VK bots for communication - 10 VKontakte bots that will help you spend time usefully and entertain

What is a bot? Let's explain in simple words

A bot is a program that is created to perform similar and repeatable tasks according to a specific algorithm. It saves people time by taking on routine functions, and works through interfaces at a speed that is much higher than human speed.

Bot is short for robot. This is the name given to an autonomous program that runs on the Internet and performs some tasks for people. This makes it possible to free up human resources where they are insufficient or their use is unprofitable. For example, a bot can be a consultant. It is integrated into chat rooms and websites to create activity there and answer simple questions. If he fails to cope with the task, he will transfer the dialogue to a real support person. This way it is possible to reduce the load on real specialists and reduce the flow of inappropriate requests to them.

Bots on Telegram, for example, download movies (for example, @kinomanBot), convert files (@topdf_bot), help learn foreign languages ​​(andyrobot), find songs on the Internet by excerpt (@auddbot), even make money on the Internet (@Skinve – shows friends advertisements on Skype, from which the user earns money). They translate texts, entertain, help and tell you how to spend your time profitably.

The bot can perform any tasks assigned to it by its creators. For example, it can send emails, answer user questions, direct them to website pages or to a specialist. Using a bot, you can find out the exchange rate, download music, find books, disseminate some information, and even influence the brand’s reputation.

If you want to learn full-fledged marketing in messengers, there is a course “Engage and sell through messengers.”

What bots are there on VK for conversations?

Are you planning to create a VK bot for conversation? No problem, we'll tell you. According to the area of ​​their activity, primitive and advanced types of bots are distinguished:

1. Primitive - programmed to respond to requests using code words. In cases where the question was not entered according to the algorithm, it either does not answer or reports that it did not understand the request.
2. Advanced - assistants with artificial intelligence; they improve and self-learn when communicating.

Primitive bots can be used for free through the “Services” of the social network, but for advanced ones you need to write the code yourself or hire a programmer.

Types of bots

In addition to smart assistants who respond to requests, there is a group aimed at specific goals. There are 4 main groups of bots, each of which performs its own tasks.

1. Assistant - performs the functions of a secretary, which includes reminding about meetings, ordering food from a restaurant, etc. The main activity is aimed at direct contact with the community creator and administrators.
2. Secretary (answering machine) - designed to perform information functions and maintain a simple conversation.
3. Business analysts - designed to analyze and optimize work processes in communities. They can make their own decisions to improve activity indicators and increase sales.
4. Gaming - created in the form of a virtual opponent for the game. Technologies make it possible to endow artificial intelligence with all human qualities and abilities, which is sometimes difficult to distinguish from a real player.

Top best bots for conversations on VK

Depending on the direction of the conversation, the activities of the bots vary. The popular bot Kai is designed to conduct dialogues and chats; on the other hand, the no less popular bot Lesya is an assistant in the game (casino, etc.). An anime bot is used to search for cool and beautiful pictures on the theme of anime. The list could take a long time, so we have compiled the top 5 bots for VK conversations with teams.

1. Bot Playlist/Music to suit your mood - using the command you can select music. The music assistant offers a choice of 3 songs and a quote from the selected genre.
2. AudD S is a smart program designed to transcribe and translate voice messages. You can choose the voice of the announcer, the assistant provides an answer in the form of text and voice message.
3. Weather bot will give a clear forecast in any city in the world, just write the name of the locality.
4. Translator - a simple and convenient service will help you translate text into more than 100 built-in languages.
5. The bot chef knows all the recipes in the world; to prepare a dish, just enter the name and the assistant will give you the recipe.

Why do you need a bot, what can it do and how can it be useful for business?

A visitor enters the site, starts scrolling, and a window pops up on the screen with a bot that attracts the client’s attention. It can appear anywhere on the screen, but most often it is located on the right side.

Rosbank chatbot gets in touch immediately

The main task of any bot is to free a person from work that is difficult for him to do - monotonous, constantly repetitive and boring. Many companies are implementing bots to save money, reduce wait times, and improve customer focus. The main thing is to configure the bot so that it does not scare off the client with silence, incorrect answers or stupid behavior.

