Today, in the form of an overview, we will tell you how to organize promotion in social networks, which platform to choose for promotion and how to prepare content.
Is your target audience on social media?
IN in social networks different people are sitting - with average incomes and good incomes, from large cities and small settlements, young and old. Well-known artists, Youtube bloggers, ordinary residents and even politicians have their own pages in social networks. According to a study by Levada Center sociologists, more than a third of Russians - 37% of respondents - access social networks every day. And more than half of Russians are active users of social networks.
There is any target audience in social networks - young mothers who will be interested in children's things and toys, directors of large companies who are interested in business training, busy people who often use cleaning and home delivery services. The main thing is to be able to correctly search for your target audience and work with it.
Materials to help you better understand the topic:
Selecting channels for SMM promotion
The main feature of the social network is the emphasis on the visual component, that is, on photography. Little attention is paid to the text, so without high-quality images or at least bright pictures from the Internet, promotion will be difficult.
The main feature of the audience of the social network Instagram is that more than 79% of it are women. There is no exact age data, but most experts believe that young people under 30 are registered on Instagram. Perhaps this explains the effectiveness of promotion - the level of engagement on Instagram is 15 times higher compared to the social network Facebook.
Pros: high coverage, relatively easy setup advertising, simple promotion through mass liking and mass following.
Minuses: the inability to publish links in posts and the dependence of the visibility of posts on the level of involvement, which makes it difficult to promote from scratch.
Instagram is suitable for promoting goods and services that can be sold “with the eyes”: that is, those that can be beautifully portrayed. Clothing stores, flower and food delivery services, various souvenirs and handmade goods are popular here. Services are getting worse, but with the right approach, you can sell them too. For example, Instagram often offers business and other types of advice.
In contact with
In VKontakte, according to statistics, more than half of the registered users are women. 37% of active authors are users age group 25-34 years old. A 25.7% active users- people between the ages of 18 and 25. That is, more than half of the audience are solvent users.
Also on Vkontakte Special attention is given to the visual component, as in other social networks. There are no particular difficulties in promoting publics, groups and communities - it is enough to publish a unique interesting content and use standard ways attracting subscribers. A good advantage of the social network is multidisciplinary development: depending on the needs of the target audience, you can choose an acceptable publication format. For example, Instagram doesn't give you that kind of flexibility.
Pros: high audience coverage, a large number of targeting settings, normal organic reach, the ability to invite users in a group.
Minuses: high competition, prohibition by users to invite themselves to groups and meetings, very strict moderation.
In terms of promotion, Vkontakte is good for everything that cannot be sold by several beautiful photos. It actively promotes the services of medical centers, information businessmen, restaurants and cafes, travel companies, services of driving schools, banks, various goods and other products of the middle price segment.
Classmates
The main feature of the Odnoklassniki audience is that the age of active users often exceeds 30-35 years. At the same time, promotion on social networks is relatively inexpensive, especially when advertising in public.
Pros: coverage among a solvent audience, viral content of interesting content - if someone rates your post, all friends and subscribers of the person who put "Class" will see it.
In Odnoklassniki, complex products are often promoted, for example, the construction of houses, comprehensive surveys in medical centers and other high value goods and services. This social network is suitable for businesses operating in the field of cleaning, construction, legal support and others, but most of all for private services: for example, plumbing companies, car services, craftsmen.
The main Facebook audience is solvent people: 37% of active authors are aged 25-34, 30.6% are people from 35 to 44 years old, and 23.5% are people over 45 years old. Facebook pays special attention to text content, but at the same time, the social network claims to be a general purpose platform. The effectiveness of promotion is usually high - a large number of business accounts are registered on the social network.
This social network is suitable for most business areas. It sells B2B products, that is, business-to-business services, and promotes a personal brand. The social network itself gives examples of the successful promotion of restaurant and telecommunications brands, gaming, sports, automotive, financial, and educational fields.
Pros: a huge number of advertising settings, wide functionality for promotion, good coverage of foreign target audience.
Minuses: truncated organic reach and complex interface.
Select promotion channels - one or more social networks - depending on the specifics of your company and the product being promoted. In most cases, large companies create accounts in all social networks, and small businesses need only one well-chosen platform. For example, home delivery services often post on Instagram. And medical clinics find their audience on Facebook, Odnoklassniki and Vkontakte.
We launch promotion in social networks
We will talk about promotion in a clear structure: first - about the design, then - about the content, promotion and performance tracking. A book can be written about each of these points: we will try to talk about the most important.
Vkontakte
Post interesting content: product reviews, guides, user reviews. If you don't have any ideas for posts, look through the communities of competitors - you may be able to learn something useful from their content plan. Try to alternate entertaining and selling posts - this tactic on the social network gives good results. The content plan should be drawn up only on the basis of a needs analysis target audience and the specifics of your business - there can be no universal recommendations. You can also add products - both to a group and to a personal page.
Even pictures have their audience You can promote your group, personal account or public different ways. In the social network itself, they offer to set up targeted advertising and advertising in other publics. Targeted advertising will be shown to users when visiting Vkontakte, in the left column, and on third-party sites. And advertising in public - in the community that you choose.
Efficiency analysis can be carried out directly in VK. Personal pages, groups and publics have a "Statistics" section. It shows the reach of users - the number of people who saw the posts on the wall of the group or in the news feed, as well as the characteristics of the target audience. You can also view statistics for each entry, and in the future do not publish posts that gain few views and likes.
