Social networks take over a crucial part of our lives. Moreover, the app market is still growing. With the increasing use of smartphones all over the world, there have been opportunities for social networking with advanced features.
Consequently, many business owners can’t pass up the chance to be part of a thriving market and are thinking about new social media platforms development. Would you like to know how to create a social network app? Then read our guide to learn the details.
Market trends and insights
Over the last year, the number of people that use social networks has grown by roughly 10%, and by the first days of July 2020, their total number has reached 3.96 billion.
- Thus, more than 50% of people worldwide use social networks for the first time. Besides, 99% of people use mobile apps for social network access.
- 68% of U.S. adults report that they use Facebook.
- 73% of marketers thought their social media marketing efforts were “efficient” for their companies.
- The best social media by the number of active users are Facebook, YouTube, WhatsApp, and Facebook Messenger.
- 49% of people say they rely on the recommendations of social media influencers when making a purchase decision.
If you desire to build a social media app, then it’s critical to know its type. As it helps you to determine the competitors, audience, and offer future users suitable features.
So, let’s go deeper into the main types of social media apps.
Social networks
Such social media unites people with various purposes. I.e., LinkedIn helps to find work and build professional relationships, Facebook offers many thematic groups, etc.
Consumer review networks
The main purpose of this type is to allow clients to leave reviews. These networks can attract new clients to a brand if feedbacks are good. Besides, entrepreneurs can receive customers’ reviews and change their items or services for the better. The best examples are Yelp, TripAdvisor.
Discussion forums
Forums are gaining popularity due to people’s love to learn from experts and discuss various subjects. They allow finding the needed information. The best examples are Reddit, Quora.
So, you’ve decided to build your social network. It’s not as tricky as it sounds, but not as easy as we would like it to be. The development includes several steps.
Step #1. Creating the idea
Every project starts with an idea. It must have value and be unique. Of course, you can copy the idea of existing social networks, but who needs one more Instagram. Make sure that your social network is interesting to users. Segmentation will help you with this. In any case, the idea should stand out from other similar projects. As cryptocurrency exchange platforms are gaining popularity in the world.
Step #2. Strategy creation
This step supposes studying the idea and the competitive field, analyzing the requirements, drawing up a portrait of the target audience, and setting the key performance indicators to be achieved.
Step #3. Preparing for the development
At this stage, it’s important to take care of the short documentation, domain name, and hosting. Short documentation is a small document that includes a list of functions for a future project. After considering the required functions. You should think about the name of the future social network. And then finally you can choose a powerful server.
Step #4. Design
This stage includes several steps. They are sketching, wireframing, prototyping, design app skins. Sketching helps to assess the logic of the future project, the number of screens, and the interaction between them. Wireframing gives a detailed view of the app and the experience that the end-user will have. Prototyping is a working model of a future application. Design app skins step supposes converting wireframes in the design.
Step #5. Development
When the application prototype is finished, we create the back-end, configuring servers, databases, APIs, and designing ideal storage solutions. The Code&Care team delivers a product that meets all technical requirements, user guides, and platform standards.
Step #6. Testing and launching a social network
After completing the development, you need to check the social network. As you can imagine, mistakes in registration/authorization or basic functions will have a very bad effect on the promotion of the social network. Users should enjoy the app.
Step #7. Marketing
After setting up the app, it is critical to run an active advertising campaign. You need to take an aggressive approach.
Step #8. Maintenance and support
After bringing the project to life, we provide our clients with all types of support.
Monetization strategies
Ultimately, a social media app needs to be well received by users and have the potential to make a profit. It means that it is critical to choose a business model that encourages long-term growth while maintaining income. Here are some popular business models commonly used in social media applications.
- Advertisements
Advertising is the most popular way to generate income for a social media platform. Many apps choose this option so that customers can use the app for free. For example, Instagram shows users relevant posts and stories in its news feed. As far as YouTube is concerned, it plays ads before playing the video.
- Premium feature
Many social media (e.g. YouTube, Linkedin) offer premium subscriptions to get some extra features. For example, LinkedIn offers premium options for job seekers. Users can see who has viewed their profile and access over 15,000 training courses to improve their skills and knowledge.
Read the full article: https://code-care.com/blog/how-to-create-a-social-media-app/
Looking for app development cost estimations for anonymous social media apps?
Here’s a detailed introduction to the factors that impact social network startup costs and how to go about them in an optimized, cost-effective manner.
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