Rules of conduct on social networks: 12 commandments for those who value their reputation

What is the correct management of a VKontakte group?

The main thing should be correctly formulated as follows: you should not manually engage in promotion if you do not know the basics of working with this social network:

• How to captivate the target audience (how to start advertising, analyze the group’s activity, interact with an industry leader).
• How to properly design a community and publication (generate a menu, a deferred post, attach an audio recording or a link).
• How to properly manage a group (how often to post, what is necessary to contain publications, how to competently respond to reviews and react to negativity).

Of course, you are able to work and lead VK groups yourself and not think about it, then don’t be surprised at the lack of positive dynamics: readers don’t subscribe, there are no reviews or likes, and the worst thing is that the intended purpose of your presence in VK is not being fulfilled. This should include sales in one form or another. Working on the approval of readers, building a brand, holding competitions, acquiring backlinks to a web resource: all of this is ultimately aimed at one thing - sales.

It is worth using the following recommendations on how to properly maintain a VK group. Then the price of these efforts will pay off in full:

• Menu with high-quality design and easy navigation. Contains links to third-party web resources or detailed descriptions if they are not available.
• A short and clear URL that matches the name of the community.

• Posts appear in a timely manner and include text and pictures, and are also supplemented with tracks, videos or links to third-party sources.
• Publications are published in prime time, each audience needs its own, but earlier and later times can be used.
• Any questions and feedback are answered within 24 hours, using the “Reply” button so that the person asking is aware of the answer.

Using these recommendations, you can stand out from your competitors and attract the attention of customers and readers, working from a PC or even an iPhone.

Read more about the modern algorithm for ranking content on Facebook and VK

In 2006, Facebook introduced a new algorithm that prioritizes posts that are unique and interesting to users.

Since 2021, a similar “smart” tape has been used by the VK network.

In order for posts in business communities to be noticeable, you need to adapt to the requirements of the new algorithmic system.

Therefore, let’s dwell on this in more detail.

1. Each user who has a “smart” feed configured sees an individual list of publications. This list is formed based on what interests the user indicates in his account, what groups he subscribes to, and what information he adds to bookmarks. You should also take these same parameters into account for your target audience, so that your publications are seen primarily by relevant and interested users.
2. In the VK feed, the priority is friends and favorite groups (communities that a person visits more often than others).
3. First of all, unique posts appear in the TOP search results. A special VK algorithm tracks primary sources that publish unique posts and raises their positions. Facebook also primarily promotes communities with exclusive content.
4. In addition, Facebook and VK approve the video format. But video materials uploaded directly to the social network receive greater coverage than links to YouTube.
5. In general, the algorithms of both platforms give preference to posts published directly on social networks. It is more difficult to promote a post that takes people to a third-party resource, especially with a link to a page that loads slowly.
6. Facebook is strictly combating the spread of false facts. The social network system identifies fake news and removes it from display.
7. In addition to the previous point: FB does not approve and greatly reduces the ranking of posts with clickbait titles, especially if they lead to web pages with advertising. Video clickbaits also fall under the filter. As you can see, the content should not only be fresh and sensational, but also believable.
8. Plus, the social network ranks interactive and entertaining content well, live broadcasts, and any posts that are actively commented on and arouse keen interest.

How to reach the TOP with the help of competent development of the VK group

You have to think about running a group on VK in a different form. You use many different products every day. Do you, for example, follow the page of your favorite sneakers on VK and like their posts? Maybe you subscribe to the page of the restaurant where you sit on weekends? You probably don't do this.

Why would you or anyone else subscribe to a community that will offer nothing other than daily advertising of their product? To increase the value of your public, publications must provide value to your subscribers.

To grow a business online, and especially on VK, you must do something special. For example, you can motivate them to be productive or just entertain them; you don’t always have to teach them something. If you sell sports goods, post motivating statuses, recommendations for seducing a girl, etc., then most of the content should offer something useful. The rest of the publications are content about products. And when you advertise it, it would be nice to offer subscribers a discount in the form of a prize for subscribing to your community. The chances that they will purchase something will increase several times if they understand that the sale is made just for them.