On Instagram
The design of the profile on Instagram also requires attention. Firstly, Instagram is a social network that evaluates first of all visual effect. Therefore, it is worth taking care of high-quality photos. Secondly, do it - one of the few places where you can leave an active link to a third-party site. Therefore, it makes sense to describe in detail what you do and what you offer to subscribers, right in the profile description. By the way, it is advisable to immediately link your Insta account with in order to easily set up advertising.
Instagram has built-in statistics - look for it in personal account, in profile. But it may not be enough for a full-fledged analysis - the social network shows the number of subscribers, including growth, and the main characteristics of the target audience. This is less than in other social networks. Therefore, advanced SMM managers often use third-party services that collect more complete statistics.
Articles to dive into the topic:
In Odnoklassniki
After, consider the design of the community. Please note that older people often sit in Odnoklassniki. Tell us what you offer in the description, put an attractive photo on the main page and choose the appropriate cover.
An example of a group header with a cartoon-themed cover When publishing posts, pay special attention to the text. Sometimes the usual statuses of people or groups get thousands of likes and comments. Viral posts often become jokes, anecdotes, comments on a political topic. But be careful - "hype" does not always help promote the group.
Example post in a group offering flower delivery services Statistics in Odnoklassniki shows reach, activity, what types of content are popular and many other parameters - everything you need for initial analysis. Statistics is in a group, in a separate menu. To properly promote your community, analyze the engagement and types of content that subscribers like the most.
An example of group statistics in Odnoklassniki But for those who manage to do this, the business brings a good profit. How to start promotion, and what to focus on in this process?
We will evaluate budgetary ways to promote your business on social networks.
But first, let's determine whether this is necessary in your particular case.
Pros and cons of business promotion in social networks
To date, 85% of people who have access to the Internet have accounts in various social networks and spend a huge amount of time there.
Russia has a palm in Europe in terms of the number of registered accounts and the time people spend on the Internet. 
Business in social networks: advantages
- lure potential customers
- found a community
- have a conversation with consumers.
Small investment.
The cost of one attracted client through the Internet is much lower than when using other methods of promotion.
If in other methods in order to:
An investment is required, then on the Internet you can do without spending money.
However, you need to be realistic: free promotion will always be slower and not as efficient as the paid one.
"Word of mouth" distribution.
Online business promotion in this way is the fastest. How does it work?
An interesting article is posted in a group.
It was read by 100 portal visitors, of which 11 shared a link to a unique work with their friends.
Among them, there may also be those who will share with other friends and so on.
It is at such moments that a viral program is launched that will make a business in social networks successful.
By the way, with the help of SEO, it is very difficult to get the same result as with SMM.
Development.
Promoting your own business on the Internet is gaining immense popularity every year, as the number of portal users is growing.
Some facts about the number and age of visitors to various social networks.
Low competition.
Most firms have not yet realized all the advantages that a business in social media can bring. networks.
They do not understand how profitable it is, since such methods bring good profits with minimal capital investment.
All this results in reduced competition (compared to the real market).
Disadvantages of business promotion in social networks
- interviewing group members
- posting,
- active support of communication in the group,
- spam removal,
- content update.
not subject to detailed analysis.
Analyze subscribers as, for example, using " Google Analytics' is simply impossible.
A marketer can only estimate the number of visitors and determine whether the business is being promoted at the right rate.
Administration control.
Often such frames interfere with full-fledged promotion, you have to look for workarounds.
Group worker.
Each project requires control, even (especially) if it is built on the Internet. The group or community must have its own administrator.
The job of an administrator is to:
You will need to hire such a person and pay him a salary.
But thereby free yourself from petty work, and proceed to larger-scale processes of promoting your product.
If the founder or admin of the group is not following the page, then the customers feel it very well, and the community will quickly decline.
It’s deplorable, but this can also affect offline reputation.
Overview of ways to promote in the TOP-5 social networks
1. Promotion of Vkontakte.
The site vk.com is the most popular portal on the Russian Internet.
The number of registered people (or rather, pages) totals 380 million, more than 80 million people visit the contact every day.
Options for increasing profits from a business on Vkontakte:
- Placement of advertisements in communities with similar topics;
- Targeted advertising (playing content depending on the preferences of visitors), which is paid for by the number of impressions and clicks.
Action example: a person previously searched the Internet for information about air travel to China.
- Broadcast advertising in well-known urban groups.
- Creation of a specialized Vkontakte page, on which all business products will be placed.
To attract consumers to the group, it is best to come up with some interesting and memorable name, as well as a bright avatar.
Basically, the audience of "Contact" is young people, so the product or service offered should be inexpensive.
2. Promotion in Odnoklassniki.
The ok.ru website is a resource dominated by an older audience of visitors (30–55 years old).
It is not as "crowded" as "Vkontakte", but also has an enviable popularity.
The number of users has exceeded 201 million, of which 46 million daily visit their page on the social network.
Options for promoting a business in Odnoklassniki:
- advertising in applications or games,
- creation of a personal page for business,
- targeted advertising,
- promoting your business by posting in other popular groups.
Content in Odnoklassniki should be aimed at attracting the attention of customers in various ways.
These can be intriguing statuses, interesting videos, pictures that are unobtrusively shown to visitors.
For example, a person put "class" in a group that is founded to sell children's products.
This "like" will automatically be reflected in the feed of friends. If they like the product, they like it too.
In this way, in the shortest possible time, you can familiarize people with your business.
In Odnoklassniki, you can sell and offer services of various levels, since an audience of various levels of solvency and tastes “dwells” here.
3. Promotion on Facebook.
facebook.com is one of the most large networks peace. It has over 1.6 billion registered accounts! 50% of them are viewed by users every day.
