Social media networks have a great potential in the world of web. There are numerous social media networks such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram etc. which have occupied this market with billions of users worldwide. There are different platforms which support these networks. Creating a social media network can be a daunting task. You need a website maker which can easily develop one without any hassles. Investing in such best website builders can return higher return on investment. So, before you start building your social media network, let’s look at the essential things that you should consider.
- Identify the Target Audience
In case you don’t wish to shoot in the dark and not want to incur any financial losses, then you have to identify the right target audience for your social media network. The entire process of identification has to be done through a brainstorming stage. A social media network is created to meet the certain requirements of the population. By means of identifying their preferences as well as their dislikes, it can help you in getting a clear picture about the psychological factors which affect them as customers and what you can essentially do in order to attract their attention. Sometimes, you have to offer the thing which isn’t available on the market, that is why you require demographics and psychographics data which will provide you with the power to trigger as well as create the need among the population.
- Chalk out the Features and Functions
The very definition of functions and features is quite related to the entire quality of the complete identification of the target audience. Your audience wants as well as needs will essentially shape and outline the different features of developing a social media network. You need to know what your users do. You need to find how to define the privacy of the data. A good website creator provides you with different features to inculcate in the network. The overall vision of this network is quite crucial. Macro scan helps in breaking things down into different categories like administrative functions, user functions, and advertising which is quite essential. Defining the type of data which will actually circulate, what the users can post, how exactly they will register and what automation you need is only the start. There are a plethora of things you need to consider at this particular phase.
- Appropriate Technology
By means of identification of functions and features of the social media network, you will be able to determine the right platform as well as the company where you can easily create your own social media network. The essential issue at this particular stage is the doubt regarding which method will be most effective as well as efficient for the network. Evaluating different technologies need to be done by professionals. Hiring a right and an expert consultant will assist you in comparing different solutions. It saves a lot of time along with money. The next thing that you need to do is analyse the existing social media network platforms and what are the technologies they have used to build them. This entire learning process will assist you in figuring out different issues as well as opportunities for your own social media network.
- Define Structure
Once you have listed the user-specific features, you need to create a growth environment. Different general rules are applicable for the building of all the web pages, and they have huge importance for a social media network since you will be trying to engage a lot of users in social activity and keep them longer on the network. You need to consider the three most important pillars:
- Customer Service- Partner with a hosting company can help you in this regard. They will be dealing with all the technical issues as well as other issues related to the network.
- Security- You need to use reliable security systems which will make the users feel secure so that they can do everything they wish on your social media network without worry about data leaks and privacy intrusions.
- Scalability- Whenever you start creating a social media network, you will start from scratch and you need to consider the growth. Your social media network needs to be able to expand quickly and easily so that it can easily follow the pace of the growth. You can use a website builder which allows you to scale your social media network.
- Designing Activity Stream
Social media network requires activity stream. It is the core of every social media network. Facebook introduced this particular feature first, and it has been the standard on the market. The people have a real fascination about activities of their friends. People wish to know what their friends are doing and how are they feeling every day. Failing to develop a good quality activity stream will certainly affect the attractiveness of your network. This is the most important focal point as well as the driving force behind the success of the launch of the social network. You can use website builder software to install activity stream in your network.
- Creation of Status Update Features
Status updates is a crucial feature. Each social media user wishes to express his feelings as well as thoughts at any time of the day. You have to design the right and perfect tools which will easily make the status updates much more pleasurable as well as easy experience. Even though the Facebook has quite popularised the activity stream, Twitter has been able to make the status update as the mainstream aspect of different social media networks. Status updates are quite addictive. People immediately get hooked with it. If this feature isn’t friendlier to the users as well as easy to use, they will essentially abandon the social media network almost immediately. So, you might be wondering how to design the best status updated tool. Well, it depends on the values on which the social media is built upon. Twitter made a great move by means of limiting the status updates to mere 140 characters. Also, you need to make sure that you add comment feature as the options to the status updates.
There are a huge number of open-source microblogging platforms which you can utilise for creating quality status update feature. You can use website building software which allows you to introduce this feature.
- Better Viewing Data options
You wish to increase the engagement level as well as clicks on the website. That is why you need to develop different data viewing features which will essentially increase the visibility of the content on the social media platform. It is important to note that the users see only what they are allowed to see. The data viewing features need to be user-centric design. It needs to be easy to use as well as accessible. Each user has different preferences. By allowing people to access as well as tailor easily their own experience is a great thing and this will keep them returning over and over again to your social media platform.
Conclusion
Creating social media network is a daunting task. You need to take care of different aspects of it. You need to define the target audience by doing proper research. Choose the right platform and technology to develop it. Outline all the features and functions. Provide distinct features like status updates as well as better data viewing options. Introduce activity stream in the network and take care of security aspects too.