You will have to spend a lot of time, especially if you want to achieve natural growth in the number of audiences in the community. Even if there is an increase of several hundred readers per month, in a year there will be several thousand. And they will be interested in your content, and gradually your services. You don't need to invest money in advertising on VK.

To lead a community correctly, you need to know why you are running it.

To figure out how to properly run a VKontakte group, imagine the following picture: while scrolling through your news feed, you see a product that you have been looking for for a long time. Curiosity, of course, lures you to click on the group’s link, and you find yourself in its vastness. Next you see a tastefully designed visual, interesting pictures, motivating and inviting slogans, and constantly updated news. This alone will make you stay on the page and dig a little further.

At the second stage of the funnel, you pay attention to the product that the group offers, and here you also look at feedback from other people. You scroll further and see a promotion that of course you didn’t know about. All this will encourage you to click that “Subscribe” button. You watch for another week, realize that this is what you need and buy the product. This process explains why you need a VKontakte community.

With its help, you guide the client towards your offer, stirring up more and more interest each time. You create the stages through which he will go through and make the right choice for himself. It is also worth noting that the growth dynamics of the audience of social networks over the past 5 years is very impressive. 61% of the population throughout Russia uses the social network VKontakte.

Therefore, before creating a community, correctly determine what your positioning will be. To do this, follow several steps:

Segment by age

The focal point of your community, of course, will be your target audience. This is the point on which the content of the page and its design will depend.

This is perhaps the most important point at the start. But even this is not all, because the target audience can be segmented. Thus, the number of images of potential clients will increase and for each there is a “magic word”, “bright button”, “cool description”. It will be important for everyone, despite the fact that they are all your target audience. Determine exactly what audience you are working for.

Identify the chip

Chip

is another tool that differentiates you or your product from the rest.

This can be a small detail that will significantly complement the company’s image, arouse customer loyalty, increase interest and remain in memory.

It is not at all necessary to invent something supernatural; what is invented is quite enough. The main thing is that the feature is appropriate and makes sense.

Analyze your competitors

Before you penetrate any social platform, you need to get to know the strongest competitors by sight. To do this, you need to carefully study their offer and the content with which they offer services.

Competitors' content can be analyzed through convenient online services such as Popsters or JagaJam.

Be sure to take note of what in their content causes audience activity and what does the opposite. Mark convenient buttons, sections and visuals in general.

Analyze your own content

If you are already leading a group, then you definitely need to pay attention to your audience and how they react to the content. Conduct research and understand which things are convenient and which need to be improved. Also analyze posts using Popsters or JagaJam that received almost no response from subscribers, think about why.

Analyze audience interests in web analytics

To understand the interests of your audience, you can check and analyze their behavior in Yandex.Metrica or Google Analytics. This will allow you to quickly and timely receive useful information: traffic and characteristics of your audience segments.

Write a content plan

When developing page content, the publication schedule with dates and times is taken into account. This is a content plan, which may also include photos, pictures and videos.

It’s best to rely on the following chain: we break down useful information into topics and create sections that potential clients will remember over time. Next, we logically choose the frequency and timing of their publications. This will allow you to plan a clear schedule and make it consistent.

All of the above actions are necessary in order to start running a VKontakte group effectively and with an eye to results. This is the base that will form a selling platform and begin to bring profit to your business.

Maintaining a VKontakte group is a labor-intensive process that is best entrusted to proven SMM specialists. Our agency has extensive experience in promoting on social networks. We invite you to view our portfolio and develop a strategy for your brand.

Possible problems when maintaining a VK group

There are not many problems when leading groups. One of the main ones is as follows: “I follow all the recommendations for running the community, but for some reason subscribers are very reluctant to join.” Solution: you need to reconsider the advertised product; perhaps it has a specific theme and is not needed by every person. Perhaps readers do not like the style of presenting content, so it is worth trying different methods of promotion and promotion.

You can find your own approach to managing a public on VK very easily if you put more effort into it.

About the promotion of the group, time and frequency of publications

1. Use mutual PR. By talking about opinion leaders in your group, you get the opportunity to attract their fans to your group.

2. Hashtags will greatly help simplify the mechanism of maintaining and promoting the community.

Firstly, only with the help of this tool can you select categories in the FB community (there are no other options for this).

