Help community in Perm - experience in managing non -profit groups in VKontakte

In March 2017, a Fudshering group appeared in Perm in VKontakte - a move of people ready to give food for free. The group became the fifth city community as part of the help project. The greenhouse of social technologies talked with one of the administrators of the groups Timofem Dubrovsky in order to clarify the technical and ethical features of their work.

The history of the project

The Perm activist Timofei Dubrovsky is engaged in the support and development of public as part of a team of 14 people. Most volunteers are young mothers who want to take free time with a socially useful initiative.

Today, administrators are conducting five non -profit communities. Three “help”: on the search for work (2376 subscribers), housing (6595 subscribers) and a variety of assistance (9553 subscribers), Fudshering groups (167 subscribers) and frimarket . The latter is the oldest and most massive, collecting the base of 13331 subscriber today, and the average daily attendance of the group is 621 visits.

- It all started with the "absolutely free fair" ( Free Market ). These are such events that took place in our city regularly for several years and on which people could give and take things for free. With the advent of the opportunity to offer VKontakte news, we realized that it is possible to quite effectively develop online active, ”said Timofey.

As the audience grows, the content has become more diverse. Subscribers wanted to share not only things. Some talked about events, others asked for advice, others wanted to transfer the parcel. Just during this period, the group “Help: Ural and the Volga region” was created in Kirov to solve such problems.

Another topic: Fudstering - Tatarstan communities to save food from disputing

- We really liked this idea, and we joined. Initially, the administrators were representatives of different entities. We began to deal tightly with them (public), and after some time it turned out that Perm content began to make up about 90%. So the public became “helping: Perm,” Timothy recalls.

Over time, there was a need to further distinguish between entries, and the administrators launched two new “help” dedicated to the search for housing and work. The team also organized a hashtags system that helps distribute ads on topics. In 2017, in a group related to vacancies, a section appeared #as it works , in which a representative of a certain profession answers any questions of subscribers.

Moderators of communities leave only posts corresponding to the format. There are no advertising in "Help". Photo Svetoslav Shuvaev.

The principles of the community

During moderation of records, administrators adhere to a number of rules, in particular, they do not publish information related to alcohol, medicines and violence against animals (including hunting and fishing). In addition, advertising, offensive, cheers-patriotic comments are excluded. The filtering of a saturated flow of user content is sometimes a serious problem. Timothy admits:

- Public management is like a leadership of a small community. We have rules and principles. For me personally, this experience has become and continues to be quite difficult, because sometimes I have to take strict measures to limit the destruction that people do. This is a challenge and a message to study how communities generally work, where the border between personality freedom and (freedom) society works. In this sense, we are open to advice: our rules are far from ideal, and therefore, therefore, people sometimes experience discomfort.

In the Help community, you can ask for advice, find a fellow traveler, transfer the parcel. Free and without a commission. Photo Svetoslav Shuvaev.

Monetization of groups

“To publish or not to publish commercial content is always a challenge for us,” Timothy says. - In most of our publics, we try to prevent it from, although sometimes it is not easy to distinguish a commercial announcement for a free service, for example, accounting or legal counseling. On the other hand, commercial services are useful: sometimes I want to share the cool things that our friends do, or find out where to find a good master. Therefore, recently, such services are published in the group "Help | Perm | Job".

More on the topic: Association of Protection of the Rights of large families of the Kirov region - a community of mutual assistance

Pursuing sufficiently popular projects based on the work of volunteers and not involving profit, Timofei Dubrovsky does not consider them a direct alternative to traditional services:

- I believe that we should not replace commercial services. We have certain principles that are not suitable for everyone. This is a plus and minus.

Text: Pavel Kataev