StudyQA — Internet promotion in Russia

Russia and CIS countries is an important emerging market for university recruiters. Even though the demand for international education is rising in this region, the number of universities which actively recruit students from Russia is also growing. In order to attract best students, universities have to put some efforts and use all the existing instruments in the most efficient way.

Russian Internet market is big and still growing: More than 102 millions of people in Russia (out of 143 millions) are Internet users. Obviously, all potential students from Russia and CIS are among this 102 millions. While most of the universities use Internet to attract CIS students, they not always do it in a right way. In this article we'll present some important facts about Internet promotion in Russia which help recruitment officers to use theirs resources more wisely. Russian Internet is dominated by local companies (Yandex, VK.com etc.) and has many specific features: that is why student recruitment from Russia may differ from similar process in Europe or even Asia.

Yandex or Google?

Google and Yandex are two leading search engines in Russia: the popularity of Google is growing in the recent years, but it's still too early to recognize it as a leader. It is very important to pay attention to the difference between these two engines: SEO techniques may be quite different. Several key differences between two engines: behavioural factors are more important in Yandex ranging comparing with Google. Geo-targeting also plays more significant role for Yandex. Optimization for Google is typically faster: Googlebot is constantly indexing new pages. However, recalculate its indexes in a slower pace. Domain age is more important for a website's position in Yandex comparing with Google.

That is why it's important to hire specialists with enough experience on Russian market: it will help not lose Yandex's audience. It may be also efficient to use PPC advertising: Google AdWords and Yandex Direct. The difference between this two system is not so significant.

Facebook or VK.com?

VK.com is the most popular social network in Russia, which is especially popular among high school and university students. It may be the perfect play to run your international recruitment campaign. However, Facebook may also play an important role: it attracts mostly affluent people form large cities. If one is trying to recruit master's or MBA students, it may be efficient to use Facebook as well (or even as the main social network for your campaign). For further information you could read our article about FB and VK.com.

Russian or English?

While it seems obvious that international recruitment websites should be in English (it is supposed that potential students speak English), the answer is not so straightforward. There several reasons for universities to translate their websites and promo-material to Russian.

Firstly, many prospective students still use Russian language while searching for international study programs or use search engines which are focused on Russian-language searching (such as Yandex). It means that universities with some information in Russia have more chances to find their students.

Secondly, in most cases (particularly in the case of Bachelor's programs) parents are very active in searching and choosing a university for their children. Except for the cases of full scholarships, parents have to invest significant financial resources in education and that is why they prefer to control the process. There is no guarantee that parents are able to read in English and that is one additional reason why information in Russian may be more efficient. There is no need to translate the whole university website, but a special page in Russian may have a significant impact on the efficiently of your recruitment campaign.

Your own or local professionals?

In order to start a promotion campaign universities may prefer to use their own professionals to create websites, run social media campaigns and SEO. However, we strongly recommend to hire Russian professionals: it is important that they know how to work with Russian search engines and especially with Russian-speaking audience in social media. While your own specialists mat definitely acquire the same skills, it will take a long time which could lead to inefficient recruitment on an early stages of your campaign.

In conclusion, we'd like to say that Internet promotion in Russia may significantly differ from Internet promotion in your own country: that is not enough to use internationally recognized instruments and websites (such as Google and Facebook), but it's also important to work with local leaders. That is why hiring local professionals to run you recruitment campaign may be seen as a good strategy.