In the popular group “I am a Scanner,” hashtags remind users of regular sections in which they can share their records and finds.

Secondly, hashtags make it easier to navigate a page or group and allow users to find old posts on a specific topic.

Thirdly, using popular hashtags you can attract target users to the group.

This is an alternative to keywords and tags on websites.

3. According to statistics, users most often access the social network during working hours from office computers.

On weekdays, posts published from 13:00 to 16:00 receive the maximum responses and likes.

At the same time, the degree of involvement at the end of the work week is very high.

At this time, you can get a return on useful stories, expert lives, live broadcasts, and engaging posts.

4. Regarding the frequency of publications, 2 meaningful posts per week will help retain a relevant audience.

But for the development and promotion of the group, the publication feed should be updated more often.

Parsing communities and subscribers

VKontakte community parser

A tool for searching for communities on VKontakte with an audience that is similar to the audience of your group (or any other group).

The parser works like this:

1. Specify a link to a group with your target audience (for example, the URL of your own community).
2. For a more accurate selection, indicate the words that should appear in the name and description of the groups. It is also possible to filter out groups of irrelevant topics (for this you need to specify negative keywords).
3. Set up a filter by the number of subscribers and the number of intersections. You also indicate what types of groups need to be parsed (pages, regular or closed groups, meetings).
4. The parser will collect and display similar communities.

The list of communities and their URLs can be uploaded to an XLSX file.

What is the price

The tool is free and available without restrictions.

VKontakte user parser

This tool allows you to upload the IDs of VKontakte users who are subscribed to certain groups. This is a useful feature, since you can upload the ID database to your advertising account on VKontakte or another social network and set up targeted advertising for it.

How the tool works:

1. You provide links to groups whose subscribers need to be parsed. You can enter links in the Upload by List box, or you can upload an XLSX file with the group URLs on the first sheet. In total, you can parse up to 100 groups at the same time.

2. Additionally, set activity settings (number of likes and comments for a certain period). This will help to parse only active users (those who regularly like or comment on posts).

What is the price

The service is free, there are no restrictions on the number of parsing iterations.

Community analytics

You can analyze the effectiveness of the VKontakte promotion methods used in Community Statistics.

It is necessary to focus on the following indicators:

• number of participants (number and growth of the audience, dropped out participants, their geography and demographic characteristics);
• attendance per day;
• coverage;
• views;
• activity (likes, comments, reposts).

When using paid community promotion, you track the following indicators:

• advertising budget;
• cost of circulation;
• cost of a new subscriber;
• cost per click on advertising;
• cost of a new subscriber from advertising.

Creating a visual and semantic component

The next step is description. When you create a community, the settings will open where you need to act. Public pages are indexed in search engines, so write a meaningful post about yourself, your services and what the reader will find on this resource. For example, this is what information about Semantica looks like.

This is a window in which the name and other data are changed. There is one more way to get into it. In the top right corner, find three dots, open the drop-down list and select “Manage.”

Then upload your avatar and cover photo. The images you choose should be unique, eye-catching, and relevant to the theme of the blog.

Recommended sizes:

• First image: 200*500px; thumbnail: 200*200px.
• Second: 1590*400px.

Change the necessary settings. In “Sections”, check the boxes next to the tools that you want to see in the public: photo albums, links, products, audio recordings, contacts and others. Also in this menu there is a transition to your personal account, where you can connect advertising.

How to lead a group in contact for business - 6 additional tips

1. Unique design + properly designed group cover

Unique selling design is an important component of the group’s selling elements. Your group should have a recognizable unique style that you will repeat not only on the cover of the group, but also in the design of posts.

This could be some kind of background color that will appear in every post or almost every one and will definitely be duplicated on the cover of the group.

To do this, you don’t have to understand the intricacies of Photoshop or order from designers. You can easily make such a cover yourself in Canva.

This service is a photo editor, adapted for social networks and for ordinary users - not design professionals.

The cover of the group must include:

• Briefly describes what you do, for example - “Interior doors in Kazan”
• Name of the organization
• Your contacts and logo if available.

Description or information about the group

Before we start running a group for business, we need to understand for ourselves: what do I want the person who lands on my page to do?

