Krystal Social Media Guest Post

“Hello! My name is Krystal Douglas and senior at Georgia State University. I am the President of a blogging organization on campus called “HerCampusGSU”. When I heard about this project and was asked to write a guest post I was excited to give my opinion on Social Media trends and how marketers utilize them because I want to get into PR/Journalism when I graduate! I do not have a VK account but the VK vs Facebook post Daniel wrote interested me because I do think that Facebook is expanding too far. Facebook started on one college campus and ended up being influential all around the world. Marketing wise they are reaching a lot of people so I can see why so many marketers advertise through Facebook. But who exactly is being targeted? With such a large audience how can marketers target a specific group of “consumers”? Facebook is a great social media channel but it is beginning to get diluted and unexciting. On top of all that, the user experience is affected by a flood of advertisements. Reading this blog I learned that VK is a social media website that is for the most part is domestic to Russia and doesn’t have many outside users. I believe that Facebook should be more like VK. I don’t think Facebook ever should have expanded past North America. They were so focused on becoming a world power that they weren’t focused on their principal users in The United States. Now other social media channels like Instagram and Snapchat are taking over and people aren’t as focused on Facebook. This is especially effecting my young generation that is growing more and more uninterested in Facebook. Facebook’s constant changes and imitations seems to be a last ditch effort to draw that younger crowd back in. In that aspect Facebook developers failed in a big way because as I said earlier in my post, college students were their original users. Attached is a link to my blog Flow-Rise, check it out! My goal is to uplift young adults through lifestyle blogging.” http://www.flow-rise.com

VK and Gartner

Gartner’s Hype Cycle is a graphical representation of technology’s life cycle. It is important for us to understand that nothing stays the same forever, especially for social media channels. Gartner explains these changes through five phases known as: Technology Trigger, Peak of Inflated Expectations, Trough of Disillusionment, Slope of Enlightenment, and Plateau of Productivity. Every piece of technology will find themselves somewhere on this chart during it’s life span. So the question is, where does VK fall on this Hype Cycle? After all the research I’ve done, VK definitely lines up with Gartner’s theory. I believe that as of 2016 VK is in stage four on the chart. Their Technology Trigger occurred when VK first launched and went through its first few years of growth. There was a lot of hype surrounding VK and Russians quickly flocked to the Social Channel. It was never meant to be a social media outlet that spread around the world but never the less it did begin to gain influence in all of Eastern Europe. It got so popular that even Facebook was being ignored in the region. That in itself is a huge accomplishment and the success lead to VK being the most popular Social Media outlet in Russia.

After their initial success things started to change a little bit. VK offers both music and video uploads to their site but developers refused to adhere to copyright laws that restricted this type of activity in the country. This lead to VK running into lawsuits that made users start to question the platform. That was their Peak of Inflated Expectations.

Despite all of that VK never stopped being Russia’s most used outlet, but that doesn’t mean other platforms such as Facebook and Instagram didn’t start to gain ground in the region. VK’s lack of willingness to upgrade their design and infrastructure lead to the Trough of Disillusionment while Facebook continue to gain popularity. Then we start to get into present day trends. As you see in the [graph below] VK is still the most influential social media channel in Russia, and just a few years back Facebook was still in the same position it is in now. That means Russian users are remaining loyal to the social media outlet that gives them the chance to connect with their own people effectively because their users keep increasing exponentially while Facebook and Instagram’s growth is becoming more and more stagnant. That is why due to the research and evidence I believe that VK is currently in Stage Four of Gartner’s Hype Cycle: Slope of Enlightenment.

The VK Look

If I had to think of a few words to describe VK’s user interface and Information Architecture I would have to say it is [extensive and simple]. When researching further into this topic I found some interesting facts about VK that really resonated with me. On first glance VK looks like a fraternal twin to Facebook back in it’s early stages. Now there are a lot more differences because Facebook commonly changes it UI and IA to keep up with other popular social media channels such as Instagram, Twitter, and Snapchat. VK’s developers pride themselves on the fact that their UI and IA is nearly the same as it always has been. Their immediate audience is happy with the way the infrastructure of the website is set up. They don’t have to worry about innovating all the time because their users aren’t widespread throughout the world so there is no need for constant accommodations.

A huge testament to their website is all the features that users are able to capitalize on. Sharing posts, sharing videos, uploading news, creating communities, uploading music, and even privacy settings that allow certain posts to be shared within the app but blocked off from the internet. All these features are easily accessible as you can see in the [photo displayed below]. There site is to the point but at the same time it still draws the user in. Information wise, VK is among the best social media channels in the world. That may seem like a statement slightly to bold to say but look at the evidence. The users praise how personable the site is and how it is so easy to connect with others. Their search algorithm makes it so easy to find exactly who you’re looking for. On social media sites that I commonly use, I find it very hard sometimes to find certain individuals also using the channel. This is because most social networks are moving away from gathering a lot of personal information from their users and focusing more on visual posts and simple content. VK on the other hand is the complete opposite. A user stated that when she joined she was asked at least 50 questions about herself so that they could gather a extensive profile. She stated that it was beneficial because a lot of the times she can find certain users she wants to connect with without even having to use their name. This is an idea that is unheard of with most social media outlets that we commonly use on a daily basis.