People with average and high incomes, aged 25–45, are often registered on Facebook. In such social networks even politicians, entrepreneurs, stars are registered.
If, for example, "Vkontakte" and "Odnoklassniki" are more entertaining relationships between people, then "Facebook" is more businesslike, since they register there for the purpose of exchanging information.
Ways to promote on Facebook
4. Promotion on Twitter.
The twitter.com site offers its users a quick exchange of information with each other.
Various segments of the population are registered on Twitter, ranging from politicians to porters and security guards.
Of course, it is quite difficult to promote a business, but still there are tools that allow you to do this.
For example, maintaining an account and creating a personal hashtag for your business helps promote and increase awareness.
You can arrange to place this hashtag on well-known accounts that “boast” the maximum number people subscribed to it.
The hashtag should point to the business page and nowhere else, so it must be absolutely unique.
This method of promotion is more suitable for Internet projects, and not for product sales.
5. Business in the social network "Instagram".
The instagram.com website is based on the exchange of short videos, photos and personal messages.
Still, images are at the forefront.
In you can create a page and promote your business by promoting the group.
It is also possible, for a set fee, to advertise activities in more promoted accounts with a large number of subscribers.
In order to attract customers, you need to publish interesting videos, colorful and bright pictures, photos.
4 social media promotion methods
No. 1. Content is the main promotion assistant
Every marketer will say: “Without decent content, it is impossible to promote a business on social networks.”
Three basic content rules:
Constancy.
The material should be systematically updated in the group.
Two, four, six posts a day - these figures depend on the direction of the business and the audience of customers.
Posting should be regular, and not depend on the number of subscribers.
Exclusivity.
Each material that will come from the moderator to the page must be highly unique and interest the visitor from the first lines.
Do not plagiarize and copy articles from other sources.
It is better to focus on creating exclusive works for business.
Viral promotion.
All materials should hook the client as much as possible.
It is at this moment, as described earlier, that the viral dissemination of information is launched.
No. 2. The role of targeting in promotion
This method of advertising is aimed at a specific audience. The definition of "your client" occurs in accordance with its interests.
The possibility of promoting a business in this way can be found in all of the listed social networks.
For a better understanding, consider the types of targeting:
For example, a fitness center is opening in Khimki.
This means that information about the opening should be shown to residents of Moscow and settlements located close to the new fitness center.
It is this setting that is set when advertising is launched. As a result, only your target audience sees it.
Socio-demographic.
For example, a start-up entrepreneur whose business is based on the sale of products for children needs to advertise in groups of young mothers and married women.
Contextual.
If a person is fond of fashion, then he will participate in the groups "Style", "Fashion", and not in the communities of carpenters or steelworkers.
For example, a person is fond of Latin American dances and travel.
Then the owner of the travel agency is simply obliged to offer the person a tour ticket to Cuba.
First, it is necessary to analyze whether the proposed product is suitable for the user. Secondly, make a well-designed advertisement.
No. 3. Promotion in communities
This type of promotion has already been discussed earlier, but it is still necessary to recall its essence.
At the same time, the entrepreneur must be aware that the more “promoted” the community, the more money will pass to pay for advertising on their page.
During the day, for a fixed fee, subscribers will be shown an advertising post ordered by them.
About detailed promotion plans different types companies in the social networks, Ilya Balakhnin will tell in his video:
No. 4. Business in social networks: professional promotion
There are specialized services that, for a set fee, will advertise a business on social networks.
Often they develop content themselves, activate the targeting mechanism and negotiate on advertising placement in thematic communities.
All these functions are offered, for example, by the site plibber.ru. "Plibber" gives an opportunity to develop business by attracting customers from social networks. 
To work here, a novice entrepreneur must:
- log in to the site
- start advertising your products on your own or contact qualified Plibber employees,
- in the first case, analyze your target audience and develop the desired advertising post.
The site moderates the proposed task, after which you can proceed to promotion.
If you follow the above methods and analyze the information received, then social media business will bring good income with minimal investment.
The main thing is to know your target audience well, appoint a responsible person in the group and do not forget about the systematic replenishment with articles, photos, videos.
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Here, probably, you also have accumulated a lot of friend requests on Facebook from Wedding Photographer Natalya, Chiropractor Ivanov and Evgeny Profnastil. Or (even worse) Sandwich Restaurant or Staraya Karga Clinic. Tell me, do you accept them? Here I am no. I understand that people came to the social network to sell their services. But in most cases, it seems that people heard the ringing, but do not know where it is. They chose the channel for promotion, perhaps even the right one, but they did not learn how to work with it.
Once again, having received a friend request from Viktor Remont, I decided to write a small guide for those who independently decided to promote their professional services on social networks.
Tip #0: You Can't Make a First Impression Twice
Therefore, before you become friends with everyone in a row, design the page properly, keep it for a while, make it interesting. Refuse constant reposts from your site or from the site of your company. If your page is empty, was launched only yesterday, or is filled only with reposts from some sites or pages, no one will subscribe to it, because there is a chance that you are a robot. Or a person, but in any case it is not interesting to read you. And, accordingly, there is no need to keep friends.
If you want to promote your professional services yourself, create your own content and behave accordingly, pay attention to your page. Without work, you know yourself - nothing will work.
1. Use your real first and last name
No one wants to keep the incomprehensible Andrey Elite Real Estate as a friend. If you are really rooted in this job and are sure that you will be a realtor for the rest of your days, then use your real name. People are more likely to add unknown Andrey Ivanov as a friend, who enthusiastically writes about real estate in their city, than the faceless “Andrey elite real estate” with a photo of a house instead of an avatar and constantly reposting from various real estate sites.
