January 20, 2021
Hello, dear readers of the KtoNaNovenkogo.ru blog. We continue to get acquainted with Internet terminology (a little earlier we looked at what respect is, why the @ sign is called a dog, how to correctly call an email - email, email or email, and also looked at it a priori from different angles, so as not to deal with this in the future there would be no troubles causing uncontrollable cries among your interlocutors).
Today we have the word “public” on our turn. Not to say that it was super popular, but quite common. He is mainly associated with the social network VK. Sometimes, however, you can find the word “public” used in relation to the social network Facebook (or even Instagram), but since... VKontakte is much more popular in RuNet, so this term is most often associated with it.
So what is a public? Let's get a look.
What does public mean on VKontakte?
A public page is essentially a small public blog that every social network user can read. It cannot be closed from prying eyes, like a personal account or group, but at the same time, publications here are completely controlled by the creator. Or a regular participant will not be able to post.
The author independently decides how the information on the wall will be updated: subscribers can offer their news, wait for approval for their publication, or be content with texts and photographs posted by the owner of the public page. Naturally, the subject matter in either case is strictly limited. Control requires less moderation than in a situation with the opening of a community. On the other hand, every day you have to guarantee the placement of new posts, while in groups this is often done by the users themselves.
Difference 7: Free coverage
Public pages are displayed for active subscribers on their personal page in the “Interesting Pages” block, thereby increasing free coverage. They are under the block with friends, and this list cannot be hidden in any way.
An important nuance. If you have hidden the members of your public, then your public will not be displayed in the “Interesting Pages” block.
Groups are hidden on the user’s personal page in the “Show detailed information” tab. If you wish, you can hide from strangers information about which groups you are subscribed to.
Why create public pages on social networks?
While personal accounts are the main tools for communicating with a large number of friends and like-minded people, public pages should serve as a source of information. Events and news, photographs, texts on the same topic - you can share any interesting materials.
But whether subscribers will be able to comment on posts or whether they will have to be content with viewing is up to you to decide. Even if you choose the first option, the discussion cannot become too heated. It is easy to control and close if the “trolls” start to cross the line.
Animals, travel, politics, sports, cars - the topic can be absolutely anything. Large companies and online stores often choose this choice for interacting with customers. They provide the opportunity to timely report on new products, emergency situations, and conduct surveys.
Publics for self-expression
Creative people often find it difficult to find like-minded people. Fears and complexes are too strong that the reaction of others will be negative. A public page is a tool that allows a photographer, writer, or artist to make themselves known without fear of hearing judgmental comments or criticism. It is enough to limit the possibility of answers.
Depending on how quickly the number of subscribers grows, the author will decide the fate of further interaction. You can continue to talk about yourself, but in a different format, by creating a channel on YouTube or an account on Instagram. You can attract investors by going beyond simple information sharing. Or allow subscribers to post their own posts along with your posts through the “suggest news” button.
You can even change the main topic if the number of followers is not growing, but you want to get your “minute of fame”.
Publics for promoting a brand/personality
This goal is pursued by popular people, music performers, artists, and bloggers. They publish current photos, information about official events, upcoming meetings and much more. The best part is that you don’t have to maintain a public page yourself, unlike an Instagram account. Administrators can post posts after prior approval.
What does this audience like most?
There are several categories:
- bright and original pictures and photographs;
- humor;
- memorable posts with catchy headlines, seasoned with pictures on the relevant topic (important: the post should not be too long);
- unusual materials;
- tests, questionnaires, voting, riddles:
- thematic event posts (for example, for Children's Day or for the New Year);
- short and interesting collections of videos, pictures, quotes, book titles or articles, for example: “The best dishes for a Saturday morning”, “20 great quotes about business” or “Short videos of the cutest kittens”.
Commercial use
Earning money on the Internet using personal accounts and public groups has long become a reality. In this sense, information publics on social networks are no worse than other tools. Two types of monetization can be considered the most effective:
- Promotion of a product or service. By posting, the author draws attention to his product and offers it to subscribers. The brand may already be well promoted or may be new to the market. The main rule: exclusive content, whether photographs or texts, should appear regularly, constantly stirring up the interest of buyers.
- Earning money from advertising. This method is most often implemented by bloggers who have nothing to offer their audience as a product. But they provide potential clients with a loyal target audience, ready to make a purchase right now.
The key difference between the first and second types is that the 1st is available even to the author of a tiny blog who is just starting to collect his subscribers, while the second requires hundreds of thousands and even millions of followers.
Earnings from advertising
Let's take a closer look at how relationships with a potential advertiser are built. To begin with, we note that the search for companies willing to pay for a post, photo or other material with information about themselves falls entirely on the shoulders of the creator of the public page. Only a blogger with an audience of at least half a million people can afford to simply wait for incoming offers and agree or refuse them.
It is also necessary to remember that paid advertisements in the public on the social network VKontakte must correspond to the stated topic. If you are talking about the art of photography, try to start collaborating with photo and video equipment manufacturers. Do you travel a lot and share information about it? So, look for travel companies, airline ticket booking services, hotel chains.
There are exceptions to the rules, but you shouldn’t overdo them.
Promoting your product
In this version, the authors of the mini-blog have much greater freedom. You can start advertising immediately after opening a public page, although at first it will not bring significant profit. The main thing is to maintain a constant increase in subscribers and sufficient activity.
Unlike people for whom it is much more important to assert themselves than to receive a financial response from the public, you cannot afford to disappear for several weeks or even days. Fresh content should be regularly displayed in the followers' news grid. Moreover, it must correspond to the stated topic and be logical.
