Your own group in Odnoklassniki is needed not only “to be”, but also for doing business, promoting your own brand or website, and for other purposes. In order for it to give a tangible result, and not just “gather dust on the shelf”, it must first be created and filled with interesting content, and then promoted. Today we’ll talk about how to promote a group in Odnoklassniki from beginning to end. We hope you find these tips helpful.
The benefits of creating a group on Ok.ru
Bill Gates, one of the best modern gurus, once said that if a person is not on the Internet, then he does not exist. Paraphrasing his phrase, we can express the following idea: if a company is not in Odnoklassniki, it deprives itself of a significant audience. There are several reasons:
- it is in this social network that people from all over Russia "sit";
- herfunctionality is not inferior to Facebook and VKontakte;
- Skillful developers are much easier to stand out from the background of short-sighted colleagues.
The only “but” is that Odnoklassniki has far fewer manipulative tools due to the low popularity of the site among marketers. However, this does not prevent community developers from making good money, including through affiliate programs and selling their own products.
Step 1. Create a group
Before promoting a group in Odnoklassniki, it must be created. To do this, you need to go from your profile to the "Groups" page. Here you can see what other people are writing about. The most popular topics are entertainment, hobbies, useful tips, anecdotes, philosophy, and so on.
On the same page, on the left, there is a noticeable button "Create a group or event", it is circled with an orange dotted line. You need to click on it. A long list of group types will open from which you need to choose yours. It could be:
- public page - suitable for creating news on one specific topic;
- business page - ideal for promoting a company or organization;
- event - the group is designed to gather people united by one goal (for example, go to a museum or cinema, attend a webinar);
- message board - this group is needed to publish news about the sale or purchase of any product or its exchange with other people;
- shop - required forsale of goods via the Internet;
- interest group or only for your friends.
After choosing, you will need to fill out a questionnaire, indicating the name of your group, its description, subcategory, age restrictions and, if necessary, contact information. Next is to upload the community cover. It should be clear, beautiful and interesting.
Step 2. Design a group
Also, before promoting a group in Odnoklassniki, you should arrange it. The first step is to choose a background for your community. To do this, click on the colored circle located on the page on the right. It's quite small, so don't miss it. Choose a cover that is more or less thematic. Agree, it will be rather strange to see a background in the form of flowers in a group about cars, and vice versa.
You can upload your own cover for a group in Odnoklassniki when the number of group members exceeds 10,000 people. In this case, three photos are required - the main one (approximately 1340 by 320 pixels), for the background (320 by 320 pixels), for the cover of the catalog (approximately 240 by 90). To do everything right, you should pay attention to the tips offered by the system. After uploading, the photo will be sent for moderation, and if everything is fine, it will appear in the group.
Step 3. Make settings
The next step to take before promoting a group in Odnoklassniki isset publicity settings. To do this, you need to go to their page from the group menu. Please note that all parameters are divided into several categories:
- Basic - here you can change the information that you wrote when creating the group (for example, rename it or give a more complete description).
- Management - here you can specify who can leave comments on posts, post links in them, write new posts and upload photos. It is also possible to customize the content of the top block.
- Administration - in principle, nothing needs to be changed on this page. The only thing worth doing is to appoint a user as a moderator to filter out obscene and unnecessary messages.
- Applications - here you can select those that you want to see on your group page. These can be tests, polls, questionnaires, mailing lists, applications from users, various forecasts, ticket bookings, and so on. You can also invite social network developers to host your own application.
- Money transfers - this item should be enabled only if your users transfer money to you for any service or product. Good functionality for people doing joint purchases.
- Affiliate program - works only if the number of your subscribers is over 10 thousand people. Good source of income.
- Pen alty points - if there are too many, your group may be removed.
Which of these parameters you need is up to you. Forfor regular groups, it is always enough to configure only the first 4 points.
Step 4. Write some interesting posts
Another step to take before promoting a group in Odnoklassniki on your own is to write some really useful and interesting posts. It can be any tips, guides, instructions, practical cases, product comparisons or anything else. Promotional messages should be published with great care and less often, many users simply skip them.
If you use a group to post announcements, alternate them with content created specifically for the social network. At the same time, try to post one post from about 13 to 16 pm, and the other from 17 to 19. According to Bit.ly, this is the time when the network is most crowded.
Step 5. Add hashtags
Hashtags should be used to draw attention to written articles. It is desirable that they consist of one or, at most, two words. To add, you need to find the phrase “Add keywords” below the photo, enter them and click on the “Finish” button. Users will be able to quickly find your post using these hashtags.
