Internet Marketing Short Course from WebEvolution

Promotion in Odnoklassniki: a complete review

Andrey Baturin, July 12, 2018

"VKontakte" is the most popular social network of Runet, this is a well-known fact. Everyone strives to advance in it, forgetting about another platform that has great potential in terms of business promotion. This is not Facebook or Instagram, but Odnoklassniki. We do not take this network seriously, but in vain. After all, in fact, this is a huge unoccupied niche that can become an excellent platform for promotion. Let's take a closer look at Odnoklassniki: how to create a group, promote posts, collect target audience in this social network.

Business promotion in Odnoklassniki: does it make sense?

This is a tricky question, since it is directly related to the specifics of the site. The attendance of the social network is very decent - 71 million users per month.

We used to think that people of mature age gather and communicate there. This is only partly true!

• The share of the network's audience aged 25 to 34 is 27%.
• The range of age groups ranges from 12 to 64 years.
• The predominant category is people over 35 living in the regions.
• The mobile audience is actively growing, its share exceeded 40%.

Yes, a business audience has accumulated - advanced, on Instagram - fashionable. And the rest of the ordinary people, who act as potential buyers, visit Odnoklassniki with pleasure.

All conditions are created for them there: games, video channels, gifts, humor, live broadcasts, radio, applications, etc. In Odnoklassniki they communicate, laugh, watch videos, play. Groups, shops, goods - everything is there, but for users this is not the main thing. Sincere, friendly, simple communication: such is the atmosphere of Odnoklassniki.

Nevertheless, the public is quite solvent. Because Odnoklassniki has a lot of paid features that have been introduced for a long time, but are actively used today. Users pay for gifts, closed profiles, invisible effect. That is, they are willing to buy. It is only important to offer them a product unobtrusively and of high quality!

So what do we have:

• Active solvent large audience;
• A platform that has all the necessary services and options for promotion;
• Saving the advertising budget, since the niche is relatively free so far!

The conclusion is obvious: promotion in Odnoklassniki makes sense if the offer corresponds to the platform format.

Promotion in the Odnoklassniki network: the beginning

If you are not yet familiar with the features of the network, then you will have to upset a little. Group news is not displayed in the general user feed. There is a separate tab for this. This means that only the interested user will see the post. And the material will get into the general feed only if it is shared. It was a small warning, but in general, the inhabitants of Odnoklassniki are loyal to good offers and business pages.

How to create a group in Odnoklassniki

A promotion group is just one of the online presence formats, perhaps the most common.

It is created simply:

1. From the profile on the main page, find "Groups" and go to the section offering "Create a group or event."
2. Next, select the appropriate option: event, interest or business are you creating a community?
3. Fill in the blank fields with the required information and confirm the registration.

There is also a verification option, that is, official confirmation of the accuracy of the specified data. It is executed as desired, as a result, the page receives a blue tick icon. Agree, users will trust a community with an official status more.

Don't forget to decorate your group nicely. For this, 3 design options are available: with an image in a header, with a pattern and a combined one.

Shop in Odnoklassniki

The platform is designed for the operation of online stores: this feature was introduced back in 2017.

1. To launch a store, you need to connect the "Products" section.
2. To do this, go to the settings, then to the management, where in the list to select products.
3. Activate the "Show" function and save.
4. To add products, use the "Add product" option from the group sections.
5. Fill in the fields with the name and description.
6. You can place the cost, specify the currency, or leave the price in the "negotiated" status.
7. It is also worth attaching a photo of the product, indicating the location.

This is a simple algorithm for initial actions. The platform also allows you to host a directory. Product promotion in Odnoklassniki is carried out using the myTarget service. Promotional posts are created in it, which we will discuss in more detail later.

Blog for business promotion in Odnoklassniki

A rare blogger dreams of running a business page on Odnoklassniki! But read to the end and, quite possibly, you will change your mind. A brand can start a blog on this social network to support their content strategy. As with any kind of publication, the regularity of posting, the quality of materials and the variety of content are important here.