For example, if the bot asks endless clarifying questions, the visitor will not proceed to purchase the product, he will simply close the page and buy from competitors.

Here are the main areas in which bots are actively used:

• technical support;
• calculation of the cost of goods;
• consulting on various issues, for example, which loan a client should choose;
• warming up the user and preparing him to purchase the product;
• entertaining visitors;
• lead generation - for example, a bot conducts a client survey, answers his questions, collects data into a form and exports it to the CRM system;
• providing the necessary information, including contact information;
• sending a commercial proposal (commercial proposal);
• assistance to the client in choosing a specific product from two models;
• placing an order.

It can perform other useful functions. The main thing is to teach him to do it. These are not all areas for which such programs are used.

On social networks, bots are often used to promote a group or account. This is necessary to create the appearance of popularity of the place for a large audience, increase coverage and the number of impressions in news feeds. Some bots will write comments, others will respond to them, like them, and others will add them to groups.

The bot can be trusted with a variety of actions:

• registration of new users;
• maintaining chat logs;
• control over the rights of participants;
• blocking users for violating rules, profanity and threats.

Users are opening email and viewing websites less and less often. They are less likely to make calls or go to stores. They want to buy a product in a couple of mouse clicks in a few seconds. They have no time to wait for the CP to come or for the manager to call. Therefore, companies that use chatbots gain an advantage over their competitors.

How a bot can help in business:

• Will save money. Some employee responsibilities will be transferred to a virtual assistant. You can use your employees' time more productively or avoid hiring another employee.
• Will increase sales. If customers receive answers to all their questions, their loyalty will increase and doubts will disappear. More customers will purchase the product.
• Will be in touch 24/7. If you urgently need to answer a simple question, the bot is always in touch and will answer instantly. It will create an immersive effect that many clients like.
• Will reduce waiting time. Nobody likes to wait in line. The faster the client receives a response, the higher the likelihood of a sale. Within organizational units, bots help with internal requests and assist operators.
• Will increase mobile traffic. This is the easiest way to be installed on the client's phone, since bots do not take up much space.
• Communicates system changes to clients and employees. It also reminds you to close a task or pay for a purchase.
• Will conduct activities. If you write him a script and describe the starting point, he will cope with holding the competition, determining the winner, and even write to him himself.

Read:

You can also use randomizers to determine the winners. This is a special service that helps determine the winner in an honest and transparent way. We wrote about this and selected as many as 8 different services that will suit you.

In many ways, it is the budget of the future owner that determines how “intelligent” the bot will be. All his abilities can be divided into 2 types:

• Limited. They answer a certain number of clearly defined questions. They do not study, but they are also cheaper. His abilities depend only on what was written in the algorithm.
• Self-learning. A complex system is created in which a self-learning neural network operates. This type of bot is much more expensive and requires human accompaniment, especially at first. But such a robot will be able to catch what the user is saying and help him.

Bots are everywhere. Some help people and bring benefits, while others cause harm if they were created with such intentions. People often compare bots with mobile applications and find it difficult to understand which is better - a bot or an application. Let's look at this issue in more detail.

Advantages of chatbots over mobile applications

Company owners are in a hurry - they need to launch as soon as possible, stay ahead of the competition, work faster and better. It seems to them that it is easier to work through mail or a website. Creating a bot seems like an unnecessary task, but in fact it is often a new sales channel that brings in new customers.

But in reality, customers often do not want to use websites - one such study is below. And there are already so many applications that you quickly get bored with them and delete them, sometimes without even opening them once. In addition, many customers have little memory on their phones, so they are reluctant to install another application. According to GlobalWebIndex statistics, about 80% of users actively use just three applications, including at least one social network or instant messenger.

Creating a company bot is several times cheaper than creating an entire application. After development, you will have to engage in lengthy debugging and configuration of the application. Moreover, this investment of money does not guarantee that after configuration the application will be of interest to customers.

It’s easier to create a script for communication in a bot. For example, to make an appointment with a hairdresser, a person will not want to download an application. But he can easily write to the bot in his contact list.

