The aspects of promoting health resort services in social networks: a regional aspect

The paper deals with the aspects of promoting health resort product in social networks. The author conducted a comparative analysis of spa communities in the social network VKontakte in three resort towns of the Krasnodar Territory: Sochi, Anapa and Goryachy Klyuch. The study revealed that not all health resorts carried out marketing communications with target audiences of VKontakte. The main channels for attracting subscribers to the official communities of Russian health resorts were identified. The research determined the regional differences in the number of subscribers to online communities and in the content strategies of health resorts in the social network. The author demonstrates that interpersonal communication of Internet users can not only facilitate but also impede the promotion of medical and health services in social media. The research proves that it is necessary to consider the self-organization processes of informal online spa groups when developing and implementing the SMM strategy of Russian health resorts.