And based on the answer to this question, fill out the group. To do this, we must fill out the “Group Description” correctly and informatively.

This is done through the button with three dots under the avatar or group cover, then click “Community Management” and in the window that opens, fill in the “Community Description” item. The text should be as clear as possible - we describe how we can help a potential client. How exactly can we solve his problem and in what time frame (exactly in numbers).

Under no circumstances should we write here something like: “We are a rapidly growing company…. 15 years on the market... Our team consists of highly professional specialists….Blah…blah…blah.”

This text will be displayed on the main page - immediately below the cover and group name. During those periods when you pin a post, this description will fade into the background and can be viewed by clicking on the “Information” tab.

Communicating with clients on behalf of the community

In the selling group, the “Write a message” button to the community must be connected. Group administrators will receive messages from potential clients not each in a personal message, but in “Community Messages”.

This function has another good feature - the ability to connect a button - “Community online. They will answer right now." This button is located at the top right and lights up green.

To connect it, you need to go not to group management, but click on the “Community Messages” button - in the window that opens, move the slider in the upper right corner.

Whenever we are ready to answer clients' questions right away, we can enable this feature.

Free methods of group promotion

In order to increase the audience of a group with “0”, first of all, we must re-invite our friends to the group (of course, filtering those who do not fall within our target audience).

To do this, at the initial stage we create a group and not a public page.

On March 7, 2021, contact introduced minor changes to this paragraph. Now, when creating a group, we are asked to select the group type not from 3 but from 6 points.

In addition to the usual ones: interest group, public page and event, we also added a business, a thematic community and a brand or organization. So, at the initial stage we choose an “interest group”, then we can always transfer to any other form (but only as long as the group has less than 10,000 participants).

We invite friends to the group.

We take the right steps to get into the news feed. What are these steps?

Unique content

Unique content that readers like is very helpful in promotion. If a post gets a lot of likes, comments and reposts in the first 30 minutes after its publication, the VK smart feed considers this post good and offers it in the “news” to approximately the same audience as the members of your group. And this, in turn, increases the reach of posts and free advertising for your community.

I repeat that in addition to uniqueness, the post must be published at the right time, I wrote about this in this article just above.

What posts does the smart feed like most?

From favorites in descending order:

1. A selection of photos with descriptions
2. A selection of videos with text
3. Text + photo
4. Structured text, or in other words readable, with subheadings, blank lines, the use of emoticons (not very many), the use of lists
5. Native video – video uploaded directly to VK and not from YouTube
6. Reposts with text
7. Links, i.e. text that contains a link
8. Reposts without text

What types of posts are there:

• Longreads (new format of posts - articles)
• Magnets
• Polls
• Practical jokes
• Question answer
• Selling and useful-selling
• Live
• Notes

This is what a Longread article looks like

The goal of promoting the VKontakte community

Without direction, a ship will not sail. Therefore, the first step to successfully promoting the VKontakte community is setting a goal. “Everything is on VKontakte, I need it too” or just for show – we immediately reject this option. There must be a clear wording:

1. To sell goods and services (yes, the entire sales cycle can now be completed through a social network).
2. For traffic to the site.
3. To generate income from placing advertisements on your site.
4. For leisure (community of interests).

As a rule, sales through social networks and traffic to the website are more important for a business. But the community of interests should not be discounted, because... they help increase brand loyalty.

Free promotion of the VKontakte community

SEO

SEO is a way to promote communities without investing in advertising. It is much easier for the VKontakte community to get into the search results of Yandex and Google than for a website. You can also promote according to high-frequency and highly competitive queries.

As we said earlier, the name of the community should contain a keyword or phrase. It is worth paying special attention to mid- and low-frequency queries. They can be checked through the wordstat service. Take 3-4 keywords for one community.

In SEO, search robots evaluate a page based on title and description. Title is the name of your community containing a keyword or phrase. Description – description of the community. Try to contain the most important things about your community in 160-170 characters using keywords.

It would also be a good idea to include keywords in the page address, status, discussions and photo albums.

Publish unique content with keywords, but at the same time think about people, not robots, who will promote you in the search engine. Readable, high-quality and engaging content will encourage users to subscribe and share posts.