1. You need to start with page design.
2. A content plan should be developed in order to comply with the frequency of publications.
3. Blogs are in the format of photos, videos, text. Decide on the type, it will not be rigid - different kinds of content can be combined, but some should prevail.
4. You need to choose a topic that will correspond to the audience of Odnoklassniki. A simple example: if you have a metalworking plant, you should not write about the details, production processes and advantages of milling machines. Write anecdotes from the life of ordinary workers, funny cases, funny videos and photos on the factory theme. If you regularly make the audience laugh, they will remember your organization.
5. The optimal frequency of posts can be determined from the results and response. Posting should not be excessive, otherwise the platform algorithm will perceive your blog as intrusive. Leverage analytics data.

You can promote your blog for free. To do this, you must first get the icon of the official page. This gives the blog an outlet in a dedicated section. Further from the section, you can get into recommendations if the content deserves it.

Don't forget about . So they can easily get into the search results. Use hashtags, respond to comments, engage readers in communication and posting. You can also advance again for money.

Tools for promotion in Odnoklassniki

They are fairly easy to learn on your own. In this social network, you can really cheaply buy decent coverage for thematic posts. There are examples on the Web when 20 thousand views cost only 300 rubles. Since the beginning of 2018, under each publication, the “Promote” button now flaunts. Therefore, you can launch the promotion of each entry directly from the community. Let's see what advertising tools you can still use.

promotional posts

They differ from simple publications in that they are shown to both your subscribers and other representatives of the target audience. The latter will be given the opportunity to "Subscribe" by clicking on the appropriate button. Demonstration of promotional posts is subject to the general rules of targeting. You set the necessary parameters that will help form the target audience. This is done by filling in all the fields in the myTarget form.

How to create?

• Promotion of posts in Odnoklassniki, and, accordingly, groups begins with their creation, publication.
• Next, through your personal account, you need to generate a "Note" campaign by placing a link to the post in the required field.
• We perform targeting settings by age, interests, campaign duration, budget and coverage.
• You can limit your budget to spending per day or for the entire campaign.
• The "Auction strategy" option is available, where the maximum impressions, a fixed bid, or a minimum cost are noted.

As a result, the campaign is saved and launched, and you track its statistics on the management page.

Video advertising

This is a relatively new tool that allows you to run campaigns using autoplay videos. The algorithm, in general, is the same as for posts. Targeting settings have been slightly changed - interests, income, and a number of others have been added. A “Video” is created in the group, uploaded, and then also in the personal account of myTarget, a link is placed on it in the “Note”. The campaign starts after moderation.

Hidden Topics

Such a campaign is designed for a specific group of users. This is a special entry that is not shown to all subscribers, but only to "selected ones". You choose the composition of the group: by interests, age, region, other principle.

App campaigns

There are also applications in Odnoklassniki, their use (high-quality!) allows you to increase the loyalty of the public, since advertising here is especially unobtrusive. Your branded elements are embedded in apps, just as they can be included in a game or video.

Canvas

This is a constructor that appeared in Odnoklassniki recently. The campaign involves posts and full-screen pages that are interconnected. This includes the target user who clicks on the post. Next, he opens a page where you can post autorun videos, sliders, panoramic photos and other beauty.

Content program for promotion in Odnoklassniki

Therefore, they go:

• Emotional stories. Those that will touch the audience to the core: about love, loyalty, friendship, disappointment, etc.
• Helpful video. Short and interesting! Maximum - 1-3 minutes! With it, you can attract a large number of participants.
• . The same publication can be useful not for 1 day, but for several months in a row. If you stir up interest in it and if it really has value for the audience.
• Streams that the Live feed allows you to upload. A genre that is already familiar from other social networks is live broadcasts, which traditionally provide great coverage, especially with the right choice of broadcast time (18:00-20:00).
• Simple themes. Users of Odnoklassniki willingly participate in discussions of everyday topics familiar to everyone. These are problems with children, parents, bosses, products, inflation, recipes, country gardening, knitting, etc.
• Minimum text. The audience of Odnoklassniki is not used to reading long posts. Learn to fit the essence in 6 lines, then the text will go under cat.
• Humor. And once again, humor, which is especially appreciated by the local target audience.

