Fundraising in social networks «Characteristics of Russian social networks»

The three most popular social networks in today are ‘VKontakte’ (In touch) (52.7 million users), ‘Odnoklassniki’ (Classmates) (42.6 million users) and ‘’ (25.4 million users), and over ten actively growing, such as ‘Moi Mir’, ‘’, ‘’, ‘Live Journal’ and others. There are also a few social networking projects aimed at a smaller audience. A few examples are ‘Doktor na rabote’ for doctors and ‘Elitsy’ for Orthodox believers. In addition, the features of social networks (creating a personal space, sending personal messages, geolocation, joining groups) are gradually being adopted by a wide range of sites, from Youtube and its look-alikes, to communication hubs for developers (such as Habrahabr and Roem), to simple hangouts like Dirty (D3.ru) and others.

We will mainly talk about the three most popular social networks.

Image 2: Social networks give organisations the opportunity to reach a much larger audience than would be possible by having a single website The main functions of Odnoklassniki, VKontakte and Facebook are very similar to each other, and differ in a small number of secondary services, algorithms and design. Every site gives the user his/her own space after completing the free registration. After registering, the user has access to the following functions:

• Inclusion in a communication system between users, access to their pages, information about their activities (someone who isn’t registered on the will at most be able to read omeone else’s content but will not be able to comment on it.)

• ability to send private messages to users that no one else can view except the sender and recipient

• Ability to write social network posts in the space provided, and fill out various personal details, upload photos, videos and sound files

• Ability to leave comments on other users’ activities (exactly the same options and abilities apply as on your own space - you can upload videos, pictures etc., with a few minor restrictions) in your space. You can upload videos, images etc., subject to certain minor restrictions).

• The ability to search for users by specific attributes (school, company, interests) or their connections with other users (‘friends-of-friends’).

• Access to various paid platforms for promotion and , as well as to browse games, apps and other services.

The main connection between users is what’s normally called the ‘feed’: the space where the activity of users and groups on your list of ‘friends’ appears. The principles governing what appears in your feed differ from network to network and can be customised: Odnoklassniki shows absolutely all the activity of your ‘friends’ (their reactions to other people’s photographs, ‘friendships’ they form, games they play or win, etc.); VKontakte shows only text, pictures, videos and audio which users want to make visible; and the Facebook feed is governed by a rather unpredictable algorithm which changes regularly.

It is possible to choose precisely which users will see your posts and activity, and to choose what exactly you wish to see. Besides the overarching division into ‘friends’ and everyone else, each network allows you to divide your ‘friends’ between smaller lists with different permissions.

Unwelcome users can be excluded entirely from your online space (blocked or blacklisted). Then you and the user will simply no longer see each other’s activity.

Each network also provides various options for changing the look of your space, as well as limited use of the site’s functionality. VKontakte lets groups use wikitext, making design quite flexible and allowing for the creation of internal webpages which can be continually updated with important information. Facebook also allows you to change the look of your page using a cover photo, as well as embed some of the functionality of other websites within your profile with the help of apps. Odnoklassniki as yet provides only a limited range of design themes.

There is also a range of functions which differ from network to network – you can’t upload audio files on Facebook; Odnoklassniki doesn’t let you search videos but VKontakte does; even providing customisable search options. But all these differences fade into relative insignificance in comparison with the most important point: the variation in audience and communicative traditions of the ‘Big Three’ Russian social networks.

This difference between these social networks is determined largely by their histories. Odnoklassniki emerged first, specifically as a means of connecting with previous acquaintances from a common place of study, with Russian schools serving as the foundation. This allowed the adoption of Odnoklassniki as a means of social reconnection, and allowed it to gain a fairly significant audience. The need for social networks increased dramatically following the tumultuous events of the end of the 20th and beginning of the 21st centuries which scattered people significantly. However, the social networks interfaces of the time were gaudy and excessive, making them unpleasant for modern users accustomed to the precision and minimalism of mobile applications.

