natural.
• Services - trainings, consultations, services of IT specialists, marketers, preparation of confectionery products to order, catering.
• Tourist trips.
• Real estate.

• Alcohol.
• Tobacco products (including smoking mixtures, electronic cigarettes).
• Weapon.
• Games for ages 18+ with violent scenes.
• Political parties, campaign for candidates for a certain post.

There are no restrictions on the cost of the promoted product. Only the goal from leading the group will be different. For example, if a page with women's clothing will return directly to sales, then automobile concerns increase the loyalty of their customers with the help of quick communication on the pages, talk about their new products, and interest them with interesting materials about their factories, customers, and prizes. This affects sales to a certain extent, although not directly.

About goals

You need to understand what the goal is. What is the page on the social network for, what is its task? List of the most basic goals:

• To acquaint the market with a new product / service.
• Increase sales or average check.
• Help, advice, customer support channel.
• Make customers permanent.
• Improve the image of the company / product, remove the existing negative.

Who to promote

You will need to understand as accurately as possible who the potential buyer of the promoted product is. This is a set of criteria such as gender, age, income level, place of residence, marital status, hobbies and interests. It is important to know what problems the target audience has, which are solved with the help of your proposal. These options will help you launch your social media targeting properly and know what to write about in order to resonate with your followers.

Where to promote

In which social network is it better to promote the product? The list of social networks in 2018 has hundreds of such resources. Which of them to give preference depends on the product and the "habitat" of its target audience. Many of the sites provide advertisers with the socio-demographic data of users. It remains only to compare with the portrait of our clients - we choose those where the coincidence is maximal.
The main promotion resources are with the largest number of users. It:

Other services will also be useful, especially if they are relevant to the topic. For example, goods for newborns and babies are well suited for BabyBlog, and cars and everything for them - for NUMBER or AvtoBlog networks. And yet - first of all the most popular, and only then thematic.

How to promote a product through social media

Let's consider the main methods and tools that are used to promote products. For convenience, we will review each of the popular social networks separately. Let's take the most popular options: VKontakte, Facebook, Instagram.

In contact with

The most popular network in Russia. The total number of users is 462 million, so almost everything can be promoted here - among such a number of people, there will certainly be buyers. The largest number of registered participants is at the age of 18-34, a large audience under 18 (a quarter of the entire base), the most active participants are at the age of 18-25. People over 45 read more of others than they write themselves.

The peculiarity of the network is a lot of publication, as a result, the feeds are updated quickly and in order for the materials to be noticed, you need to write more often. There is no ideal time (peak of user activity) - the working new Prometheus algorithm will show the best and most interesting information at the right time for each account. Habits and interests are taken as a basis, which made it possible to promote quality content for free and with great reach.

The main methods of promotion in VK:

A group is an option for discussion or discussion. The public page is optimal for business promotion. Activities for training and educational programs. The advantage of public pages is indexing by search engines, which, in the presence of SEO-optimized content and a suitable description, will give additional visitors. There are several main stages of promotion.

Task number 1 - design. You can set comment options, obscene language filters. Appearance communities: avatar, miniature.

Task number 2 - attracting subscribers. There are enough methods to do this for every taste, we will list the main ones:

• Analysis of competitors - before tackling your group, it will not be superfluous to see what others have. We find similar groups, analyze what they publish, what audience responses, what they like. Now we roughly understand what is needed.
• Publications are copyrighted and not simply copied on other resources. Ideally with high quality photos(or video) on the topic of the material. You can add hashtags (relevant to the topic). Regularity - every 2-3 days or more. The 80/20 rule works - 80% of entertainment and information content, only 20% - selling (about goods and services).
• Tell your friends - invite them to subscribe (using the button of the same name in the action section or by direct messages).
• Placement of links and mentions on a public page in your personal: URL, place of work, share your successes and news there.
• Stories - This form of content is becoming more and more popular across different networks. The idea is to tell brief history, a situation in which this or that thing came in handy (of course, from the promoted product).
• Contests are a gift for subscribers who repost or fulfill another condition. Depending on the gift and how the information about the competition is disseminated, you can attract a large number in one competition (up to several hundred people). Post example:

An important point - after choosing a winner, many will unsubscribe, so it is required to maximize the interest of people to stay in the group while the subscription is valid.