2. Tell stories
It is interesting for everyone to look behind the veil of secrets of professional tricks. Otherwise, the format "How it works" at The Village would not be so popular. If you don’t know where to start at all, read these columns of anonymous experts - you will get an idea of \u200b\u200bwhat people are interested in reading about.
But the most important trainer - remember what you are talking about with your non-professional friends in your industry, what you can laugh about together. For example, if you are a dentist, talk about the funny behavior of clients (well, they really act very funny sometimes!). Of course, everything should be as anonymous and kind as possible, and ideally even with some kind of morality - like, do not go to Africa for children to walk.
3. Share experience
You've probably been in this profession for so long that you have a whole list of obvious tips and tricks that no one ever does. For example, if you are a financial consultant, you know that you need to have an emergency reserve of the amount of 3-6 monthly expenses. But, to put it mildly, not everyone knows this.
Tell us, model the situation, again, using the example of your clients and real cases, illustrate what this leads to. Sometimes people don't realize they have a real problem with something until they see the real consequences. Based on your many years of experience, you can talk about these consequences and give advice. Plus, it's another way to prove to your followers that you're an expert and worth spending money on.
4. Don't skimp on good photos
Looking at your avatar (and the page in general), a stranger should understand that you are a professional. This impression will help you create a good portrait photographer. Professional photography is not so expensive, and the effect is permanent.
Shoot at once a photoset of 8-10 dissimilar photographs so that you can change them from time to time and use them in other resources - for example, in the media.
By the way, if you suddenly find yourself in the hands of your photo from some professional hangout, post it in the news with a note that "Here, they say, he told about new trends in N on the M forum." Show subscribers that you are part of a professional community.
5. Write simply
No fancy wording needed. Remember that your readers are mostly people who do not understand your topic. Therefore, write your posts on the social network in the same language that you communicate with the client when he asks stupid questions.
6. Make your page subscribeable
Vkontakte and Facebook have the ability to subscribe to a page for non-friends. That is, it may be embarrassing for a person to knock on your friend's door, but he is interested in what you write. In this case, a subscription is required.
7. Chat with followers in the comments
If you wrote an interesting post, and subscribers bombarded you with questions, take the time to answer their questions, give advice, clarify incomprehensible points.
People need to see that you are a real person, not a bot.
There are, of course, a number of moral and ethical restrictions here - that, for example, it is impossible to make a diagnosis on a social network. But you, I hope, know about such subtle moments of your profession.
However, you don’t need to immediately sell your services in the comments either. If you can give free advice, with which the subscriber can solve his problem on his own, give him this advice - this will only strengthen the level of potential loyalty.
8. Have an opinion
Everyone in the industry periodically has a fashion for something: for black furniture and brick walls, for rhinestones in their teeth, for Chinese toilets - you never know. You probably also know about it, and you have some personal and professional attitude to it. You can state your opinion with reason (this will be especially popular if you scold this fashion trend).
For example, you are a dentist and you think that rhinestones are good only on perfectly white teeth, and in other cases they only emphasize the icteric shade of enamel. Or that it is unsafe for the teeth and not entirely hygienic (for example). Your opinion may be based on your practice, a recent patient, or something else. But the reasoned opinion of a professional is always interesting to read.
9. Do not write about what you do not understand
Those topics that network trolls can happily savor are taboo for you. You are too busy to discuss the cost of Peskov's watches and the political consequences of invading some little-known country (unless you are a watchmaker and a political strategist, respectively).
10. Be yourself
You can write not only about work - it is also important to remain a person.
You can post photos of bouquets sent by satisfied patients or colleagues, share jokes and professional humor, tell a little about your life, the time of study and becoming a professional. Then it will seem to your subscribers that they have known you for a thousand years, and it will be easier for them to entrust you with the performance of the service.
11. Don't spam
If you have some kind of super-service and you want to talk about it, write about it in your own words. Something like “Hooray 🙂 Finally, we can talk about it. My colleagues from the X clinic and I finally launched the N service. This is something like ... and solves the problem with ... In our city, no one does it yet, although in the USA almost every first one already practices it. In general, if you are interested, I will gladly tell you everything and show you". Agree, it is much more pleasant to read than “Clinic X is pleased to offer you a full range of services for N. High-quality work, a professional approach to their work - this is what unites the professionals of Clinic X!”.
12. You are not a company
Firstly, everyone is very angry about the accounts of companies that are added as friends. Everyone understands that they will spam. A separate page should be created for the company, and if you want, put a link in your profile that you work for this company. The link will be active, and while working on your personal page, you will thus draw attention to the employer's brand. In other cases, you will only be embellished by the fact that you are a passionate professional, and not an impersonal company profile.
13. If possible, make a portfolio
Of course, this works for those professions where you can show results. Designers can show photos of the interiors they have designed. Builders - photo of built houses. If you decorate rooms with balloons, this can also be shown.
Photos must be beautiful and high quality! Remember - everything on your page should speak about professionalism and a serious approach to business.
And most importantly - add a few words from yourself, write what you felt and what difficulties you encountered while working on the project, what the client wanted, where your personal proposals were. It always helps to build a personal relationship with subscribers who are not yet too interested.
But, nevertheless, if you have such an opportunity, it is better to hire a professional who understands something in maintaining social networks, in technical and reputational aspects of personal pages. If your budget is very limited, then hire such a person at least at the very beginning - to design the page. It is not so expensive, and the result brings, if not instantaneous, but guaranteed.
I want you to promise me that you will NEVER create such mediocre pages as the conditional “Viktor Repair” has, ok? They do not solve the problems of potential clients, they do not captivate, but most importantly, they do not bring any financial or reputational result to Victor himself.
