It only seems that consumer demand for participation in social networks today is completely shut down by such giants as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and the like. If that scared creative young people, there would be no TikTok, Pinterest, and others. The key to success, if you aim to create social networking app that will be successful — the right idea, the unmet need. And, if those are figured out, the create social network app solution is simply destined for success.
Why do we need a social network?
We have already answered this question partially above. It is prestigious, convenient, and profitable. You create your own space for communication of like-minded persons, arrange it in the way you need, reach a mass coverage, and get the income. It seems that everything is complicated? Yes, it isn't! But you'll enjoy discovering new facets of this exciting activity step by step.
The answers to the "why" question are many more. Some people don't care as much about revenue as they do about building a brand reputation or, for example, creating their own little online city where like-minded people or experts in a particular field will enjoy spending time.
Social media tends to grow rapidly. We see this in the example of such giants as Facebook or Twitter. But their success does not mean that the niche is fully occupied. You can't please everyone in any case, and you should think about what functional, business and psychological needs you can cover with your resources.
Now let's look at the basic steps you need to go through to create social network app.
Stage 1: Preparation, finding an original idea, determining the audience
The average webmaster is unlikely to create something similar to Facebook "by hand. Besides, there is no point in it — the niche of general topic social networks is filled. But highly specialized topics could well become the basis of a startup. People tend to be grouped by their interests, and, more often, they choose a separate, isolated site for that.
This is more convenient — no unwanted information can get into the fenced-off area; the risk of meeting with haters is reduced, and the chance of meeting like-minded people, and even friends, increases many times over.
When the direction of the social network is determined, be sure to draw a portrait of the user. This will determine what kind you decide to create social networking app. How accurate this portrait will be depends on the design, functionality, and, accordingly, ways to monetize it. At that stage, it is worth lingering to avoid making mistakes.
The appearance and internal content of the social network is determined by its users and not by the developer. The developer must meet these requirements. If this does not happen, the user will leave the social network. And with it, dreams of super profits.
A social network for minimalists can't be the same as a network for shopping enthusiasts. An introvert won't linger for a minute in an app that's constantly popping up voice ads and flashing banners. Keep this in mind when deciding to create social network app. Therefore, determining your potential target audience is the first basis for success.
You can do the work of defining your target audience yourself, for example, through surveys. You can order this work from marketers.
Stage 2: Choosing a CMS
The most important stage, which depends on the right decisions on the success of the idea to create social network app regarding its technical implementation. CMS — content management system, you can write yourself. This can take years.
You can take the free offer to create social network apps — Joomla, WordPress, Drupal, and others. They have undeniable advantages, but also quite tangible disadvantages that can negate all efforts. In particular:
- Such solutions are not designed for high load with a large influx of visitors;
- Many additional unnecessary functions in the engine, not designed to scale or to operate in conditions of large traffic;
- Lack of necessary technical capabilities;
- Problems with security.
You can turn to professional developers, who create many large projects, including highly loaded, and horizontally scalable — specialized applications, dating portals, etc. The company offers a lot of additional services which may be of interest to those who have an idea but little money to implement it.
Step 3: Promotion and advancement
Creating a network is only half the job. Let us assume you have created it. Here it is — beautiful, convenient, and functional. But if no one knows about it, all your efforts will be useless. Then there is the question of attracting users, promoting the network, and methods of monetization.
Social network promotion is not only a search engine optimization. Even more, it is far from being the most important thing. When deciding to create social network app, you must remember that the best way to promote is the recommendations of users themselves. People invite each other to the platform to communicate, and then the user either leaves or stays, if his attention is attracted by something unique and uniquely useful for him.
An example is the promotion of "Facebook", the network, which was created for communication by a small group of Harvard University students and as a result has grown into a global monster.
The foundation of the new network will be made up of the typical representatives of the "target audience portrait," with them you need to start. Important! People should come to the network by themselves; it is useless to invite anyone just by mass mailing. So it is not long before you find yourself on the list of evil spammers, and in the ban. Interested users will be brought to the site by the unmet need, which a new network can satisfy.
Stage 4: Monetization and earning
Users come to a network to communicate and have fun. Owners create social network apps to make a profit. How can you make money on your brainchild? There are not many ways, but they have proven to work:
Advertising. The target audience of any network is also the target audience of the producers of any goods. A social network is a crowd of ready, warmed-up customers. Merchants love and appreciate social networks, especially highly specialized ones. It's easier to sell there, of course, sharing profits on favorable terms with the site owner.
Paid internal services. The user is always willing to pay a little extra for something on a conditionally free site. Here, too, a decisive role is played by the portrait of the user — for what exactly he is ready to lay out the money. Send gifts, donations in online games, access to hidden information, entertainment tools, and much more.
Author ways of monetization. A non-standard scheme for obtaining profit can also be born from studying the interests of users. For example, an exchange for selling handmade goods can be attached to a highly specialized application for needleworkers. The owner earns on commissions. By deciding to create social network app with such a possibility, you can attract more people who want to earn from their creativity.
How to create social network app: the most important thing
Writing a good product is not enough. You can only give it life if you have the trust of your users. Even the best social networks will remain without participants, if, under the load of a large influx of traffic, it ceases to work. Therefore, you should not try to create social network apps based on public free solutions. Turn to professionals. The modern user is spoiled with high quality. Do not forget about it.