Create good and understandable content for Odnoklassniki and learn how to promote the page yourself.

Life hack: look for communities similar to yours and negotiate with administrators about guest posting. This will increase the reach and the number of subscribers for free!

In Odnoklassniki, you can successfully advance, and the base remains the same: high-quality content, a well-thought-out publication plan, friendly and constant communication with the target audience, and the creation of a unique style. You will be able to get coverage with free funds after years, so use the short cut - paid promotion tools on the platform. If you have any preconceptions about this network, look again at the figure: 71 million every month with a steady audience growth! Plus: the availability of everything necessary to promote a group or page.

Mail.Ru Group researched and compared the audiences of the most popular social networks in Russia - Odnoklassniki, Moi Mir, VKontakte, Facebook and Twitter.

The study touched upon the main demographic indicators, geography, identified similarities and differences in the behavior of social network users. To obtain the most objective results, TNS, comScore and Brand Analytics data were used.

The most significant monthly audience is In contact with and Classmates who visit more 52 and 42 million. users, respectively. Near 30 million. people come every month My world, slightly less in Facebook. Russian audience Twitter an order of magnitude less 11.6 million.

The highest percentage of women is among Odnoklassniki users (56%) , and the highest percentage of men among Twitter users ( 47%).

The average user of Odnoklassniki spends on the social network twice as long the average user of VKontakte (20 minutes versus 10). Hence the almost twofold advantage in the number of pages viewed in one month.

Users often have accounts in different social networks. Monthly Audience my world most often intersects with VKontakte (87%) and Classmates (80%). 68% users In contact with also visit Classmates.

Nearly half of the audience Odnoklassniki (43%) lives in small towns with a population of up to 100 thousand people. The opposite situation is FacebookandTwitter, 34% and 35% whose users live in large settlements (more than 800 thousand people).

What do social media users write about?

• About myself: 15-20% of the flow are messages about what they do, where they are, what they eat, think, feel.
• Share news from the media and discuss them: 40% posts are reposts to news, events, comments, discussions. During high-profile events, the number of discussions increases dramatically.
• They make their own news. This type of information is gaining momentum thanks to the development of mobile Internet access, cameras and video recorders.
• Discuss products, services, events.
• Post entertaining content: memes, cats, beautiful pictures, etc.

Less: discuss hobbies, publish creative work, advertise something, etc.

Brand Analytics presented data from a regular study of the active audience of social networks in Russia, winter 2015-2016.

The study provides data on the audience, age, gender and regional distribution of authors of social networks in Russia and includes data on the most popular authors and groups for each social network.

The main focus of the study is on the active (writing) audience, since Brand Analytics studies social networks as a means of public communication and their influence on the formation of public opinion.

Social media activity

One of the key indicators of the “vital activity” of a social network is the number of “speaking” users who openly express their position through public messages on social media. There were about 37 million such active authors in Russia in December 2015, they generated 588 million messages per month. Active authors who create public content make social networks a relevant indicator of public sentiment, allowing them to catch “live” social problems at the very beginning of the formation of significant trends.

In terms of the number of "writing" Russian authors, VKontakte is the leader - 18.8 million unique authors. Instagram, which is next in second place, has an incredible growth rate, 10.6 million authors were recorded in this network in December, almost 5 times more than in the spring of 2015. Twitter is in third place - the number of active authors here continues to decline, in December a little over 1 million people.

As for the number of messages posted daily on social networks, there are no such drastic changes. In the first place, as before, is Vkontakte, in the second - Twitter, then - Instagram and Facebook.