The Internet today covers all spheres of human life. Somewhere in highly developed countries, absolutely everything is based on it, and this accelerates the development of the economy, and society as a whole. In underdeveloped countries, the Internet is given less attention and cannot be said to have a beneficial effect. But in any case, it is already quite hard to live without the World Wide Web.
Of course, business, being a dynamic and very sensitive field of activity, could not stay away from social networks and their widespread use. Partial or even complete (in some areas) the transition of business to social networks is obvious all over the world in general and in Russia in particular. Commerce is being developed both in the capital and in the provinces. Everywhere you can see the promotion of business in social networks. Khabarovsk, for example, is a clear illustration of success. The businessmen of this city in the Far East are actively working in this Internet structure and making good profits.
Education
This paper shows the most important areas for the formation, maintenance and development of corporate accounts, lists the most common mistakes and considers a logically clear strategy. These are not just tried and tested recommendations, but practical manuals that you can simply take and use. The reader will easily understand what pace and goals to set and how to implement possible ways for their solution.
The book fully describes the intricacies of strengthening your business in the three most famous social networks. Yermolova N. gives entertaining and very successful cases. She is one of the most successful specialists in the development and promotion of various corporate microblogs and popular accounts. To date, she has approximately 50,000 followers on social networks.
Business and social networks
It should be noted that for business, social networks are a large audience for the sale of manufactured goods or all kinds of services. There are hundreds of millions of interested users who may well be business customers or at least have the opportunity to find out about the presence of a new company or its products, and then word of mouth will work. Therefore, promoting a business through social networks is now very important.
Distribution of products in social networks is a promising direction for a significant number of firms of various levels - both international corporations, national holdings, individual entities, and small local firms. This method of development and advertising of modern business is also effective because the financial costs of an advertising campaign, unlike other methods of business promotion, are relatively low, sometimes they may be completely absent.
Sales growth as a promotion goal
How can the promotion of goods and services on the Internet help in general? Among the existing leading goals that will ensure the effective promotion of business in social networks, the growth in sales of various products of the company. Within the framework of such a promotion strategy, the most effective method of development will be large-scale advertising campaigns in social networks, widespread specific goods and services. It is not even so important to purposefully promote your own account or a community of interest - network users who follow advertising links can then go directly to the official website and make purchases there or search for the necessary information.
Business development
Changing the position of a new brand, a particular product or service will be the next goal of promotion. This is an essential step in promoting your business on social media. The work here is done in a different way. The best option is to create a specialized page or an entire community and increase the number of subscribers (members). In particular, we are talking about the implementation of contests that encourage an increase in the volume of reposts of records, inviting friends to the community, and so on.
Business stabilization
Promoting a business on social networks is a complex phenomenon. It is not enough to appear on the Internet, you also need to gain a foothold in this market. It is necessary to strengthen customer loyalty to the company. This is the most difficult task, the solution of which requires systematic and carefully planned activities. This will require well-designed accounts (communities), regular publication of fresh news, timely response to complaints and questions from community members, and the ability to optimally resolve acute situations. Of course, for this activity you need a special competent employee of the company. For large organizations - even a number of such employees, an entire marketing department specializing in social networks. As a rule, this is an SMM manager. Promotion of business in social networks will be largely in his hands.
With all this, the presence of a direct dialogue between the consumer and the representative of the business itself is always a clear competitive advantage over other firms. It is necessary to approve the strategy in the field of SMM.
Some theory about SMM
See in modern Social media Marketing is just a method of mass, annoying notifications (spam) and reviews - not only not relevant today, but mostly completely ineffective. Users want to see beautiful, informative, interesting ads, not spam. Nowadays, SMM promotion of a business on social networks is one of the main ways to show your business to potential customers. In some areas of commerce, SMM promotion is the most effective way to build a brand. materials last year show that 85% of modern users have an account in at least one of the social networks. This allows us to assert that with the help of SMM you can effectively develop relationships with your audience.
Serious experts in the field of Internet marketing suggest that the main tasks of any commercial promotion are as follows:
- to interest a potential client with your business proposal;
- make him a buyer who will visit again;
- win his loyalty;
- get new customers who appeared on the advice of this buyer.
In order to get such a result of word of mouth and multiply the number of customers by recommendation, you need a clear SMM strategy and good quality. Business promotion in social networks, no matter how trivial it may sound, will mainly go through high-quality goods and services that the buyer will not be ashamed to show and advise his friends. SMM promotion will be effective only in this case.
In contact with
VKontakte (vk.com) is one of the largest social networks, leading in Runet in terms of the number of active users. The number of accounts reaches almost 300 million, of which approximately 60 million are active participants. Basically, the age of users is 17-35 years. The main problem for business in this network is that it covers a relatively large percentage of people with a low level of financial solvency (students of secondary and higher education, the unemployed).
- Targeted commercial advertising (showing advertisements designed for certain categories of the target Internet audience) with a certain cost per click or per impression.
- Creation of public Internet pages or communities for the development of the sphere of sale of goods and services.
- Placement of various in well-known mass thematic or general communities at no cost or with payment.
- The appearance of ads in thematic or general applications and interesting games.
The best material for increasing the interest of users of the social network "VKontakte" will be a fascinating thematic beautiful picture with a small description of the community's products.
Facebook (facebook.com) is a large global social network, one of the best social networks for business promotion. It has less than 1.5 billion registered users, 50% of them constantly show significant activity, the volume of the Russian-speaking segment is about 10 million. In Facebook, and this is its difference from the social network VKontakte, there are mainly users of medium and even high social status, middle age (from 25 to 45 years), the share of insolvent users is minimal. Own accounts Facebook is owned by prominent businessmen and popular politicians.
