Recommendations on VK how it works. How to include current VKontakte photos: recommendations

• popular interesting content;
• diversity;
• the opportunity to find new sources of information.

The recommendations include new communities, individual posts with interesting information, and all of them are tailored to your interests and needs. Of course, there is also advertising, but even there, all communities, products and services relate only to topics that interest you.

The link to the section is located to the right of the news feed, almost immediately below your name and photo. The first line in this menu is news, and below it are recommendations. By clicking on this inscription, you will go to the section with recommended posts.

Actually, an attentive user will understand at first glance how to get into recommendations on VK. In appearance, it is very similar to your news feed - posts from different publics are placed one below the other. They, just like in the news, are sorted by time of publication. But, unlike news, here you will only see one entry from each community. It is the records that are selected by the program.

By clicking on a post, you will open it in reading mode, and by following the links, you will visit the recommended public pages, you will be able to view other information in them and, if desired, subscribe.

If the news feed displays posts only from those groups to which you are subscribed or from those personal accounts that are our friends, then in the “recommended” feed - for the most part you will find posts from the wall of those who have not yet become your friends or those communities in which you are not yet a member.

The site integrates a complex algorithm that “spys” on you, your friends and subscribers every minute. Any activity is taken into account: viewing information, comments, likes, reposts on the wall or to your public page, forwarding posts in personal messages, etc. This way the program identifies your preferences and interests, and based on this information, the system produces a list of entries that owe you like it.

I would like to note right away that the algorithm does not work on the site for the purpose of spying on you, but specifically to select important information. There is no need to worry about the safety of personal data and the secrecy of correspondence. No information other than commitment to a particular topic is stored by this program.

Yes, it can be customized according to personal preferences, and even a person who is visiting the site for the first time can handle it. There are no complicated menus here; it’s easy to remember how to delete recommendations in VK the first time. A simple menu automatically appears next to each entry. To expand it, hover over the small checkmark to the right of it. The menu will open on its own. All you have to do is choose an action.

• It is not interesting. The post will simply disappear from view. If you immediately click the blue “hide from feed” button, posts from that community will no longer appear in your recommendations. If you change your mind at this point, click “mark action.”
• Save to bookmarks. The post will be saved in a section that you can find via the link in the menu on the left.
• Complain. If you see information that contradicts the norms of the Criminal Code, contains insults or any negativity, you can. Click on the corresponding line, then select one of the items in the window that opens. The administrator will see this message, analyze the data and take appropriate action. Unfortunately, you will not be able to find out anything about whether the offender was punished.
• Notify about posts. This function is similar to a subscription. You will receive notifications that new publications have appeared in the community you like. You won't miss them like you would with a crowded news feed. These notifications come in a “bell” - which is located in the top middle if you open VK on your computer.

When you decide to opt out of these notifications, you can do so as follows:

• go to notifications by clicking on the bell icon at the top of the page;
• find the name of the post from the community you need;
• hover the cursor over the check mark opposite it;
• select “Hide notification”;
• Click on the “Do not receive notifications from” text under the message that the message is hidden.

Settings for each entry and group are saved automatically and remain unchanged until you reconfigure the feed. You can return entries to the list of recommendations by going to filters.

For this:

• click on the funnel icon next to the link to the news feed in the same menu where the recommendations are located;

• find the name of the group;
• click on the empty white circle opposite it so that a checkmark appears in it;
• click "save".

Music recommendations in VK: how this feed works when selecting tracks

This section works on a similar principle, but is located in a different location. To enter it, open your music. Here you will see four tabs: my music, playlists, recommendations and friends' updates. The third tab will contain tracks that, according to the VK robot, are not yet known to you, but will definitely appeal to you. This is a great opportunity to learn about new audio recordings and artists.

This section is located in the right menu; if you don’t have it, then you need to enable it. To do this, go to “settings”.

In the window that opens, select: Configure the display of menu items\ and select the “Music” item - check the box next to this item and click “Save”. Now the “Music” item will be displayed in your left menu.

The algorithm on which music recommendations work takes into account:

• contents of the user's tracklist;
• likes and comments left by the user from communities and on the walls of other people;
• reposts from communities and other personal pages;
• reposts from personal messages and other activity related to music or information to which it is attached.

The more diverse your tracklist and wall, the more diverse music (any audio) will be offered to you in recommendations.