Step 6. Invite Friends
After 5-10 posts are written, you can start inviting friends to the group (up to 30 people per day). You can do this from the menu on the left. The button is called “Invite Friends”. Moreone way is to go to the "Participants" page and click on the button with the appropriate name. You can also ask any person to join the group by writing in the "Comments" to his entries. You should not use private messages for this, as the system may take such requests for spam.
Step 7. Add people using third party services
One of the most affordable ways to promote a group in Odnoklassniki on your own is to use the help of various services. For example, vktarget allows you to first earn some money, and then use it to buy subscribers. In this case, you can specify both the type of account, and its age, the number of friends. Of course, you can’t hope for a quick promotion here, but it’s free. However, you can put 100 rubles into your account. This is enough to buy a hundred "living people".
Step 8. Invite followers from other groups
Another way to promote a group in Odnoklassniki on your own is to contact the owners of other non-competitive thematic communities and agree on mutual PR with them. If you still have few subscribers, they, of course, are unlikely to agree to this. In this case, you will have to buy several publications. Moreover, it is desirable to do this with already promoted and well-visited groups.
To view the statistics of someone else's community, you should go to Popsters, log in through the desired social network and enter the address of the group you want to scan. The system will download the results and issue reports on the time of writing and publishing posts,text volume, relative activity per day or per week. The only "but" - the service is paid. You can see the prices on the "Tariffs" page.
If you wondered how to promote your group in Odnoklassniki for free, try also leaving a link to it on the pages of other communities in the "Comments". Just do it carefully. Your message should in no way look like an advertisement. For example, you can write “Totally agree with the opinion of the author of this post. I just want to add that…” and after a short comment write the following: “Here I wrote about it.” Then leave a link to your post. There is no certainty that such a message will live for a long time, but perhaps someone will have time to click on it.
Step 9. Advertise
The next way to promote a group in Odnoklassniki yourself is to advertise. This method is paid, but it is effective. You can place ads on the Mail site, in Google Adwords and Yandex. Direct, on third-party resources. The cheapest way is the first one. To use it, you need to go down to the very bottom of the page of the social network and find the line “Advertising” there. It is located just under the link to the "Mobile version". By clicking on it, you will be taken to the Mail pages, where you can choose the best advertising option for yourself in terms of format and price, and then submit an application.
Step 10. Place links to the group wherever possible
People who have already had to develop their subscriber base for a social network give the following advice on how to promote a group in Odnoklassniki on their own for free: leave links to your community on any thematic forums, in email signatures, in statuses posted on the main page of your account, in publications on the site. You can also do this on business cards, mugs, other souvenirs or printed products intended for sale.
Step 11. Place information on the site
You can resort to this method of how to quickly promote a group in Odnoklassniki for free if you have a well-promoted website or blog. As a rule, you can post information about a group in the form of a widget or a post. In the first case, you need to go to the "Developers" page, the link to it is located just below the link to "Advertising". Here you should select "OK for sites" and after the transition mark those applications that you want to see on your own resource. In our case, this is the “group widget”. It remains only to act according to the instructions given by the developers of the social network.
Also on the site you can make a separate page about your community. But you should write on it not about how to promote a group in Odnoklassniki from scratch, but about its presence and all the benefits of joining. The latter may include opportunities:
- publish exclusive content;
- participation in any competition;
- participation in interestingdiscussions;
- consultations with the company's specialists;
- something else.
It's worth trying to come up with something that others don't have. If successful, the number of visitors will increase a hundredfold.
Step 12. Settle in the troll's group
An interesting way to promote your group in Odnoklassniki is to place a real “troll” in it that can make the audience act. If real users cannot be used as it yet, you can create a provocateur account for yourself and “settle” it in your community. You should act carefully: users should not even doubt that the page belongs to a real person, and not a fake one.
To install a photo in this case, you should select pictures that are not in the search. To do this, you can either go to English-language sites and pick up images, or colorize some of your old black and white photos and upload it to your profile. There should be several such drawings.
Then you should add some real people as friends, join various communities and publish posts on any topic. After that, start chatting in your own group. Remember: the troll is supposed to stimulate communication, but has no right to offend the participants in any way and create an uncomfortable environment for them.
Step 13. Track post performance
For developers who already know how to promote their group in Odnoklassniki, the creators of the social networkcame up with the service "Statistics". The link to it is in the top menu, under the word "More" (click on it). Here you can see the number of participants, user engagement and other interesting information. Try to use this information!
As a conclusion
There is no secret technique to promote a group in Odnoklassniki. The step-by-step instructions presented on this page are very simple. It will help you go from a novice developer to the owner of a large social network community. Just follow it to get real results. Good luck!