• Consulting actions - when promoting services, you can sort out some of the situations for free by choosing a question from those suggested by the audience.
• Polls, polls - work on the engagement of subscribers, encouraging them to write comments. For example:

• Tips - ask subscribers a question. For example, advise what to see, or read how to achieve something ... Everyone loves to give advice, so the activity in the group increases.
• Reviews - people who bought a product (especially positive ones) are well promoted:

• Subscription discount - two birds with one stone: expanding the subscriber base and encourage buying:

• Showcase - to show the product by the person on the page, albums are organized, with photos and descriptions of the promoted products. For example:

Instagram

A photo network with a rapidly growing number of users. Only Facebook is second in popularity in the world. According to statistics, the maximum activity among users is in the morning (from 8 to 9 o'clock), in the evening (from 17 to 18) and at night (up to 2 o'clock). Almost 80% of users are women, the largest group of people between the ages of 18 and 29. Instagram is distinguished by high activity of participants who will want to use the application once a day or more often.

Much attention is paid to photographs, not pages of text, so it is advisable to accompany all publications with colorful and high-quality visual materials. It makes sense to promote everything that is well visualized - clothing, accessories, food, real estate, cosmetics, everything made or improved with your own hands.

Stages of work:

1. We create a page. A company logo (or product photo) is required for a profile photo. We briefly describe the essence of the business, indicate contact information (website, contacts for communication).
2. We attract a subscriber base and offer them our products and services.

Basic tools for Instagram:

• Showcase - professional, attractive product photos, the best advertising. Ideally, involve a photographer, use professional equipment, play with the filters that are in the service itself (the most effective filters for photo processing are Mayfair, Normal, Inkwell, Lo-fi, Valencia, Rise and Amaro). We show the kitchen from the inside, good examples of work, employees in the process of making something. The task is to present the product in such a way that it would be impossible to resist the purchase:

• Targeted advertising - promotion using the service itself. You will have to pay for attraction (about 30-50 rubles for one). Advantages: high probability of finding the right audience by numerous targeting parameters.
• Hashtags - free promotion product among those who are looking for something on these marks.

Finding people interested by hashtags is easy:

• Contests - both our own and Giveaway (simultaneous subscription to all sponsors). The rapid growth of subscribers opens up a lot of opportunities for someone to promote products. The main thing is to have time to do this before they unsubscribe (which in 50% or more cases occurs after the end of the competition). Example:

• Discounts for subscriptions (reposts):

Facebook

The most popular resource in the world. It is considered more "age" in comparison with VKontakte and Instagram, although the largest group of subscribers is aged 25-34 years. A little behind in terms of the number of categories 35-44 and 45-54 years. Women predominate (77%). Managers of various industries, IT specialists, entrepreneurs prefer to use Facebook. As a result, the promotion of the fashion sector, education, tourism, and the banking sector gives excellent results.

We create a profile, and it is better to choose a business account. The avatar and cover are loaded, a template is selected (available: "Services", "Company", "Sites", "Non-profit organization", "Policies", "Restaurants and cafes", "Shopping" or "Standard"). Filled in all the fields (information, photos, videos and others), give credibility and authority to the page.

Attracting target audience:

We have listed only the most common methods in the three leading social networks. And, of course, business opportunities are not limited to them. Each network offers dozens of tool options and deserves a separate material for detailed study. But the tools are in many ways similar and, having understood the general principle, you can successfully set up work in other networks.

Product promotion cost

Directly depends on the amount of work. The choice of a social network, their number, frequency of publications plays a role. One price option will be obtained if the materials (with photos, facts, descriptions) are prepared by the employees of your company, and the task of SMM experts is only to slightly edit them. And a completely different amount will cost a full cycle: finding and compiling the necessary content, page promotion.

The way the communication with subscribers will be organized also affects. To simplify the work (and reduce the cost), you can create bots that will answer standard questions. A more time-consuming process is the employee who writes the answers himself.

An important factor is the organization of competitions that work well for expanding the base. But you will have to spend money on a prize, the cost of which is 5 thousand rubles or more. For a less valuable gift, few are willing to participate.

The minimum cost for SMM per month is from 5 thousand rubles. This amount barely pays for the time spent planning the campaign, selecting the tools and launching it.

Typical mistakes

There are quite a few pitfalls in social networks. Without knowing about them, you can ruin even a successful business, spend more than the planned budget or time. Therefore, it is better to know the "enemies" by sight and bypass them. The main mistakes when promoting a product on social networks are presented below.

Waiting for immediate results

It is worth waiting for a return, even though the promotion is entrusted to external SMM specialists, not earlier than in 2-3 months. Less is the exception to the rule. It will take time both to fill the group with materials and to attract subscribers. It can be compared to the beginning of a store, when advertising has already brought customers, and the goods are in the process of placing on the shelves. There is no need to wait for purchases.