Important! Some users note imperfections in the recommendations, especially for music. In their opinion, they come across tracks that are far from their preferences. The same claims are made by those who regularly read recommended posts. However, such complaints are rare. Sometimes it is not the algorithm that is to blame, but the user himself, who is not aware of the intricacies of the “Recommendations” section in VK, how this feed works and how he selects tracks.

For example, you read an interesting article with beautiful photos, but did not listen to the song that was attached to it. The algorithm took it into account, and tracks similar to it will now appear in recommendations. The VK administration regularly updates and improves the site. It is quite possible that the answer to the question of “what are recommendations” in VK and how this feed works will be different.

Evgenia Kryukova

We asked representatives of the VKontakte team some burning questions about Prometheus, smart tape and their plans for the future. Answered by Sergey Paranko, director of media ecosystem, and Andrey Zakonov, director of growth and research for the social network. Hurry up to get acquainted with unique information from the original source.

1. How do your algorithms understand that a post is interesting to a specific user? Can you list the factors that most influence the reach of a post? The quality of the content, the response from the audience - this is clear. Anything less obvious?

We analyze the user's activity in the feed and raise higher those posts with which he is more likely to interact: like, write a comment, stick, open a photo, read an article, watch a video. These actions are very different, we predict them separately. Next, all this is taken into account by a general algorithm, which, based on all factors, performs ranking.

2. At your performance on "MEN2“You said that even little things like the weather and the user’s mood affect the reach of a post. How does the tape understand this?

Behind any post there is a huge number of ranking indicators. Each component is a certain value that describes the post itself, its author, the time of day at the time of viewing the recommendations, the speed of the reader’s Internet connection and many other criteria.

If a user visited the news feed or recommendations section while in a deep forest and with a poor Internet connection, we will not show him a bulky video at the beginning of the feed. The algorithm also takes into account the day of the week and time of day. This way, the morning recommendations feed will contain more news and information content, and in the evening - media and entertainment content.

3. Do you have a document that lists all the factors that the algorithm takes into account? Or has he already become so trained that even you don’t know by what parameters he provides coverage for a particular record?

We know the list of factors, but everything is unique for each user-record pair. Therefore, just by looking at a post, it is impossible to say how good it is, it’s subjective. A post about local news from Moscow in St. Petersburg is absolutely irrelevant to me, and you may not be interested in my news feed about machine learning and social networks.

4. Is it possible to artificially increase the reach of a post by purchasing likes and shares on promotion services?

Not worth it. In the long run, this will definitely lead to lower coverage. In addition to the fact that likes and shares do not play a central role in the ranking of a post, such cheats are highly likely to be detected by us.

However, traffic to a post from references on other social networks can indeed improve the organic reach of a post, and there is no penalty for this.

5. Is there an optimal text length for maximum reach in the smart feed? For example, in the announcement of an article – no more than 500 characters. And in a longread created in the editor, there are no more than 10,000?

There is no optimal length apart from the reader's focus. Everything is based on involvement; if you have an informational message, try to write succinctly, in an information style. If you are trying to attract a person to click on a snippet, the same principle is succinct and engaging. Just don’t fall into clickbait, it will negatively affect your reach.

If you're telling a story, captivate the person. All large forms, typically more than 1,000 characters, are best typed in the article editor, breaking up the text with multimedia inserts.

6. Smart Feed favors high-quality videos (over low-quality ones). What is “high-quality video” for VKontakte? What characteristics does it have?

Videos 720–1080 rub.

7. Does VK try to detect fake news? Is the veracity and reliability of the data important, or only the audience's interest in the recording?

On VKontakte there is no pre-moderation of content - as on other platforms, users can freely publish and discuss topics that interest them. At the same time, anyone can report illegal, offensive or inaccurate content in their opinion using the “Complain” button. We consider all complaints without exception. VKontakte has one of the largest moderation services and we respond as quickly as possible.

8. How do you feel about competitions for the most active subscribers and competitions for subscription + repost? They are allowed by the VK rules, but does this somehow affect the coverage of posts (positively or negatively)? Do you recommend using competitions for promotion in VK?

This is a legal way of promotion, but you need to keep in mind that in this way you are attracting an irrelevant audience to your subscribers. This can have a negative side effect - followers who don't engage with your group's main content can have a negative impact on the reach and virality of your posts.

9. Articles created in the editor receive more coverage than articles leading to a third-party site. What should commercial sites and blogs do in such conditions? How can they attract VKontakte users to their site?

