Russian social media - the most important trends in 2016

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This article discusses seven trends affecting the use of social media in Russia. Useful information that helps to figure out what, where and how to advertise.

Locality

Despite some annual changes in the status of the Russian social media market, the two main leading Russian social networks (VKontakte and Ondoklassniki) retain their positions as the most popular, and most analysts see no reason to change this trend in 2016.

The audience of social networks in Russia (million. Visitors per month)

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According to the study of the audience, the monthly target audience of vKontakte is 46.6 million people (data from November 2015), and the network Odnoklassniki maintains second place with 31.5 million monthly audience.

All major global social networks, including Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Google + and LinkedIn, retain their position as the second level of popularity among Russians. The monthly Facebook audience in December 2015 was 21.7 million people, the audience in My World was 16.6 million and LiveJournal had an audience of 15.2 million.

By December 2015, Instagram had increased its audience by 2 million users and reached an audience reach of 12.3 million people. Twitter audience remained almost unchanged at the level of 7.7 million users.

Growth

Analysts believe that in the next 2-3 years there is a limited potential for a large growth of social networks, since they have already reached their natural limit and cover the most extensive part of the available audience.

However, experts predict the growth of the audience of social networks, which occupy the second place in popularity (listed above). Instagram, for example, is currently the fastest growing social network in Russia. Facebook is also becoming increasingly popular, and is expanding, primarily, as a source of business contacts and a platform for business relationships. In Russian social networks, more than 30% of all messages related to business were posted on Facebook.

Analysts also note an increase in customer ratings in networks — both in a number of new reviews and the number of visitors, and a significant increase in video content consumption.

User age and regional distribution

Experts believe that people in large cities are already largely covered by social networks, but growth potential still exists in other regions of Russia, as well as in older age groups of users.

Most Russian users of social networks are women using Instagram (77.1% of the active audience) and Odnoklassniki (69.1%). But LiveJournal and Twitter are currently more popular with men.

Mobile technology

The largest trend in Russian social media is the use of mobile technology. People are less likely to enter social networks from stationary computers and more and more to mobile devices. Social networks, which are primarily created for use with mobile devices, Instagram and Periscope, have much greater potential for growth compared to other networks.

In September 2015, mobile traffic accounted for 58% of the total volume of Internet traffic in Russia, and these figures are constantly growing.

Multifunctional

Another important trend in Russian social media is multifunctionality. People appreciate the ability to use social networks in a number of different ways, for example: writing long posts and even articles on Instagram, creating VK's built-in chat rooms and using it as a platform for sharing information and files.

People also tend to use more than one social network - the proportion of messages that are simultaneously posted on Instagram and other social networks exceeds 50%.

Commerce

The last one in our list (but not least) is the distinctive characteristic of social networks, which is not very pleasant for ordinary users, but extremely useful for all those who use social networks for business: social networks do their best to attract commercial advertising. Any social network, including popular Russian networks, offers carefully designed targeting options, ranging from social to demographic and behavioral factors.

Only 27% of Russian Internet users often visit online stores, while 91% use social networks daily. As a result, more and more of the marketing budget is given to social media. Several years ago, banks and commercial companies registered accounts in social networks to simply test the ground, and now many of them have already hired experts who are responsible for this segment. In addition, many small business owners decided to create a page or group on the social network instead of creating a website - there they present their products, negotiate and sell.

Based on the statistics and analyzing its data, it can be said with confidence that at the moment using and being in social networks for companies is no longer a luxury, but a prerequisite for survival and successful business.

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