VK Advertising Screen 6

What is VK? Vkontakte Review

In Social Media, Social Media Marketing, Social Networking by Mark GuertinLeave a Comment

What is VK? Vkontakte Review

Visit VK on the web at http://vk.com/

Know About the Second Biggest Social Network Service — VK

VK to Europe is what Facebook is to the rest of the world. It is a social network service very popular in Europe, particularly to Russian-speaking users from all over the globe.

VK or VKontake comes from the Russian phrase BKOHTAKTE that literally translates to “in contact”. The majority of its subscribers come from Azerbaijan, Belarus, Israel, Kazakhstan, Moldova, Russia and Ukraine. This is why VK is available in several languages.

How did the 2nd biggest social network service get started?

VK was founded by Pavel Durov and was launched in September 2006 for beta testing. A month later, the domain name vkontake.ru was registered. Initially, registration was limited to university circles and by invitation only, so it basically shares the same history as Facebook in terms of its original purpose.

Despite the limitations on user registration, the site grew and had a user base of more than 100,000 by February 2007.

Unfortunately…or maybe not, the site was briefly put offline following a DDoS attack the same month it gained more users. But even this brief respite didn’t deter users and 5 months after, VK had reached a user base of 1 million.

By December 2008, it ousted the then leading social networking service in Russia called Odnoklassniki, and as of January 2014, it has an estimated 239 million accounts, trailing behind Facebook.

What can you expect from VK?

The website can be mistaken for Facebook because of its color scheme and layout. It also shares the same services as most social networking sites from message contacts to browser-based games.

Of course, its functionality is based on the premise of staying in contact with friends through private messaging and sharing of photos, links and status updates.

One thing you will quickly notice with VK is that the platform is incredibly smooth running and very quick in responsiveness. You won’t find any dreaded lag here and all of the features work amazing precision. The code behind this platform is simply top notch in every respect.

Vkontakte Personal Profile

Vkontakte Personal Profile

VK Full featured personal profile and streaming wall

 

Vkontakte Community Group

Vkontakte Community Group

Create your own vibrant community at VK

Messaging

Private messages in VK can be exchanged between 2 people or within a group of 30 individuals. Aside from user IDs, email addresses can also be used to specify recipients, making it easier to send messages and create groups. If photos, audio files, videos, documents and maps need to be attached, the sender can add up to 10 attachments.

Like Buttons

This is where VKs functionality differs from that of Facebook. When someone likes a post, comment, media or link, the content will not automatically gets pushed on the user’s wall but is first saved in the Favorites section, keeping it private until the user decides to make it public. This can be done by clicking on the “share with friends” button.

News Feeds

  • Posts can contain up to 10 attachments. But if there are multiple photos attached, what will be seen on the preview is a scaled down version of all images that are automatically arranged in a magazine-style layout.
  • Users are allowed to search for posts and comments from someone’s wall, individually or on global real-time.
  • News feeds support hashtags and user mentions.
  • Switch between modes of “all news” (default) and “most interesting” is available.
  • Inclusion of a news-recommendation engine.

Communities

VK has two types of communities — Groups and Public pages. The former is best used for discussion boards, wiki-style articles or other decentralised communities, all of which can be edited by the members.

The latter, on the other hand, is intended for celebrities and businesses as it functions as a news feed oriented broadcasting tool.

Privacy

Like most social networking sites, VK also enables users to determine which content can be made available on the Internet or within the network. Pages and individual content are protected by blanket and granular privacy settings.

As the 2nd biggest social networking site, VK has seen its share of ups and downs. It was blacklisted in May 24, 2013 by the Russian government, which critics claim to be another attempt to take control of the site.

It also received complaint from Medusa Film, accusing the site of hosting one of its movies. Still, it remains steadfast and is, in fact, used by popular bands and musicians to promote their music. The list includes Tiesto, Shakira, Paul Van Dyk and Noize MC.

Advertising

VK serves up very enticing advertising capabilities. These are also enhanced by being coupled to very advanced and extensive analytics tools and features. The cost is actually very good and we have been very pleased with the results and ROI on our advertising campaigns at VK.

VK Advertising Screen 3

VK Advertising Screen 3

Full demographics report on VK advertising

 

VK Advertising Screen 6

VK Advertising Screen 6

Good USA ad distribution statistics on VK

 

VK Advertising Screen 7

VK Advertising Screen 7

395K impressions for a little over $50 spent wow!

You are invited to visit our company business page at http://vk.com/impactsocialmedia You are also more than welcome to go and take a look at our VK community which has over 1k members at http://vk.com/club63546836

If you have any questions or comments about VK or if you would like to share with us about you profile or community group you are encouraged to make a new comment down below. We are HUGE fans of VK and would be happy to discuss it at any time.

Video: What is VKontakte?

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