Long-awaited results can be slowed down by:

• The high cost or specificity of goods - for example, when the price is above $ 1000 or the sale of large agricultural equipment. In such cases, social networks should be one of the parts of a comprehensive marketing campaign, they can be a channel of communication with customers. Pre and post-sales consulting, background information, answering questions - a definite plus to the brand image, a method of increasing audience loyalty.
• The existing negative image of the company - if consumers have already formed this opinion, then they will have to try to correct the situation. Against the background of general negativity, it will not work to interest new products. The way to solve the problem is to find the causes of the problems, eliminate them, convince their customers to change for the better.

Do it yourself

The issue of product promotion, the creation and maintenance of a group, filling with content can and really want to do it yourself. It seems that everything is simple - the director of the company can easily drop a couple of lines on social networks himself. Or give a task to your employees, allocating five minutes of working time. This approach is a fairly common misconception for small companies that have limited budgets. And yet, the results of inept actions, mistakes in the use of tools can not only fail to bring sales growth, but also worsen the company's image.

A separate risk is that the employee who led the group becomes a valuable cadre who will have to be retained by any means on the staff. Otherwise, he can take clients with him.

The services of professional SMM specialists will completely overlap with increased profits when a well-built strategy starts working. And it is not worth saving on this beyond measure. With limited finances, it is better to start promoting on one site, and not on several at once.

Let's start, let's go and ... stop

Throwing everything if there is no positive dynamics in sales for 2-3 months is an option that comes to mind for many in such a situation. However, it is better not to panic, analyze what has been done and the results, change the approach, the contractor, the network. Success will surely smile on the persistent. They really sell through social networks, you just need to find a working strategy. Dropping existing subscribers is a tangible damage to your image.

Mountains of gold

I want everything at once, and so the meeting promises of instant success captivate. And the purchase price of subscribers on the exchanges is not that high. But it's worth thinking about what you need to get in the end. You need a high-quality audience, and for this you need to provide interesting information, hold contests, and give prizes. This way the group will grow and willingly distribute the materials further, increasing their reach. Exchange subscribers will not become real customers.

One-way communication

When organizing the promotion of goods on social networks, you should not expect that the page will be just something like a translator of advertising. Publications are important, but one of the main differences from a website is two-way communication. Questions, comments, criticism should not remain unanswered, and in a short time (up to several hours). You can find out about the response time by looking at the information on the page itself (for example, on Facebook):

Analysis

Periodic monitoring of key indicators will help to understand how the goal is being achieved (about setting goals - see above) and how effectively the budget is spent. Moreover, intermediate cuts are needed, and not only the final one, when all the funds have already been spent, but there is no return. Analytics tools such as Google analytics, Yandex. Metrics, Amplitude. With their help, you can track sales through social networks, registrations, subscriptions to newsletters - that is, any conversions. Analytics services Curalate and Blitzmetrics will allow you to evaluate the results of notes with visual content.

Carbon copy

A simple repetition of the actions of competitors and colleagues in the shop does not guarantee an excellent result. Even if it worked for them "with a bang." Author's content (instead of copying), their contests and promotions are more appreciated by both people and systems. The "Prometheus" algorithm alone with a huge audience reach with unique materials is worth a lot.

Choosing an SMM agency

It was decided to entrust the promotion of goods to professional marketers. How to determine their level of professionalism and understand that the task is within their reach. The question is especially relevant for small companies that cannot afford the recognized leaders of the SMM market.

The main points to which we pay attention:

• It is good if the agency specializes only in social networks, and does not promote on any resources. Better narrowly focused employees than knowing a little bit of everything.
• Portfolio - samples of work, examples and results of previous projects will help to make an impression, to understand whether you want something like that. It will not be superfluous to ask personal experience those employees who will work on your project.

It took radio 38 years to reach 50 million people, and television 13 years later. Facebook gained 200 million users in less than a year.

More than 82% of Internet users have accounts on social networks and use them (at least) for two hours a day. Russia ranks first in Europe in terms of the popularity of social networks.

There is a growing number of users who come to social networks not for communication, but for information, as well as businessmen who understand that social media is an effective marketing channel. If you want to promote the project through social networks, then meet four effective ways promotion.

Content is the main factor of promotion

Any SMM specialist will confirm: without high-quality content, promotion tools are useless. If your brand's page is boring, don't count on audience growth and loyalty.