A business group on any social network is first and foremost a community. If you treat it exactly like a media asset, you will succeed. Forcing a user to another site, without providing an alternative, in communication can upset a person. As they say: you want to sell me your product, but you do it without respect.

On the VK platform you can communicate with clients/readers, sell goods, receive money transfers and much more. We are developing our ecosystem and making it as convenient as possible for users. And in this regard, it is also beneficial for a business to develop its site within VK. The article editor is another tool for communication and community building.

10. Will wiki articles now receive less coverage than editor-based articles?

It's not the format that decides, but the user's interaction with your content. An interesting story told with a lot of interaction from readers will receive coverage regardless of the presentation format. Another thing is that it is more convenient to hold the audience’s attention with the tools available in the article editor.

Specifically about wiki pages, they do not fall into the “Recommendations” section on mobile devices, they are basically a desktop tool, so yes, their reach is lower than that of other delivery formats.

11. Some users complain that they do not see interesting and necessary posts. Why is this happening? And do you have any thoughts about follow the Facebook path – make sure that users’ feeds contain more personal content rather than commercial content?

We are constantly experimenting with different ranking models, and the main metric is user engagement. You can always send clear signals to the neuron by hiding a couple of posts from unwanted public pages.

12. You say that you cannot purchase bots at all. How then can the community gain its first audience? If you sign up relatives and friends, it turns out that the audience is still not the target one. And if you buy advertising, no one will subscribe to an empty community. How to find a way out?

People come to you for content. Therefore, your community will not be empty if you tell things there that are interesting to the target audience. Advertising for the target audience is an ideal option to start with. This will give you a core audience that will help you grow organically.

13. How do you understand that a penalty has been imposed on the community? How to remove it?

Looking at the statistics, this can be seen in the decreased coverage. Analyze what you have been doing in recent days, which can be regarded by the platform as unwanted actions: clickbait, aggressive audience withdrawal, unoriginal content, too frequent posting. Stop doing this. And it will go away on its own in two days :-)

14. Are there filters based on topic? (For example, “adult content” is downgraded). If yes, what topics have reduction coefficients?

Everything that is not prohibited by the legislation of the Russian Federation and the rules of the site is possible. Everything that is prohibited is prohibited.

15. A case from our practice. We publish unique articles on the blog every day, and they are immediately parsed by several VKontakte public pages. It turns out that they announce this content first, and we announce it 5-10 minutes later. Does this negatively impact the coverage of our posts?

16. That is, the one who first shares the link is considered the original source? If this is the case, we cannot compete with autoparsers, since they do this automatically, but with us manually, we write a unique announcement. What should we do in this case?

I didn’t share the link, but downloaded the content natively. Embeds and links, in principle, do not make you the original source of content. We don’t know what’s on someone else’s video hosting or website, and we don’t parse or analyze this content. That’s why it’s important to upload your materials to the platform’s native submission tools.

17. How will search engines index articles created using the editor? Wiki articles were well found in searches, but what will happen now?

Articles are perfectly indexed by Yandex from the very start, and by Google already too.

18. Public LIVE led by a VKontakte employee? Is it possible to refer to it as an official source of information?

At one's own risk. This is an unofficial community.

How the Prometheus algorithm works

19. Are living people involved in the work of Prometheus? Or is the decision entirely left to the algorithm? How does he learn? Can you tell me in simple words?

The algorithm is automated and independently searches for new authors. The neuron sometimes makes mistakes. We mark each such error by sending a signal to the network about the wrong choice. Based on this feedback, Prometheus learns.

20. We have been posting quality content that resonates with our audience for a long time, but we have never received the Prometheus fire. How can we influence this? Can you give specific recommendations? I want specifics, and not vague advice like “post the content that your audience likes.”

First of all, the Prometheus algorithm reacts to original materials submitted in native VKontakte tools. Native content delivery formats are extremely important because they allow the algorithm to evaluate the uniqueness of the content and its subject matter. The first is important in order to get a mark, the second is to provide the author marked with “fire” with a good boost in coverage. Posts by such authors appear in the “Recommendations” section.

Almost all entries

Good afternoon everyone. In the last article we discussed in detail. Today we will talk about tape management, namely what it is recommended entries, and how the VK recommendations feed is formed.

