Social networks in Belarus continue to gain popularity, but the rules of the game are constantly changing. Sergei Kuzmenko, a specialist in digital strategies, growth hacking and startup development, author of popular articles and guides on SMM, spoke on the YouTube channel of the hosting provider HostFly.by about how to build an effective marketing strategy in conditions of high competition for user attention.
According to the expert, YouTube has become the most popular social platform in Belarus, covering about 90% of the country’s entire Internet audience. In second place is the actively growing TikTok with an audience of approximately 6.5 million people. Instagram closes the top three with 3.5-3.7 million engaged users, especially among the female audience. The top 5 also includes VKontakte and Odnoklassniki. In total, according to the expert, about 50 social networks and media resources are available in Belarus, including niche platforms like Facebook, Pikabu and others.
As Sergey Kuzmenko notes, chasing subscribers on fashion platforms is a road to nowhere.
“Classic SMM in the style of “Let’s start a channel/group, put content there, transfer people, and then they will buy something” – it’s impossible to come up with anything more crazy in 2024,” says the expert.
According to him, audience engagement on social networks is steadily declining amid crazy competition for user attention. If 15 years ago the reach of posts was measured in tens of percent, now the average engagement on Instagram and Facebook does not exceed 0.03%. Even such market leaders as Telegram channels are losing audience: many subscribers accumulate hundreds and thousands of unread messages.
In these conditions, it is vital for businesses to reconsider their approaches to marketing. “Now everyone is relying on creativity, shooting vertical videos for the sake of the process itself, but no one considers how much it costs and why it is done,” notes Sergey Kuzmenko. The specialist advises starting not from fashion trends and platforms, but from your target audience. You need to use the widest range of channels possible, with an emphasis on direct advertising and influencer marketing. At the same time, it is important to work not only with content, but also with models for delivering it to the target audience, based on a well-thought-out system of metrics and goal setting.
Sergey Kuzmenko dwelled in detail on the problem of personnel shortage in the field of digital marketing. According to him, the market is experiencing an acute shortage of qualified specialists who could effectively solve business problems in the new realities.
“Digital is growing, there is no stagnation. There are 220 thousand individual entrepreneurs and enterprises in Belarus, the market volume is huge, but there is a catastrophic shortage of competent personnel,” the expert notes.
The expert claims that the top most in-demand professions include digital directors, specialists in neural networks and generative content, videographers for shooting vertical videos, media buyers, and targetologists. Some companies are willing to pay such employees more than market rates, especially when it comes to working for large markets or orders.
But, as Sergey Kuzmenko emphasizes, almost all of these specialists are self-taught, having taken courses or observed trends on YouTube. Most of them do not have specialized education or diplomas, which creates serious problems in finding employment.
“This is already a matter at the state level – the creation of basic digital professions in the higher education system. Then real experts and industry conferences will appear. It’s time to admit that digital is a part of IT in the country, only oriented not towards export, but towards the domestic market,” the expert sums up.
To summarize, we can say that digital marketing in Belarus is currently going through difficult times. On the one hand, the Internet audience is growing, new trends and platforms are emerging. On the other hand, the usual approaches to promotion on social networks, according to experts, no longer work, and there are no universal recipes for success.
In these conditions, businesses need to be flexible, experiment, use a data-driven approach and develop their own experts who can effectively solve problems in the new realities.
About the organizer:
HostFly.by is one of the leading Belarusian hosting providers and an expert in the field of IT solutions for business. Provides reliable hosting and domain registration services, and also actively interacts with the Belarusian business community.
HostFly.by regularly conducts free online webinars for entrepreneurs and marketers on current topics of digital marketing, SEO, web development, practical application of AI and IT security. One of the companies’ missions is to help Belarusian businesses grow and develop in the digital era.