We talk about how to create and use chatbots in the course Engage and sell through messengers.

Bots are portable. They are integrated into a navigator, application, website, personal assistant program or other platform where the user wants it. Vivid examples include bots on the Rosbank website, bots in group chats on VK, and the Yandex.Navigator bot.

Therefore, it is much more difficult to interest the audience through some new applications than through already installed ones. This is confirmed by data from Quantcast. This is especially true for messengers and social networks, which almost everyone has. But these are not the only advantages of using bots.

Adding a bot to a conversation from your phone

An Android smartphone is ideal for performing operations with the bot. The setup steps are as follows:

• download the VK application to the gadget;
• log in to your page;
• go to the “Services” tab, click the name “Bots” in the menu that appears;
• select the bot type;
• follow the instructions that must be followed for the program to work correctly;
• we give the bot access to all data on the page;
• select the desired community and click “Connect”.

With a few simple clicks, we add the bot to the conversation from the phone.

How to tell if it's a bot

To identify a bot, it is worth knowing several characteristics that give it away:

• answers quickly - to read the question and answer it, the bot needs a split second, people cannot write and think so quickly;
• repeats after a person - bots often repeat what they are told, they imitate thinking;
• writes in complete sentences - in reality, people almost never use complete sentences, people use emoticons, make mistakes and shorten words;
• uses a strange syntax - when communicating with a person, bots try to repeat their speech and reproduce the same mistakes, put two spaces, put the same letter in the wrong place;
• asks personal questions - to help the client decide, the bot can ask many questions, including personal ones;
• sends a lot of links - it’s difficult for people to communicate and search for information at the same time in order to send a link to a person, and a bot often communicates this way.

How to identify a bot:

• ask questions of a personal nature - the answers will be strange or noticeably artificial;
• use humor - bots do not yet know how to joke and do not understand jokes, they respond to sarcasm seriously;
• discuss news and events with the bot - it’s difficult for them to search and adapt, it easily confuses them;
• write in monosyllables - it’s difficult for a bot to build structures if the client writes “why?” "How?" "For what?".

What's really going on?

In fact, under the guise of a “loanbot” there is an ordinary intermediary organization. It does not have the status of microfinance or microcredit, and sometimes is not registered as a legal entity. The intermediary collects information about the borrower and the desired loan terms, and then sends applications to real MFCs and MCCs. It does not issue loans by itself.

Often such services are associated with “fake microfinance organizations” that issue paid subscriptions under the pretext of sending applications to different companies. They do not send applications to the IFC and MCC directly, but transfer them to such a site. They can also imitate real-life companies registered by the Central Bank - for example, Zaimer.

Further events depend on the honesty of the bot creator:

• The bot actually sends applications to microfinance companies and tells you the answers - this happens less often
• The bot transfers the application to a “fake microfinance organization”, which issues a paid subscription for you
• The bot demands payment for its services - after the money is transferred, it stops responding or displays a list of companies

How to create a bot

You can come up with your own program. She will also act according to the algorithm and perform simple tasks. To create it, you don’t have to learn programming languages; you just need to understand the designer. One of the suitable ones is Chatfuel.

Basic functions work for free, full access costs from $15 per month. A bot created through it can request data from the user, confirm contact information, and check information in the database. The paid version offers subscriber segmentation and export.

It can be used to create simple bots, but only after registering with Facebook. To use, you must have at least a minimal knowledge of English.

How is Chatfuel created?

It is necessary to answer the question of how many people work in the company.

How is Chatfuel created?

A couple more questions about the company and a required email address for registration.

Chatfuel creation process

The main window opens, in which you can already work on creating a bot.

Sometimes such constructors do not have the necessary functionality or you need to create something serious. In this case, you need to learn programming languages ​​like JavaScript or Python.

Once the bot has been created and tested, it should be uploaded to the general directory where all bots are stored. You can do this on storebot.me or a similar botfamily.com. These are the most popular directories, downloading to which is free and available to all users. Registration and downloading takes place through the “Log in” button.

What does the download page for the botfamily.com service look like?

Let's look at this process step by step.

