What is VK?
Put very simply, VK is a much larger and more efficient version of Facebook. If the more efficient comment made you quizzically raise your eyebrows, we’ll explain later. What VK seems to have managed to do, is capture an entire nation entirely – with almost exclusive Russian use and over 100 million users this is very obvious. But that doesn’t mean that it isn’t available to everyone – in fact, you can log in using your existing Facebook details or simply entering in an email address and password.
Ahead of the Curve
Two words: Search Function. VK’s search function is something that could happily rival Google. Unlike Facebook’s ability to search within its own Network, VK can pull up information from anywhere – including ‘adult content’ and the latest movies, pirated of course.
And it doesn’t stop there. The search function allows you to find absolutely anyone by entering in a near-stalkerish level of information. You can find friends based on information such as:
- Where they live
- What School/ Uni they went to
- Age range (from 14 up to 80)
- Gender
- Relationship status (you can specifically find single people)
- Personal information like religious & political views – even whether they smoke or drink!
- What company they work for
- Even if they served in the military!
It is this search function-ability that allows Russians (and others) to use VK as a complete dating service, rendering sites like Match and eHarmony useless thanks to its much larger number of users. Unlike Facebook, there are much fewer privacy options which makes hooking up very easy.
Using it For Business
Just because many of VKs users are treating it like a dating site and finding pirated movies doesn’t mean that it can’t be used for business. In fact, many global brands like Coca-Cola and Samsung actively use it in their marketing plans which can be easily tracked through the platforms analytics – Socialbakers. These brand pages are called communities and it is possible to set up official brand communities just like on Twitter or Facebook.
If you’re struggling to reach Russia and Europe then VK could be just what you need to give you that extra push. With over 50 million active users every day you can definitely harness some of this power to influence your marketing campaign and tap into new areas. It is important to consider the language you’re engaging with the audience with as well as local cultures and sense of humour – British humour for example is widely misunderstood beyond the British Isles.
Looking for more tips and hints on how to best utilise VK? Get in touch with us at Liberty today and we can help you come up with a brilliant social strategy.