Leading options for the distribution of goods and various services on Facebook:
- Formation and dissemination of your data from public Internet pages.
- Broad advertising on well-known thematic Internet pages.
Business development on Facebook is suitable for those products and services that are aimed at professional, educated people. The social network is also suitable for the distribution of various conferences, scientific and commercial seminars, business trainings, and various sites of a general information nature.
Classmates
Odnoklassniki (ok.ru) is the very first social network that managed to become popular in Runet. Nowadays, its popularity has slightly decreased, but now there are about 200 million registered users, a little over 45 million visit the social network daily. Business promotion in social networks will not do without Odnoklassniki. The main difference here is that among the users there are a lot of adult participants, even of retirement age. The average age of users here is the highest (unlike other Russian social networks) and reaches 25-50 years. Moreover, part Russian speaking users networks are emigrants permanently residing abroad.
Most best options to distribute business in Odnoklassniki:
- Targeted commercial advertising.
- Advertising in applications and games.
- Formation of thematic groups.
- Advertising in other well-known thematic or local social groups.
The optimal content of advertising for the distribution of products of a particular company in Odnoklassniki will be an interesting story of a fun or socially significant type, casually advertising your own brand. The spread of business in Odnoklassniki is aimed at the most ordinary, ordinary people, mainly the elderly, it is also possible for goods and services suitable for the most wide audience, popular media sites.
The potential for business expansion in this network is much less. At the same time, if necessary, you can create a hashtag for your brand and distribute it through advertising in popular accounts with a huge number of followers.
This simple way to distribute a business is optimal for almost any Internet project. It is in this network that the role of the SMM manager is huge. Promotion of business in the social network "Twitter" will be in his area of responsibility.
Instagram (instagram.com) is a social network that has become widespread as a platform for publishing photos and short (up to about 15 seconds) videos. The social network has gained maximum popularity among young people. Business promotion on social networks on Instagram can be used to spread your brand by posting any thematic pictures and videos in your account and purchasing such publications in the most popular thematic accounts.
For distribution on Instagram, high-quality, impressive, humorous, interesting pictures and videos are needed. When posting, it is possible to use hashtags, as in Twitter.
Spreading your business on Instagram is great for growing the popularity of youth product brands.
We have released a new book, "Social Media Content Marketing: How to get into the head of subscribers and make them fall in love with your brand."
Demand creates supply - a well-known phrase. But today it can be changed to offer and promotion creates demand. This is how the path of a variety of goods to consumers begins. And social networks, which cope with this task quite successfully, will help to interest and induce to buy. Promotion of goods and services in social networks - we offer an overview on this topical topic.
Strategy Development
To convince that social networks are an effective and modern channel for advertising and sales, perhaps, in 2018 no one is needed anymore. Statistics from 2017 make a compelling argument: over 3 billion people in the world have a registered account in one or more services. About 1.5 trillion US dollars are spent per year on online shopping. And this is only official statistics, which does not include officially unregistered online stores. Man choosing something in mobile application, often goes to the website of an online store or turns to a retail network for a purchase, which is also not reflected in the statistics. The main role in product promotion is played by Facebook, VKontakte, Odnoklassniki and other networks. Therefore, business actively adopts these resources and achieves success.
- Goals and objectives from working in social networks.
- The target audience of the product and how interested they are in communication services.
- Selection of resources and tools.
- Parameters of checks and evaluation of the result.
What to promote
The question arises - which products are successfully promoted through this channel? Or does everything fit? Based on marketing research, depending on the social network, its features, the predominant audience, different groups of goods will be in demand. And yet there are leaders:
- Fashion industry products - clothes, shoes, accessories.
- Cosmetics, perfumery.
- For children - clothes, shoes, toys, hygiene and care products.
- Hand made products, souvenirs, unique items from limited editions, jewelry.
- Automotive components, tools, accessories.
- Books.
- Computer and Appliances accessories for it.
- Products are environmentally friendly, natural.
- Services - trainings, consultations, services of IT-specialists, marketers, custom-made confectionery, catering.
- Tourist trips.
- Real estate.
- Alcohol.
- Tobacco products (including smoking mixtures, electronic cigarettes).
- Weapon.
- Games designed for ages 18+ with scenes of violence.
- Political parties campaign for candidates for some post.
There are no restrictions on the value of the promoted goods. Only the goal of maintaining a group will be different. For example, if from a page with women's clothing the return will be direct sales, then automobile concerns increase the loyalty of their customers through quick communication on the pages, talk about their new products, interest interesting materials about their factories, clients, prizes. This affects sales to a certain extent, although not directly.
About goals
You need to understand what the goal is. What is the page on the social network for, what is its task? List of the most basic goals:
- Introduce the market to a new product/service.
- Increase sales or average check.
- Help, advice, customer support channel.
- Make customers permanent.
- Improve the image of the company / product, remove the existing negative.
Who to promote
It will be necessary to understand as accurately as possible who the potential buyer of the promoted product is. This is a set of criteria such as: gender, age, income level, place of residence, marital status, hobbies and interests. It is important to know what problems the target audience has that are solved with the help of your proposal. These parameters will help you launch social media targeting correctly and know what to write about in order to resonate with subscribers.
Where to promote
What is the best social media to promote your product? The list of social networks in 2018 has hundreds of such resources. Which one to give preference to depends on the product and the “habitat” of its target audience. Many of the sites indicate the socio-demographic data of users for advertisers. It remains only to compare with the portrait of our clients - we choose those where the match is maximum.