Twitter has traditionally been the leader in terms of engagement, although the average number of messages has become slightly lower in the winter - there are an average of 90 messages per active author in this network per month. Second place - LiveJournal - on average, 49 posts per author, third - Facebook - 39 posts per author. VKontakte and Odnoklassniki are very close in terms of this indicator - 15 and 14 messages per author, respectively.

Social Media Audience

According to TNS, the monthly audience of most social networks has decreased slightly, but there are also sources that have shown an increase. Thus, the audience of VKontakte stopped at 46.6 million people, the second place was taken by Odnoklassniki (31.5 million people). The Facebook audience in December 2015 amounted to 21.7 million people, closely followed by "My World" - 16.6 million people and "LiveJournal", with an audience of 15.2 million people. The audience of Instagram by December, 2015 increased by 2 million people. and amounted to 12.3 million people. The Twitter audience remained virtually unchanged at 7.7 million people.

Statistics for Russia for each social network

The monthly audience is 46.6 million people, 40% of which - 18.8 million - have shown public activity.

As for the age structure of the authors of VKontakte, one can note an increase in the number of authors aged 25-34 years old, their share was 32.1%, the share of authors aged 18-24 years old is slightly higher - 32.3%, authors under 18 years old - 24%, only 11.6% of active authors are over 35 years old.

The geographical distribution of VKontakte authors is gradually redistributed towards more uniform regional penetration - in the first place is St. Petersburg with a network penetration rate of 31.7%, in the second is Moscow with 23% of the registered population, then the Murmansk and Kaliningrad regions and Sevastopol - 19 .4%, 19.3% and 18.8% of the activity of the population, respectively.

The monthly audience of Instagram in November 2015 amounted to 12.3 million people, and the number of active authors - 10.7 million people.

Instagram remains the most female of all social networks in Russia, in the winter of 2015-16, among active authors, 77.1% are the fair sex.

The level of penetration in Instagram has not changed much - the Leningrad region is still in the lead - 38% of the population, Moscow - 22.3% of the population and the Sakhalin region - 17.2%.

In the age structure of Facebook, the categories from 25 to 34 years old and 35-44 years old are still in the lead - their share was 35.3% and 32.6%, respectively. 6.1% of authors are younger than 24 years old, and authors older than 44 total 26.1%.

It is worth noting that Facebook remains a unique social network in the Russian Federation both in terms of the age structure of authors - more than 65% of whom are aged 25-44, and in terms of public content - it is a network focused primarily on business contacts and business.

The gender distribution of the Russian-speaking part of Facebook continues to shift towards the weaker sex (58% of authors).

The geographic profile demonstrates stability - most regions have retained their positions: Moscow - 6.4% of the population, Altai - 3.75%, Yaroslavl region - 3.2%.

Odnoklassniki, as before, remains primarily a platform for interpersonal communication. The monthly audience of the network is 31.5 million people, while only 1.1 million authors demonstrate public activity in groups.

In Odnoklassniki, as before, the main share of active authors is in the age group of 24-34 years - 26.6%. Practically equal shares fall on the groups of 35-44 and 55 and older - 20.7% and 20.9%, respectively. Active authors under the age of 24 are only 15.8%.

In November 2015, Twitter had 7.7 million followers and 1 million active creators.

On Twitter, the share of male authors continues to grow, in December 2015 the share is already 51.6%. A year ago, in December 2014, there were 45.6% of men on Twitter, and in the spring of 2015 it was already 50.6%.

In terms of Twitter penetration, the leadership remained with St. Petersburg -2.1%. Almost the same penetration was recorded in Moscow - 2% of the population. The third line was occupied by the Novosibirsk region, penetration in it was 1%.

The monthly audience of the network decreased by 10 million people and amounted to 16.6 million, and the number of active authors - 830 thousand people.

