Social community platforms have changed the world and they affect
relationships and economic aspects between people. The social community sector
has been booming since Facebook was developed by Mark Zuckerberg. Mark was the
trigger that this industry needed and accelerated entrepreneurs to take a new
way of thinking as well as taking risks and driving the development of social
networks because they were considered new and promising. Facebook now has
around 2 billion users every month, while Instagram is used by 700 million
visitors worldwide and 328 million people tweet every month. Facebook has done
a good job and it is very difficult to design a comparable platform that
achieves similar success.
HOW DO YOU BUILD A SOCIAL NETWORK DEVELOPMENT PLATFORM? WHAT DOES THAT MEAN FROM A BUSINESS AND DEVELOPMENT
PERSPECTIVE?
IDENTIFY YOURSELF WITH
YOUR COMMUNITY
If you want to be sure that your social network project will also
be a success, you should be able to identify with your newly created community.
So, as a student it makes less sense to build a social network community over
80 year old war veterans and a stockbroker is a bad advisor for pig breeders.
The closer the maker feels connected to his project, the more passion, effort
and creativity as well as know-how will be in the respective community. There
is also a natural understanding of the needs and preferences of this internet
community. If you have been dealing with the topic for a long time,
brainstorming the project is easier than someone who is completely
inexperienced.
HOW EXACTLY DO YOU DEFINE
YOUR TARGET GROUP? YOU CAN CHOOSE BETWEEN THESE OPTIONS:
THE ONLINE RESEARCH
The internet is full of interesting information and practically
all kinds of numbers and statistics can be easily found, collected and
analyzed. In addition, there are demographics, psychograms and behavioral
analyzes, which can also be used to investigate the target group. There are
numerous resources for all relevant data that are easy to find as soon as
someone digs deeper.
TESTING AND LEARNING
Another method to get relevant data about the target group is to
offer a demo version of the social community network project. Through the use,
the operators can collect and evaluate the data relevant to them from the users
and thus get an overview of the typical behavior of the target group. Although
this way is much more expensive, the data acquired can also be used 100
percent.
PLANNING
Define the properties and
functions
The precise description of the functions and properties is closely
linked to the quality of identification with the community. What the community
needs and desires shapes the features when developing the social network
website.
What do you want your community members to do? How do you want to
secure private data?
The precise description of the functions and properties is closely
linked to the quality of identification with the community. What the community
needs and desires shapes the features when developing the social network
website.
What do you want your community members to do? How do you want to
secure private data?
After you have received all the necessary information about your
target group and strategies and you know the necessary features and functions
to pass the findings on to your team. Before you do that, however, you need to
check that you have everything ready. Here are some checkpoints that should be
clarified.
BUDGET
The budget for the development process is crucial for later
quality. Instagram had a budget of $ 300,000 and Facebook started with an
initial capital of around $ 500,000. It mainly depends on the complexity of the
features, how expensive the development process will be. The simpler the
functionality, the lower the cost. A simple platform is available for $ 20,000.
Find out the costs of developing a social network here !
THE PLATFORM
When developing the platform, it should be clarified beforehand
whether it exists solely as a social network based on the website or whether a
mobile app should also contribute to the success. Such features must be decided
before talking to the developers. The data collected from the market research
target groups show whether they are necessary.
BASIC DATA VOLUME
Unfortunately, it is impossible to estimate the traffic of the
websites with 100 percent accuracy, but they will more or less come close to
the real result. The accuracy also depends on the development team. Here are
some database options that are recommended.
- Use MySQL or PostgreSQL for your structural data
- NoSQL databases like MongoDB for better utilization
STRUCTURE
When developing the platform, developers should also take future
development into account based on growth forecasts. Some general rules should
help you build the website. But the most important thing for a social community
network platform is to be in the social activities and use your time.
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
In addition to customer service, there are various other projects
in her life. You may need to get rid of technical difficulties if customers
point out that some of the functions or features are not working as intended.