Three ingredients of good content:

1. Uniqueness. The information you post should be relevant and engaging. Do not copy materials from other resources. The exception is cross-posting between the company's blog and its page on the social network.
2. Regularity. Articles should be published systematically. Two, three, four or seven times a week - depends on the specifics of the business and its target audience. So, for people from the business environment, two or three updates will be enough, but for the beauty community this is clearly not enough. You must adhere to the chosen content strategy regardless of the number of subscribers.
3. Virality. Posts should be lively, evoking an emotional response in the form of a burning desire to tell friends about them. Avoid overt advertising posts.

Facebook in Russia- "social sphere is not for everyone." It is used by marketers, programmers and other IT-savvy people. They are not afraid of the "complex interface", but in their sphere of interest - gadgets, the Internet, travel, education, books and business in all its forms. They willingly like and browse materials on these topics, as well as motivating articles that set you up for the positive. Most of Facebook's active audience uses mobile application- posts are recommended to be illustrated with 800x600 pictures.

"In contact with"- the largest social network on the Runet (over 230 million registered users). Her audience is younger; the focus of users' interests is mainly entertainment (communication, games, music, films, etc.). VK users do not like text content (it is desirable that the post length does not exceed 500 characters), but they love photos and videos.

The most popular among photo hosting sites in Russia Instagram... At the same time, while maintaining a brand page on Instagram, it is recommended to adhere to a single style in design (use not only standard filters, but also third-party photo editors), as well as arrange objects in the photo on 2/3 of the screen (this makes the picture visually attractive).

Targeting

The possibility of placing targeted advertising is available in almost all social networks: VKontakte, Facebook, Odnoklassniki and others. At the same time, it is believed that targeted advertising on social networks is more suitable for the B2C sector. However, in B2B, there are companies that effectively solve business problems through targeted advertising.

Some types of targeting:

• Geographic (geo-targeting) - showing ads to residents of a certain region / city / district, etc. For example, you want to promote a beauty salon located in Khimki near Moscow. Your targeted ad will be shown to the residents of this city.
• Socio-demographic - showing ads based on gender, age, marital status and other social criteria. Thus, advertisements for children's goods and household goods are recommended to be placed on the pages of married women over 25, and advertisements for an art store - on the pages of designers, architects, and decorators.
• Contextual - display ads in accordance with the interests of the user. Membership in groups such as "Fashion", Fashion, "Shopping", etc. clearly demonstrates the interests of the user. He will be interested in relevant advertising.
• Behavioral - showing ads depending on specific user actions (travel routes, favorite places, frequent search queries etc.). Let's say a person is fond of Latin American dances, goes to a salsa club, looks for relevant videos - it is highly likely that he will be attracted by an advertisement for a hot tour to Cuba.

Despite its apparent simplicity, targeting is a tool that requires serious preparatory work. First, you need to analyze the target audience of the brand. Second, compose your ad.

Community Advertising

Community advertising (on professional language SMMschiki - seeding) is the purchase of posting or reposting in popular communities. In the first case (buying a post), the advertiser's goal is to increase traffic on the company's website; in the second (buying a repost) - attracting users to a company group on a social network. At the same time, the more subscribers the community from which you buy a post, the more expensive the advertising campaign will be.

You can negotiate with community owners directly or use the services of a special exchange. In 2013, it was opened by the social network "VKontakte" (an office for an advertiser). Advertising is placed by the community administration in its feed and, according to the conditions, must remain there for a day.

Professional promotion on social media

This means services that provide paid promotion services in social networks. As a rule, they create high-quality content on their own, launch a targeting mechanism and negotiate advertising in communities. These include Plibber. Why conditionally? Because the possibilities of this service are much wider.

• register;
• decide on the format of work on the site (you can advertise your brand yourself or contact the Plibber team for organizing a shocking advertising campaign);
• prepare an advertising post;
• select the most suitable sites with CA and start sowing.

After preliminary moderation, your assignment will be available, and you can begin to attract fans of your brand.

How to get organic loyal traffic at the same time? With this question of interest to all advertisers, we turned to the founder of the Plibber project, Oleg Ratunin.

Oleg Ratunin

General manager and the ideological inspirer of Plibber.ru. Knows everything and more about social media.

To attract potential fans to your brand, you should:

• use quizzes (quizzes), infographics, illustrations, viral videos, advertising games, and more;
• place a link within the visible zone of the post announcement (first-second lines);
• embed a call to action in the content;
• add a provocative poll;
• work with the associative content format and its adaptation to the brand;
• launch creative, vibrant and unique contests.

If you've managed to find the content your audience craves, you can count on over 600 conversions per post.

Also, do not forget to analyze the communication of large brands with their subscribers, now a good result is being detected in the community.

