I was first in Russia three years ago. My social media teams in St. Petersburg and Moscow were training for the first time and yet already had experience. Vkontakte was hot on the scene and Facebook was not in the market in any significant way.
I have just returned from a fresh round of black belt training for our teams from Kiev, Ukraine; Moscow and St. Petersburg, Russia. Social media has taken firmer hold in the population - especially in the urban centers where you would expect. Facebook has grown to about 4.5M users but is still dwarfed by Vkontakte at almost 65m. Our teams are doing some terrific work for brands in those markets. One of our 360 Digital Influence leaders from Kiev - Irina Manukovskaya - put together a brief snapshot of the state of social media. I added a few things that I noticed. You can see it here and download.
Here's a preview:
"Vkontakte is purely Russian. What started as an unabashed ‘hijack’ of Facebook’s dna has turned into a service that uniquely meets the user needs of most Russians. It’s a source of some national pride. But “global Russians” prefer Facebook – where they can connect with like-minded people around the world. But now that Vkontakte is vk.com, they may have global plans…"
Comments