SAFETY
The security of a platform is very important for many users who do
not want their personal data published indiscriminately. Carefree handling of
sensitive data or images has already ended careers, so a platform for those
interested in social community should back up their users' data with a
particularly high quality.
SCALABILITY
When building a social community network, the creators should also
consider future growth. At that time, Facebook was not prepared for the immense
growth. Nowadays, growth should be more controlled.
DESIGN
A simple and simple design is enough for a social community
network, because users do not want to look at it, but design it themselves with
their data and images.
When designing a social media platform, the creators should also
consider the following points:
- Standard profile elements
- Chat options and features
- News feed design
- Connect buttons
- Engagement buttons
- Annotation area
- Social group options
- Settings page design
ACTIVITY STREAM
Nowadays, the activity stream is the core of every social
community website. Facebook was the first to introduce this feature and since
then it has been an indispensable standard. Users should post what they are
doing and how they feel at any moment, because that is what makes social media
websites so appealing. For this you can use the Joomla's plug or the Drupal
activity stream module, both of which do an excellent job.
CREATE STATUS UPDATE
FEATURES
Status updates are extremely important for every social community
user because they want to be able to express their feelings and thoughts at any
moment of the day. The better and easier the tool is, the more successful the
website will be. Therefore, a focus of the development work should be here.
INCREASE THE QUALITY OF DATA VIEWING
The users come to the social media websites to present themselves
with their photos, opinions and other data and to see what the other users
publish. Therefore, the inspection of these data options should be of high quality
and pleasant. Ease of use is also important. However, certain rules should also
be observed so that not all personal data are publicly accessible. However, as
much data as possible should always be available to the public. This data
should include:
- Popular stories from the past 24 hours
- Popular stories from the past 7 days
- Popular history of the past 30 days
- Popular stories in the last year
GROWTH STRATEGY
How do you build a social network on a market full of competitors?
First, you need to plan your growth strategy and set your target audience. Once
you have gathered all the important data, the potential users need to know
about the platform. Sounds easy, but this part is tricky too. First of all,
there is a need to align the platform consistently with your target group
because the overall success depends on it.
THERE ARE TWO WAYS YOU CAN
START
Start small and slowly expand your base. Facebook also started
locally and small and used data from a high school yearbook. The more popular
they became, the more they spread. Entrepreneurs can calculate and assess this
risk well.
THINK BIG
Although you should start small, you need to keep in mind the
early growth and work towards it. Accordingly, marketing should appeal to as
large a group as possible. Twitter was successful with this strategy.
Are you interested in developing a professional online platform? Our
agency offers a free initial consultation.
ATTRACT THE RIGHT USERS
After everything has been said and done to define and develop the
features in relation to the target group, the next step should attract the
right users. There are many tools that will help you get started in the market.
Facebook was created in a university environment and is a pioneer of the social
media industry.
THE MOST IMPORTANT COSTS
SHOULD BE KEPT WITHIN THE FOLLOWING POINTS:
EMAIL MARKETING
An email database is essential in order to be able to implement a
cheap and efficient marketing concept.
BLOGGING
Through consistent blogging, the discussion about the new social
community platform is sparked and carried on.
DEAL WITH CUSTOMERS
In order to increase the number of visitors, every type of contact
link should be used. People need to be addressed as often as possible to build
a community.
PAID ADVERTISING
Paid advertising like Google Ads can work wonders and should
therefore be used as often as possible.
BUILD ON SEO STRATEGIES
SEO is just as important on social media platforms as on other
e-commerce websites.
CONCLUSION
Developing your own social community platform can take up to six
months because it is a lengthy process. If an entrepreneur pays close attention
to doing everything right during development, this is no guarantee of success.
It is just as important to stand behind the project with your own heart and
soul and to work hard for it. And only those who really care about their own
platform have the necessary feeling for what users really want and what they
will ultimately be enthusiastic about. Of course, the technical framework must
also be right, and people must experience the existence and quality of the
platform through a targeted advertising strategy. In this way, a successful
platform is created from a development concept with sweat and passion.
To know more, click here.
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