Stage 1. Preparation for development and market testing

We don’t recommend rushing to order or build a bot right away. It is worth assessing the real situation on the market and trying to understand whether using such a tool will really help you get more sales, save the company’s money and the time of the company’s employees. You shouldn’t implement a bot just because of a general trend.

You can draw any graph in which it will become clear whether it makes sense to create a bot. The main thing is to understand whether the end justifies the means.

Stage 1.2. Choose a goal and evaluate ROI

To determine whether a bot is needed, you should analyze the activity. It is necessary to understand whether the company has any routine tasks and processes that take a lot of time.

For example, a company needs to conduct surveys, increase the number of requests received, or reduce the load on the technical support department. In some cases, such virtual assistants are very helpful in handling customer objections.

It is necessary to think through the chain and logic of the service. Write down what functions it should have, what options for the development of events exist. We need to make sure that this system will be in demand among clients.

Stage 1.3. Determine future bot capabilities

Bots now have 3 basic functions, which can then be adapted for a specific purpose.

These are the three most popular among them:

• Bot menu. To obtain information, the client needs to press buttons. This is usually how support bots behave. You can create a directory that will store questions and answers.

Here is an example of a simple bot menu:

Bot seller on websites

• Bot dialogue. All communication with the user will take place in question-answer mode. The client will enter commands, and the bot will respond. He can search for information, display it, place an order, and so on. Aviasales works on this principle. This option is suitable if you need to identify the buyer's needs.

Online communication with the Aviasales bot

• Bot automatic series of responses. Most of all, such bots are similar to automatic mailing, which is necessary for warming up and preparing clients. With its help, you can inform customers about services, innovations and changes in the service.

Bot with automatic series of responses

A bot that creates a lot of messages
After several messages in a row, such bots most often offer the client to leave his contact information so that the manager will call him back. Moreover, the auto messages are always the same, even if you visit this site for the first time.

Stage 2. Development

Each bot has two parts - frontend and backend. Let's talk about each of them.

Stage 2.1. Backend - filling

The backend is the software part of the product in which the behavior algorithm of the virtual assistant is written. The bot will work on it.

To write a bot from scratch, you will need to understand the programming language. You need one that will support the Web API - application programming interface.

As we said above, now most of them are written using Javascript and Python - these are programming languages ​​that you need to learn before you start creating your bot. The bots themselves run on Node.js and PHP - platforms that provide execution of bot scripts.

Here are a few popular ones:

• Chatfuel. English-language platform of medium complexity. The created bot can be integrated with the database, accepts payment, and can even learn in the free plan. Paid plan - $15 per month.
• manychat.com. You can easily create a bot in minutes. Helps automate marketing, create mini-funnels and calendar newsletters. Free.
• onsequel.com. Complex English interface. Using templates, you can create personal and public bots. During the creation process, you can check its performance and appearance in the messenger. Free. ;
• botmother.com. Russian-language, for easy creation of bots using a well-thought-out algorithm. Through it you can create a bot that can accept payments and orders, an information bot. Paid, about $15 per month.

When the backend is ready, it is assembled with the frontend, which we will talk about now.

This is what the beginning of the build looks like in the backend via the site manychat.com:

How Manychat is assembled

Stage 2.2. Bot face (frontend)

Typically, the front end is implemented through websites, instant messengers or social networks. Here are some popular and well-known platforms where the bot can be found most often:

• Facebook messenger. It is one of the most developed platforms, with more than 1.2 billion visitors per month, as well as more than 100,000 bots. Many different bots have been developed for this social network, from check-in for flights to processing payments.
• Viber. In this messenger you can establish constant communication with clients. This is where interactive communication between humans and bots most often works. You can put together a newsletter that will bring you money.
• Telegram. One of the most popular messengers for bots. Here you can find assistants from Sberbank, Russian Post, Meduza publication and many others. The functionality supported in this system is enormous, comparable to Facebook.
• "In contact with". For this application, bots are created through the API. You can communicate with customers on behalf of the community, and not just on behalf of ordinary people. You can send not only text, but also photos, videos, and other files. There are many interaction options, but some buttons are missing, as well as notification templates.