The main promotion resources are those with the largest number of users. This:
Other services will also be useful, especially if they are relevant to the topic. For example, goods for newborns and toddlers are well suited for the BabyBlog, and cars and everything for them - for the NomeRA or AvtoBlog networks. And yet - first of all, the most popular, and only then thematic.
How to promote a product through social networks
Consider the main methods and tools that are used to promote products. For convenience, we will review each of the popular social networks separately. Let's take the most popular options: VKontakte, Facebook, Instagram.
In contact with
The most popular network in Russia. The total number of users is 462 million, so almost everything can be promoted here - among such a large number of people, there will definitely be buyers. The largest number of registered aged 18-34 years, a large audience under 18 years old (a quarter of the entire base), the most active participants aged 18-25 years. People over 45 read others more than they write themselves.
A feature of the network is a lot of publication, as a result, the feeds are updated quickly and in order for the materials to be noticed, you need to write more often. There is no ideal time (peak of user activity) - the working new Prometheus algorithm will show the best and most interesting information at the right time for each account. Habits and interests are taken as the basis, which made it possible to promote high-quality content for free and with a large reach.
The main methods of promotion in VK:
A group is an option for discussion or discussions. The public page is optimal for business promotion. Activities for training and education programs. The advantage of public pages is indexing by search engines, which, if there is SEO-optimized content and a suitable description, will give additional visitors. There are several main stages of promotion.
Task number 1 - registration. You can set comment options, obscene language filters. Appearance communities: avatar, thumbnail.
Task number 2 - attracting subscribers. There are enough methods to do this for every taste, we list the main ones:
- Competitor analysis - before you take care of your group, it will not be superfluous to see what others have. We find similar groups, analyze what they publish, what responses from the audience, what they like. Now we roughly understand what is needed.
- Publications are copyrighted, not just copied from other resources. Ideally with high quality photos(or video), on the topic of the material. You can add hashtags (relevant to the topic). Regularity - once every 2-3 days and more often. The 80/20 rule works - 80% of the content is entertaining and informational, only 20% is selling (about goods and services).
- Tell your friends - invite them to subscribe (using the button of the same name in the action section or private messages).
- Placement of a link and mention to a public page in a personal one: URL, place of work, share successes and new products there.
- Stories – This form of content is becoming more and more popular across different networks. The idea is to tell a brief history, a situation in which this or that thing came in handy (naturally, from the promoted product).
- Contests are a gift for subscribers who reposted or fulfilled another condition. Depending on the gift and how the information about the competition is spread, you can attract a large number for one competition (up to several hundred people). Post example:
An important point - after choosing the winner, many will unsubscribe, so you need to interest people as much as possible to stay in the group while the subscription is valid.
- Consulting promotions - when promoting services, you can sort out some of the situations for free by choosing a question from those proposed by the audience.
- Polls, voting - work on the engagement of subscribers, encouraging them to write comments. For example:
- Tips - ask subscribers a question. For example, advise what to watch or read, how to achieve something... Everyone loves to give advice, so the activity in the group increases.
- Reviews - people who bought the product (especially positive ones) are great for promoting:
- Subscription discount - two birds with one stone: we expand the subscriber base and encourage purchases:
- Showcase - to show the product face on the page, albums are organized with photos and descriptions of the promoted products. For example:
A photo network with a rapidly growing number of users. In terms of popularity in the world, it is second only to Facebook. According to statistics, users are most active in the morning (from 8 am to 9 am), in the evening (from 5 pm to 6 pm) and at night (up to 2 am). Nearly 80% percent of users are women, the largest group of people between the ages of 18 and 29. Instagram is characterized by high activity of participants who want to use the application once a day and more often.
Much attention is paid to photographs, not pages of text, so it is desirable to accompany all publications with colorful and high-quality visual materials. It makes sense to promote everything that is well visualized - clothing, accessories, food, real estate, cosmetics, everything made or improved by oneself.
Stages of work:
- We create a page. A company logo (or product photo) is required for the profile photo. We briefly describe the essence of the business, indicate contact information (website, contacts for communication).
- We attract a base of subscribers and offer them our products and services.
Basic tools for Instagram:
- Showcase - professional, attractive product photos are the best advertisement. Ideally, involve a photographer, use professional equipment, play with the filters that are in the service itself (the most effective filters for photo processing are Mayfair, Normal, Inkwell, Lo-fi, Valencia, Rise and Amaro). We show the kitchen from the inside, successful examples of work, employees in the process of making something. The task is to present the product in such a way that it was impossible to resist the purchase:
- Targeted advertising - promotion using the service itself. You will have to pay for attraction (about 30-50 rubles for one). Advantages: high probability of finding the right audience for numerous targeting options.
- Hashtags - free promotion of goods among those who are looking for something on these marks.
Finding people by hashtags is easy:
- Contests - both own and Giveaway (simultaneous subscription to all sponsors). The rapid growth of subscribers opens up a lot of opportunities for someone to promote products. The main thing is to have time to do this before they unsubscribe (which in 50% or more cases happens after the end of the competition). Example:
- Discounts for subscriptions (reposts):
The most popular resource in the world. It is considered more "age" compared to VKontakte and Instagram, although the largest group of subscribers is aged 25-34. A little behind in the number of categories 35-44 and 45-54 years. Women predominate (77%). Facebook is preferred by managers of various industries, IT specialists, and entrepreneurs. As a result, the promotion of the fashion industry, training, tourism, and the banking sector give excellent results.