The presentation of the “feed”, clogged with assessments of other people’s photos and empty messages that someone has friended or unfriended someone, has notably lead to Odnoklassniki becoming a place of communication for an audience that is less educated and more provincial. This became especially noticeable with the creation of regional network segments — Ukrainian, Uzbek, etc. According to the research of the Mail.ru Group, more than half the audience of Odnoklassniki lives in small cities with populations fewer than 100,000 people. As a result, on Odnoklassniki people generally do not write long posts, and shapers of opinion are absent. Odnoklassniki is just a way to communicate, emotionally and almost nonverbally, with a group of people who appear to be close to a person. This is why many aspects are visual — gifts, different kinds of stickers on photos, evaluations in numerical form, etc. Why use words when you can give flowers, even if they are only drawn?

That being said, do not think that Odnoklassniki is a special gathering place of “simpler people”. Rather, this is a gathering place of those with no desire for passionate movements, political fights, or demonstrative behaviour, or those who are simply conservative by nature: a person registered there in 2002 and nothing changed after that, because there was no need. Inhabitants of this social network value emotional intimacy and human connections. This is why dating services are so effective on Odnoklassniki. Even political communities are comprised of pictures and videos rather than figures and analytics.

VKontakte, from the beginning, positioned itself as a network for communication between students, who provided its primary audience — urban youth and even schoolchildren.

At the same time that Odnoklassniki was attempting to expand by developing online games and emoticons, VKontakte rolled out communication and navigation services - search, groups, interest pages. On VKontakte’s network, even a simple list of comments can be seen in a variety of ways, and the interface is deliberately minimalist, so that no one can find fault with it. In contrast to Odnoklassniki, what was most valuable here was words: proving your point, making arguments, but also campaigning and drumming up support. However, the quantity of people and general traditions of , reminiscent of “gathering the gang in the stairwell”, led to the existence of a constant state of overexcitement. If in Odnoklassniki they preferred non-verbal signals, then the network of VKontakte was drowning in endless words. Odnoklassniki was created more for private interactions, while people strolled through VKontakte to see others and show themselves to the world. The sharpest arguments and the largest groups were seen here, and it was on precisely this network that practically everyone who was prosecuted for their internet posts wrote. VKontakte was an expanse of manifestos and sage aphorisms, groups based on interests and passions.

Facebook differed from the existing networks of the region in an important way, strongly changing the social traditions there - from the beginning, it was not a Russian product, and the Russian- speaking segment of Facebook was relatively small in comparison with the English-speaking or even Arabic-speaking ones. Facebook in Russia became a haven for the westernized portions of the population. From the beginning, those who were registered there valued connections abroad and the opportunity to be closer to the western world. This led to, if not a higher intellectual level, a higher level of education and higher salaries among users of this social network in Russia. Users of Russian Facebook are very often residents of large cities, and most (although not all) are residents of the two capital cities, while in the provinces, very few people use this network at all.

A peculiarity of the Facebook algorithm is that the user does not see all the activities of friends in order, but rather a machine-generated selection of activities that updates when the page is refreshed. The selection of activities depends on the user’s previous activities, on settings, on the network administration’s advertising ideas, etc. This leads to any refresh of the newsfeed page changing its content and rendering information in a manner that is not strictly chronological. As a result, the user is forced to turn to Facebook more and more often and, in fact, not break away from it at all.

The communication conventions in this network are distinguished by the grouping of people around opinion leaders — politicians, journalists, writers, public figures. Each of their words spreads via hundreds and thousands of reposts, creating «waves» of discussions and reactions. The concentration around leaders divides the world of Facebook, more or less, into numerous factions within which it is difficult to tolerate dissent and, in general, any difference.

Opinion leader A wrote a status. This status, with its comments, was spread in two directions («for» and «against») by lesser leaders. Followers responded in the comments. And on each side there was a significant preponderance of followers of one point of view, although there were objectors. As a result, the followers «for» and the followers «against» alike received a feeling of their own plurality and, in general, victory. Facebook is an ideal tool for feeling right and seeking support from others, for the most part those with whom you are personally unacquainted. If Odnoklassniki helps to form a group of personal contacts, then Facebook helps to form a party of like-minded people, almost a sect, which speaks one language.

This text is an extract of a publication. The original document in Russian is available here. Source: Berkhin (V.), Salavatova (I.), «Osobennosti rossijskih social’noj setej», Sbor sredstv v social’nykh setijax, CRNO, Sankt-Peterburg, 2015

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Translation: Russian in translation.

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