To create a bot, you need to choose a platform, register and complete all the steps. Some platforms allow you to create bots quickly from templates, but the bot will turn out to be simple. For more complex bots, it is better to hire a programmer who will write it in a special language.

You can order the creation of a bot or a ready-made simple bot from companies that specialize in this. They will help you create and integrate a bot on a website or in correspondence with users.

To write a bot yourself, you need to use templates on platforms or learn programming languages. This will take much more time, so if you don’t have the knowledge, it’s better to use the services of a company that can make a bot.

What other bots are there and why are they dangerous?

What is a botnet?

It’s not so rare that bots are used to harm rather than help. For example, they are used for fraud. The bot can disguise itself as a real person who will:

• invite other social network users to certain pages or groups in order to hack their card data or obtain passwords from the page;
• extort personal data from users;
• deceive people on a social network in order to persuade them to “loan” money to a hacked account;
• send spam.

Here is an example of a bot trying to steal personal data on a social network:

A bot hacks a person’s page and writes from it

If you follow the link, the bot will have access to the user’s personal data, including a bank card, if it is linked.

If suddenly a person with whom there has been communication for a long time or not at all starts writing, then this is a bot that wants to get money or personal data.

Bots from hacked user pages ask to borrow money “until tomorrow.” You can identify them by common phrases and quick answers. To break their system and determine whether it is a bot or a person, you need to ask personal questions, the answers to which the account owner knows.

How bots pretend to be people and write on social networks

A botnet is a network consisting of computers on which bots have been installed and opened. Often a botnet is created by infecting other people's computers with malware. That is, the user does not even know that users are being deceived from his computer.

Through a botnet, scammers direct and plan their network attacks. For example, several of these bots are capable of attacking a website, overloading it with the number of requests and disrupting its correct operation. It can also send spam or virus applications.

It is used to spread misinformation, boost ratings for groups, and promote sites in search engines. To protect against them, companies were forced to introduce a special test. Now users often have to confirm that they are not bots by entering a captcha - a specific set of letters or numbers.

What are troll bots

This is a program whose main task is to promote a certain opinion. The behavior scenario of such a bot is to communicate on social networks. The bot comes to the topic or in the comments under the post and writes its opinion. They can speak on highly specialized topics, expressing their strong opinions. If someone starts arguing, the bot will easily resort to insults, and programs like it will support him in the comments. By insulting discussion participants, bots change the topic and distract users. They can often be found under political posts.

Who are hyperbolic bots?

This is a rather subtle type of bot that is needed to create anti-advertising. First, several of these bots are part of a company group whose reputation needs to be negatively affected.

Then he begins to actively write a hyperbolic opinion - excessively praising or verbally attacking any competitors. For example, he joins a group of iPhone owners and starts saying that Android owners are poor and tasteless people.

His behavior and phrases are picked up by an army of the same bots. As a result, real people who see such comments will become skeptical of the entire brand as a whole and will not want to purchase such a phone.

What do the robots do in the group?

So, let's repeat! This is what a VK bot does - it reacts to given scenarios with appropriate behavior. At the same time, there are a huge number of types of robots, with very different levels of complexity:

• Chatbots are designed to conduct simple conversations in a group. They answer popular questions (react to keywords), involve users in correspondence, and stimulate activity in comments;
• Send a greeting message to new subscribers of the public, informing them about the topic of the group;
• They send out news, updates, forecasts;
• Provide detailed advice on goods and services;
• Help to conduct competitions and surveys in VK;
• Secretary bots can perform programmed actions: call a taxi, order pizza, send files, find out exchange rates, weather, news, etc.;

• More serious programs have monitoring and analysis skills. They make business forecasts and calculate optimal solutions;
• Gaming bots are created for entertainment, for example, bots for dating, playing together, conducting humorous tests;
• Some programs are created by scammers, unfortunately, with the aim of deliberately causing harm to VK users. Also, there are enterprising citizens who, with the help of such robots, provide intermediary services in order to earn money. A striking example is the numerous loan bots offering to apply for a quick loan, supposedly directly through a social network. We have a whole article about this!