Russia’s Very Own

Every social media channel has a specific audience. A type of person that utilizes a channels features in effective way. It is important for marketers to truly understand their audience so they know how to optimize their product throughout the course of time. Just as your audience grows and changes so should the social media channel. Adaptation is one of the best ways to make sure your social media channel remains competitive in a world where there is always another option. What makes a user stay loyal to a specific channel such as VK? VK does just enough but not too much. Their users feel comfortable using the platform.

Derek Petrov, a 26 year old Russian male. He was born and raised in Moscow and lives there to this day. He is a Sales Representative who lives in a two room apartment and rides his bike to work every day. Derek has been single now for 3 years and is actively looking for a partner. His parents got divorced when he was the age of seven and he never had a real relationship with his father. He is currently enrolled at a university trying to get a degree in Computer Information Systems. Derek started using VK after one of his co-workers showed him a funny video streaming on the channel. Derek created an account and commonly used it at work to send video throughout the day to his colleagues at the office. He never really tried to utilize all the resources that VK had. One day at a coffee shop he met a woman around his and they spoke for about seven minutes. As she was leaving she made sure to tell him to follow her on VK later. Before following her he began to update his profile information and features then added her. One week later they were instant messaging through this channel every day. Though VK does not flood its users with advertisements, a Groupon for a bowling discount popped up which did a good job with sending. He saw this as a great opportunity to ask her out on a date.

VK vs. Periscope

VK is a very dynamic social media platform. Not only does it have characteristics of Facebook but also Periscope. Periscope is live video sharing social media platform where you can create and share videos with others. VK is known for its video sharing features and tends to be more of their most used tools. There are a few major differences between the two platforms which will prove to be a testament to why VK is so popular in its region. Periscope is broader and viewers could see posts from all over. One day my boss who is over 40 years old told me that he was scrolling on Periscope and saw my Georgia Greek Step Show being featured. At the time I was very confused because I had no idea what Periscope was and more importantly how he was able to view it. Periscope is more focused on reaching the largest amount of people possible. On the other hand, “VK is largely focused on sharing audio and video files between friends”. They thrive off having a more intimate and personal approach to streaming. They want individuals to actually feel connected with their posts. A lot of Individuals on VK actually use the platform to form real life friendships and relationships with others, similar to a dating site. While social media sites that are popular in North America don’t have that intimate appeal. This is really a comparison between Personal vs. Impersonal. VK doesn’t allow you to block other users largely because it is not as necessary to do so. A Russian site for Russian people. Vk’s user friendly interface attracts younger users. A large majority of their VK’s users are under the age of thirty which is a very unique trend for a social media site. A lot of individuals are also attracted to their lacks Piracy policies which allows them to view illegal content unlike Periscope. Marketing wise their reach is far less than periscope because they are more focused on user experience.

Russia’s Best Kept Secret

Vk or Vkontakte is a Russian social media site that is making a significant impact in its region. It happens to be the most popular and most used site in all of Russia receiving over 50.2 million visits every month. It is hard to image that a social media site that is more than likely completely unknown to most of the United States could have grown to this level. This is largely due to the fact that we are so wrapped up in the Facebook cloud that we didn’t think to look elsewhere for a place to interact with our peers. Well individuals in Russia just so happen to have the same exact mindset! By no means am I trying to say that VK is a better social media platform than Facebook, but relative to the Eastern European region the comparison is warranted. Facebook has put a lot of effort into trying to penetrate the market in Russia but it just hasn’t seemed to work. So the question is, why has Facebook gained so much success almost everywhere in the world other than Russia? I believe Russian users appreciate the concentrated consumer base. Everyone uses Facebook and Russians use VK. VK appeals to their wants and caters specifically to them. Even as an American I can admit that the overall broadness of Facebook takes away from the desired in-depth experience. When you sign up for VK you get the chance to create a profile with information that goes deeper than just the typical “school you attend” or “birth date”. They include things such as career aspirations and goals. Their search engines are also known to be far superior to Facebooks as well which helps users connect with likeminded individuals more effectively. From a marketing stand point VK does not generate nearly as much revenue as Facebook but that may not be a bad thing. “VK offers advertisers targeted advertising to a large audience in its domestic market which it knows well”. VK is known for not having an overwhelming amount of advertising unlike Facebook because they only allow marketers that specifically cater to Russian consumes utilize their platform. This is why VK has been able to effectively ward off Facebook’s influence and remain Russia’s best kept secret.

Check out this video made by a VK user in Russia! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cJ4j-7oXHRU#action=share