We create a profile, and it is better to choose a business account. The avatar and cover are uploaded, a template is selected (available: Services, Company, Venues, Non-Profit Organization, Politicians, Restaurants and Cafes, Shopping or Standard). Filled in all fields (information, photo, video and others), give credibility and authority to the page.
Attracting the target audience:
We have given only the most common methods in the three most popular social networks. And, of course, business opportunities are not limited to them. Each network offers dozens of options for tools and deserves a separate material for detailed study. But the instruments are in many ways similar and, having understood general principle, you can successfully configure the work in other networks.
The cost of promoting goods
Directly depends on the amount of work. The choice of a social network, their number, frequency of publications plays a role. One price option will be obtained if the materials (with photos, facts, descriptions) are prepared by your company's employees, and the task of SMM experts is only to slightly edit them. And it will cost quite a different amount. full cycle: finding and compiling the right content, page promotion.
It also affects how communication with subscribers will be organized. To simplify the work (and reduce the cost), you can create bots that will answer standard questions. A more time-consuming process is an employee who writes the answers himself.
An important factor is the organization of competitions that work well to expand the base. But you will have to spend money on a prize, the value of which is 5 thousand rubles or more. For a less valuable gift, few are willing to participate.
At least, the cost of SMM per month is from 5 thousand rubles. This amount barely pays for the time spent on campaign planning, selection of tools and launch.
Common Mistakes
There are a lot of pitfalls in social networks. Without knowing about them, you can ruin even a successful business, spend more than the planned budget or time. Therefore, it is better to know the "enemies" by sight and bypass them. The main mistakes when promoting a product in social networks are presented below.
Expecting immediate results
Waiting for a return, even though the promotion is entrusted to external SMM specialists, is not earlier than in 2-3 months. Less is the exception to the rule. It will take time both to fill the group with materials and to attract subscribers. It can be compared with the beginning of the store, when advertising has already brought buyers, and the goods are in the process of being placed on the shelves. You don't have to wait for purchases.
To slow down the receipt of long-awaited results can:
- High cost or specificity of goods - for example, at a price above $ 1,000 or the sale of large agricultural equipment. In such cases, social networks should be one of the parts of a comprehensive marketing campaign, they can be a channel of communication with customers. Pre and post-sales consulting, reference Information, answers to questions are a definite plus for the brand image, a method of increasing audience loyalty.
- The existing negative image of the company - if consumers have already formed such an opinion, then they will have to try to correct the situation. Against the backdrop of general negativity, it will not work to be interested in new products. The way to solve the problem is to find the causes of problems, eliminate them, convince your customers of changes for the better.
Do it yourself
The issue of promoting goods, creating and maintaining a group, filling in content can and really wants to be done by yourself. It seems that everything is simple - the director of the company can easily drop a couple of lines on social networks himself. Or give a task to your employees by allocating five minutes of working time. This approach is a fairly common misconception of small companies that are limited in budget. And yet, the results of inept actions, errors in the use of tools can not only not bring sales growth, but also worsen the company's image.
A separate risk is that the employee who led the group becomes a valuable personnel who will have to be kept in the state by any means. Otherwise, he may take clients with him.
The services of professional SMM specialists will be completely covered by increased profits when a well-built strategy starts to work. And this is not worth saving beyond measure. With limited finances, it is better to start promoting on one site, and not on several at once.
To the start, let's go and ... stop
Quitting everything if there is no positive dynamics in sales for 2-3 months is an option that comes to mind for many in such a situation. However, it is better not to panic, analyze what has been done and the results, change the approach, the contractor, the network. Success will surely smile at the persistent. They really sell through social networks, you just need to find a working strategy. Throwing existing subscribers is a tangible damage to the image.
Golden Mountains
I want everything at once, and so the meeting promises of instant success are captivating. And the price of buying subscribers on exchanges is not so high. But it is worth thinking about what you need to get in the end. We need a high-quality audience, and for this you need to give interesting information, hold contests, and give prizes. So the group will grow and willingly distribute materials further, increasing the reach. Subscribers from the exchange will not become real customers.
One way communication
Organizing the promotion of goods in social networks, you should not expect that the page will be only something like an advertising broadcaster. Publications are important, but one of the main differences from a website is in the two-way communication. Questions, comments, criticism should not remain unanswered, and in a short time (up to several hours). You can find out about the response time from the information on the page itself (for example, on Facebook):
Analysis
Periodic monitoring of key indicators will help to understand how the goal is being achieved (see above about setting goals) and how efficiently the budget is spent. Moreover, intermediate cuts are needed, and not just the final one, when all the funds have already been spent, but there is no return. Analytics tools such as Google Analytics, Yandex. Metrics, Amplitude. With their help, you can track sales through social networks, registrations, subscriptions to newsletters - that is, any conversions. Curalate and Blitzmetrics analytics services will allow you to evaluate the results of notes with visual content.
Carbon copy
A simple repetition of the actions of competitors and colleagues in the shop does not guarantee an excellent result. Even if it worked for them with a bang. Author's content (instead of copying), own contests and promotions are more valued by both people and systems. The Prometheus algorithm alone with a huge audience coverage with unique materials is worth a lot.
Choosing an SMM agency
It was decided to entrust the promotion of goods to professional marketers. How to determine their level of professionalism and understand that they can handle the task. The issue is especially relevant for small companies that cannot afford the recognized leaders of the SMM market.
The main points to which we pay attention:
- It is good if the agency specializes only in social networks, and does not promote on any resources. Better narrowly focused employees than knowing a little bit of everything.
- Portfolio - samples of work, examples and results of previous projects will help to get an impression, to understand if you want something like this. It will not be superfluous to ask personal experience those employees who will work on your project.
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