This means you will have to draw up a publication plan for at least a month and strictly follow it. Another important and difficult point is related to the expectations of subscribers. They will always demand more from you: from a photographer - unique rare photos, from a traveler - visiting the most non-tourist and dangerous countries. Otherwise, it will not be possible to maintain the interest of the audience. And only in between all this, you can continue to advertise your services and products.
Group and public: what is the difference
Some differences have already been mentioned earlier, but let’s look at them in more detail, using the example of the VKontakte social network. Both provide an opportunity for like-minded people to exchange interesting information without leaving the site. But obvious differences are noticeable already at the subscription stage and then become more and more obvious:
- A public page is available to absolutely every network user, while joining a public group may require administrator approval, a personal invitation, and compliance with certain rules.
- In the community, the participants themselves can create content, as well as develop the topic through mass discussions. A public page only provides the opportunity to offer its owner a post, and he decides whether to publish or refuse it independently, as well as about subsequent commenting on the material.
- Communities require constant moderation. It is very difficult to keep track of hundreds of topics, messages, photos, comments, without allowing insults and other negative aspects. You can look at the public page a couple of times a day to filter the proposed news or post prepared information.
In very simple words, the difference between a group and a public is that for the stable and effective operation of the first, a valuable team of administrators is needed, while the second can be backed by one person.
Pros and cons of communities
If a public page is so simple and easy to maintain and moderate, why do hundreds of people bother creating something else? The fact is that the format has several undeniable advantages. The main ones include:
- Ability to filter participants. Set a specific topic, turn on privacy settings, and only the audience you are interested in, for example, women or men of a certain age, will be able to join the group.
- The functionality of the community is much wider.
- The service itself is more familiar and understandable to people, and therefore they join here more willingly.
There are also disadvantages. And first of all, this is increased attention from the leaders of the social network. At their discretion, they may close a functioning group if they discover numerous complaints from users.
Another drawback is the very difficult moderation that was already mentioned earlier.
Pros and cons of public
Unlike the previous option, the functionality of the public page is limited, and there is no filter for subscribers at all. This means that a significant portion of them may not be suitable for the advertiser. The disadvantages are significant, especially if the main purpose of the creation remains to make money. But there are also advantages:
- Ability to devote a minimum amount of time to maintaining order and efficiency of work.
- All micro-blogs to which a VKontakte user is subscribed are displayed on the main page of the personal account, which means that the likelihood of visiting them increases compared to groups.
- The ability to completely close yourself off from negativity by simply limiting comments.
The decision about what exactly will be more useful and enjoyable in the work must be made by each author independently. The topic, the size of the potential audience, the goals of the community, and much more are important.
What risks being left unattended?
There will also be several points here:
- boring pictures, especially if they are of poor quality or stretched out;
- outworn quotations;
- anecdotes and jokes “with a beard”;
- long articles, posts without pictures;
- posts on unrelated topics;
- abundance of advertising.
Some time after the launch of the public, you will be able to view statistics in the “Audience” tab. This will help track the gender and age of the main subscribers and analyze whether the public page is moving in the right direction. It will be useful to get acquainted with other communities of subscribers to find out their interests and, if possible, expand the topic of the public.
These tips are suitable for those who plan to start their own business with a public page, hope to monetize it, or open an online store based on a public page. Of course, the task of choosing an audience and appropriate content is greatly simplified if VK public pages are created for the purpose of advertising an already existing company or brand. Then thematic content is selected in accordance with the advertised product.
How to create a public page on VKontakte
The action plan for opening a public page is simple and easy to follow even for a child. The steps are as follows:
- If you do not yet have a personal account on a social network, register. It will require you to link your mobile phone number or email, as well as reveal your real name. The site’s policy is aimed at combating “fakes” and “trolls”, so hiding behind someone else’s avatar, as was the case before, will not work.
- If there are no problems with registration, go to the “My Communities” tab and look for the “Create” button in the upper right corner.
- You will be asked to come up with a name and determine the type. We are interested in “Public Page”.
Voila! All that remains is to fill the service with interesting material and attract the maximum number of network users to it.
All the delights of VK
To begin with, I will justify the choice of the topic of the article.
Why do I want to talk and tell you, my dear subscribers, about the details of this particular social network.
Everything is simple here. Today it ranks first in popularity, both in Russia and throughout the world.
Its age range is so wide that it includes users from young to old.
In addition to what was described above, the VKontakte network is also sufficient, simple and easy to use.
How to promote a public page
At this stage you will have to put in the most effort. Start by preparing at least a month's worth of content. Yes, it’s important to do this right away, because you need to post posts at the promotion stage with enviable regularity, and they should differ from competitors with their own flavor. A public page, unlike communities, lives off of likes and reposts, and no one will add boring information to their wall or share with friends.
Then move on to cheating. Yes, you can’t do without this unpleasant moment in the first stages either. Even if you want the public to be surrounded only by people who are interested in it. The fact is that the “right” audience will not subscribe to an unknown page. For help, it is best to turn to specialists. You will have to spend some money, but it is not so significant that you need to save.
Having figured out how to distinguish a public from a group, and having decided which option is more suitable, you can proceed to active steps to create a public page. The first year of its existence is the most important. If you attract enough attention, you can make decent money within a few months.
Difference 1. Publicity
The public is always open to VK users. Public is a public page.
But a group can be open, closed and private.
Let's look at the differences:
- An open group is visible to any VKontakte user. If a person likes the content and is interested in the topic of the group, he can become a member. An open group is displayed in VKontakte search.
- Participants come to a closed group only by application if the administrators have approved the application. A closed group is displayed in the VKontakte search, but its posts are not visible to those people who are not members of the group.
- Access to a private group is only possible by invitation from the administrator. A private group is not displayed in the VK search and is not shown via a direct link to this group if the user is not a member of the group.