In previous articles we looked at the news menu and its capabilities. There is another menu item called “Recommendations”. What is it for? Those users who have been around for a long time have many friends, and they are subscribed to various groups and public pages. Every day something new happens in the life of a social network, and everyone and the communities you are part of create and post new information for everyone to see. As a result, so many posts appear in the feed that the user is not able to not only “digest”, but sometimes even read them. It is for this purpose that the site’s creators came up with a special algorithm that calculates the most interesting and relevant news for you.

If we go to this section, not all records in a row will be displayed here, but only those that were selected specifically for you.

How does the VKontakte website offer us interesting news? There is a complex algorithm here that analyzes who your friends and subscribers are, whose pages you view and comment on most often, as well as who you like and whose or in your community. Based on this analysis, your preferences and interests are calculated, and exactly those posts that are most interesting to you are offered. Most often, VK guesses with advice and forwards the most interesting and relevant for you.

It often happens that you subscribe to communities, but then they become uninteresting to you, and you don’t even go there to read the new posts of the group. Gradually, there are more such communities and people on your list, and your feed becomes clogged with unnecessary information. Recommended news helps you save time and find the most interesting information.

• it is not interesting;
• notify about entries;
• complain.

1. How remove recommendations certain friends or communities? If you select the first item, a window with suggested settings will appear in place of the post. Here you can report the post, cancel the action, or select “Do not show community/user news” by clicking on the corresponding button.

If you select this action, posts from a group or user will no longer appear in the recommendations feed. After clicking the button you will see the following message:

If you change your mind, you can still click “Cancel action”. Once the page is closed or refreshed, it will be impossible to cancel the operation!

It may be that you frankly did not like the post. For example, it may contain an insult, a call to aggression or violence, and other reasons. Then you can “snitch” the post to the social network administration by clicking the “Complain” button in this section. After this, you can select the reason for the complaint from the drop-down list.

2. Now let's look at the second item of the drop-down menu - “ Notify about posts“. If you select it, then all news from the selected groups or users will be displayed in the recommendations feed, and you will also receive notifications if this community or person publishes a new entry.

For example, we set the settings to “Notify about posts” for the community “Nizhny Novgorod” and for the user “Valery Nikiforov”. We will now receive a personalized notification when the selected community and user add a new .

If suddenly you are tired of receiving notifications, then you need to do the following:

• go to the notifications section (the bell icon at the top of the page);
• then select the entry and hover over the arrow to the right of it. Then select the drop-down item “Hide notification”;
• after that, an inscription will appear in place of the notification that the message is hidden. Below it, click on “Do not receive notifications from.” That's it, now the site will not notify you about news from this community or user.

3. Third item of the drop-down menu – "Complain". We have already said that if a post violates current legislation or distributes prohibited content, you can report this to the social network administration in a couple of clicks. To do this, select the item of the same name in the drop-down menu:

You will then be asked to select the reason for the complaint from the list. We select and send.

What happens next is not our business. The administration of the social network itself will assess the harm and danger of the information and decide how to proceed further with the violator. And that's all for today. Now you know how to rid yourself of various information garbage in your feed and watch only what is interesting to you. Don't forget to share the article with your friends and subscribers on social networks.

Probably many of us have noticed the VKontakte tab "Possible Friends", but not everyone knows what it is for and how it works. This is exactly what this article will discuss.

Let's take a look at what the tab looks like "Possible Friends", perhaps someone did not notice her.

How many of those who know about it have guessed how this function works, and by what principle it identifies people with whom we may be familiar? Everything is very simple. Let's open this section and study it in more detail. Having done this, you will notice that most of the people who are there are those with whom we communicated, but did not add them as friends, or we have mutual friends with them. Now it’s a little clearer how this function works, but that’s not all.

This list is first created based on people with whom you have mutual friends. What follows is a whole chain. We look for those users whose profile indicates the same city as yours, the same job, and other factors. That is, it is a smart algorithm that constantly updates the list of your possible friends. Let's say you added someone as a friend and immediately, from his list of friends, there will be those who have common friends with you, and they will be offered to you as your possible acquaintances. Here is the whole principle of the section "Possible Friends".

Of course, it is impossible to obtain accurate and reliable information. Only the developers of the VKontakte site know this. It can be assumed that VK collects anonymized data that is tied to an identifier, or buys it from other networks. But this is just an assumption, and do not be afraid, your personal data is not collected.

Conclusion

We hope you now understand how this function works. With its help, you will find your old acquaintances or even meet people from your city or educational institution.