The gender structure of My World has not changed much, 41.8% of men and 58.2% of women.

LiveJournal remains a platform for those who like to “read, not talk”: out of 15 million people in the monthly audience, only 111 thousand authors are active.

The age structure of LiveJournal is stable, the largest proportion of authors falls on the groups of 18-24 years old - 37.2% and 25-34 years old - 35.8%.

Comparison of the socio-demographic characteristics of the authors

Over the past half a year, social media have matured, the share of authors under 18 years of age has decreased, authors aged 18-24 and 25-24 years old prevail in LiveJournal and VKontakte, and authors aged 25-34 and 35-44 years old dominate in other networks.

For Twitter and Instagram, there is no data on the age of active authors.

Trends and Forecasts

There is a significant increase in the activity of the Russian segment of Instagram. Moreover, most of the authors of this social network are active users of other social media - the share of cross-posting from Instagram to other social networks exceeds 50% of messages.

The growth of the Russian part of facebook continues. Moreover, this growth is observed primarily in the field of business contacts and business. The share of Facebook in the analysis of business topics often makes up more than 30% of the total volume of social media data on the topic.

The active growth of sites with reviews continues - both in the number of new reviews and in traffic.

The Russian part of Twitter is slowly losing activity. At the same time, the activity of spam bots on Twitter is also decreasing, but nevertheless it still makes up more than 30% of the flow.

Basic research terms:

Message - any open (public) post - in the status, on the wall, in groups, comments, etc. Messages in personal correspondence or in the "only for friends" mode are not taken into account.

Audience - the number of people who visited the site at least once a month.

The Odnoklassniki project's response to the Brand Analytics study

Last week, Brand Analytics released a study on the audience of social networks in Russia. Unfortunately, this is not the first study that comes out on behalf of the agency. According to our observations, report data is often used by brand managers and SMM specialists for work and strategic planning. Not only do we disagree with the results of the study, but we are also forced to report the incorrectness of the numbers and data collection methodology. We would not want partners and colleagues to be misled by false information. We took the amazing BA methodology as a basis and calculated real data. We share them with you.

In December 2015 in Russia, Odnoklassniki recorded 24 million “authors” using Brand Analytics terminology against 1 million, which they mention in their study. The Jewish Autonomous Region, which ranks first in BA's list, is actually in 7th place from the bottom.

• Krasnodar region
• Samara Region
• Khabarovsk region
• Moscow (as a city)
• Sverdlovsk region
• Saint Petersburg (as a city)
• Primorsky Krai
• Voronezh region
• Saratov region
• Irkutsk region.

And here are the top regions by the absolute number of authors, in which Moscow is expected to be in first place:

• Moscow
• Krasnodar region
• Sverdlovsk region
• St. Petersburg
• Samara Region
• Rostov region
• Stavropol region
• Novosibirsk region
• Saratov region
• Irkutsk region.

Last year, as a result of a similar study by Brand Analytics, we decided to open the data and provided enhanced access to the API for more accurate data processing. Unfortunately, this did not affect the relevance of the study in any way.

Starting today, we officially close access for Brand Analytics to our API and prohibit the use of grabbers.

If your company is engaged in data analysis and processing, you can get extended access to the API by writing a request to [email protected] with the theme "Analytics".

Brand Analytics commentary

Brand Analytics is in dialogue with representatives of all major social networks, seeing its mission in the further development of social media market measurements, in the development of technological cooperation to solve the stated problem. The degree of discussion of fresh data proves once again that we are only at the beginning of this journey. We appeal to all market participants with an open proposal to discuss mutual steps in this direction and will continue to invest our own resources in the development of research.

A little more about the figures for Odnoklassniki (OK). The study relies solely on data from 100,000 OC groups. An explanation about the use of data only by groups is given in all relevant places in the presentation - next to tables and diagrams. This decision is due to the fact that, unlike the APIs of other Mail.ru Group social networks that we use, the Odnoklassniki API provides data only for groups and does not provide data outside of groups.