Social media allows you to instantly share important information with millions of users. And today the business is actively using this opportunity. But promotion on social networks does not always lead to the desired results in the form of customer base growth or customer loyalty. This is because users, having registered in several social networks, prefer to consume content, as a rule, in one of them - their favorite. Therefore, when promoting a product on the Internet, you need to know which social network or social network your prefers. the target audience, and focus on it when developing an advertising strategy.

Target audience segmentation is becoming more and more narrow. Today, data on the preferences of a particular social network are added to the standard data on demographics, education and income. Let's see how the target audience of popular social networks differs.

Promotion on the popular social network Facebook

Audience

According to official data from Facebook, 2.13 billion users visit the site every month. It is most actively used by people aged 25 to 34 years.

Here is the most advanced audience: public figures, entrepreneurs of large companies, IT specialists. There are many designers, architects, advertisers, representatives of creative professions on the site. Facebook audience is active, passionate about business and culture, ready to express opinions on current issues and seek business contacts. Promotion of information products or B2B sites is effective here.

What to post?

Facebook Business showcases examples of successful promotion of various businesses.

These are gaming, automotive, sports, educational, restaurant and other areas of companies' activities.

Promotion in the social network "VKontakte"

"VKontakte" offers business innovations that contribute to the promotion of the site. There are dozens of applications that automate processes for administrators and make the community more comfortable for users. A complete directory of official and approved apps can be found. They are faithful assistants in promotion if you know well who your audience is and what it needs.

Audience

School pupils, students, freelancers, young professionals. According to Brand Analytics, 61% of the social network's audience are users aged 18 to 34. Here they communicate, listen to music and share photos, subscribe to communities. Online shops, driving schools, service centres, banks, travel companies, fitness rooms, medical centers, training companies and websites are chosen for promotion on VKontakte.

What to post?

VKontakte is a platform for entertainment and communication. The social network is interested in the user getting everything that interests him without leaving it, therefore, it expands the functionality with the help of applications. Now in "VKontakte" you can conduct video broadcasts, create a showcase of goods, pay for purchases.

Most of the content on VKontakte is produced by communities. They post: humor, Interesting Facts, selections, etc. On VKontakte, the audience is entertained, and to increase engagement it is better to use polls and viral content.

Website or product promotion on the Instagram social network

Audience

Beauty salons, tattoo studios, art workshops, cafes and restaurants, photographers are actively Instagram. According to Brand Analytics, 77% of the audience here are women. Therefore, in the interests - news about celebrities, children, fashion. Instagram has accounts of popular people whose lives users like to follow. At the same time, more than 700 million active users visit Instagram every month, with about 8 million from business accounts.

What to post?

Instagram users love to create content, because it's easy: take a photo on your phone, process it, post it and wait for likes. There is no difficulty in turning a personal profile into a business account. Instagram itself helps to do this.

Instagram is developing and adding new features: live broadcasts, including joint ones, the format of stories, in which you can post both photos and videos, add a poll or link. The length of the videos has also increased - up to a minute. Users not only watch, but also read and actively comment on posts.

It's good to post content on Instagram that will give users their point of view. But do not forget that this is, first of all, a visual social network. Therefore, first of all, you need to pay attention to the visual design of posts: they should be designed in a single style, contain exclusively unique brand photos. Stock content is unacceptable!

How to effectively promote your website on YouTube

Audience

70% of YouTube traffic is mobile views. On average, a user spends 40 minutes watching a video. Any brand that has a story to tell and show to the audience can promote its website on YouTube. The site is in great demand among training companies.

What to post?

Don't be afraid to make long videos if they are helpful and informative. Their effectiveness will be even higher than that of short videos, which will not be able to fully reveal the topic. The video can be helpful, but it is not required. Entertaining, viral YouTube videos can also attract large audiences. The picture, sound, light and editing should be of high quality so that users do not have the desire to turn off the video.

We evaluate the effectiveness of the selected social network

You can analyze the results of promotion in social networks using Yandex.Metrica and Google Analytics. Detailed assessment and useful metrics are available in the services and applications Brandwatch, Socialbakers, KUKU.io, Buzzsumo. They will talk about the activity and engagement of subscribers. If you devote enough time to promoting your business and generate good content, then you won't have to wait long. You can evaluate the success of promotion in social networks already in the third month of work. Very quickly, an interested user will turn from just a consumer of content to a buyer.

When is promotion most effective?

The best posting times will be different for each brand and type of content. We recommend that you check your account with the Popsters service - this will help you calculate the optimal time for you.