Despite the lack of completeness of data, even such figures, an assessment of the social demographic, activity and geography of the authors of OK in a situation of lack of information on this social network, are important for the market - the target audience of many brands is concentrated in Odnoklassniki.

Incorrect interpretation of the presented data on the geography of the authors of the OK in a number of discussions of the results of the study also requires comments. The figures by the number of authors in groups and penetration in the regions are sorted by the second metric - by the penetration of authors in the region, normalized to the population of the region. Correct reading of the presented data removes questions about the activity in the regions of OK users.

In conclusion, let us once again note the usefulness and importance of the current discussion for the further development of the dimensions of the social media segment. We are sure that we, together with our partners from OK, will be able to find the right organizational and technical solution in order to expand the representation of data on one of the main Russian social networks in the near future.

If you want to successfully promote goods and services on social networks, then first of all you need to get to know the visitors of the platform you are interested in. In this article, we will find out who is the target audience of Odnoklassniki, which has been in the top 10 most popular sites in Russia for several years and hardly needs to be introduced.

"Age" social network - myth or reality?

The stereotype about the "age" "Odnoklassniki" can be compared with an annoying song that clings against desire. As a result, even people who are far from social networks believe that the audience of the Odnoklassniki website is “older” users. The vagueness of the wording "older" gives free rein to interpretations: "middle-aged people", "those over 40" and even "pensioners". Let's try to understand the true state of affairs.

Probably, any stereotype has a truthful basis. This is also true for OK.ru. If you think about it, some information is already contained in the name itself: find those with whom you once studied at school (it is understood that you graduated from school a long time ago, and connections of that time are not maintained). At the dawn of the existence of Odnoklassniki, their “age” status was not a myth, but a reality, but this fully corresponded to the original concept of the site. According to 2008 data, the majority of OK users at that time were between the ages of 25 and 34.

But we must not lose sight of the volatility that is inherent in the entire Internet and, in particular, social networks. "Odnoklassniki" is not a static and petrified formation, they do not stand still, they transform, evolve. Almost a decade has passed since their launch, and the statistics of 2008 today seem, to put it mildly, irrelevant. Experts note that modern Odnoklassniki seek to expand its audience at the expense of young people, without losing the proven “mature” segment.

This idea has every chance of being successfully implemented, because OK.ru is an entertainment platform where everyone can find interesting content, as well as games, movies or music to their liking. But only time will tell whether these efforts will lead to the desired result, but for now, the audience of Odnoklassniki is distributed as follows: most of the users (35%) are people 25-35 years old, and women and men in this category equally. But in other age groups, the ratio of women to men fluctuates:

According to other data, Odnoklassniki is a pronounced “female” site (almost 70% of women versus 30% of men). In this regard, "female" and "family" content is constantly popular here.

It is important to take into account not only the gender and age characteristics of users, but also their geographical spread, interests, and much, much more. For example, the audience of the Odnoklassniki website is more “regional” compared to the metropolitan audience of Facebook or VKontakte.

A typical user of Odnoklassniki - what is his temper?

Despite the many variables, it is quite possible to draw a certain average “portrait” of a visitor to Odnoklassniki.

The audience of Odnoklassniki is concentrated mainly on internal communication, that is, viewing profiles and messaging. The news feed is of much less interest to people. Users are not very picky about the quality of photo content and illustrations, but at the same time they love graphics and videos more than texts. This distinctive feature of perception is quite easy to take into account when adapting content for the platform, so ignoring it will be a gross mistake.

From a marketing point of view, the audience of the Odnoklassniki website is ideal for promoting the mass segment. Here are a few characteristic features: high purchasing and user activity, low average check, active participation of users in contests and a large number of marks for publications.

However, analysts do not advise marketers to "float on top" and be content with the average user image. There are an infinite number of nuances here, so clumsy methods of work are unlikely to be effective.