There has never been a better time to start working on some cool app development ideas. With the era of social media in full swing. You can also try your hands on this evergreen domain with new innovative yet funky ideas. There should be many questions that must be revolting in your mind, such as “How would I be able to make something as huge as Facebook?”, “How much time would it take to create such an application?” “Can I do it on my own?” and many more. If you are looking for how to create a social media app, you are welcome to continue reading this article on social media app development.
Let us start with What is Social Media Actually and Why it is Popular:
You might have already heard about many social media giants such as YouTube, Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and professional apps such as LinkedIn. These apps have propelled the organizations to multi-billion dollar empires, some of them even touching the trillion-dollar mark.
What is a Social Network?
It is an online platform where you can build social organizations and relationships with people of common interests, family, or backgrounds. It had been initially projected as a simple virtual get-together platform. However, as of today, it has blown into a complete marketing tool for companies and organizations around the globe. Now, you can host online meetings with friends, family, and co-workers all through an app. It has really helped all types of industries such as IT, Software, and Academic to function smoothly despite the recent pandemic situation. The work from home scenario was so much suited that many companies are adopting this ecosystem.
Features of a Social Network
The important feature of any social media network is that it should display an activity feed that should contain all the latest updates from friends or groups. Additionally, it should include a profile to set up personal information that includes names, profession, profile photo, age, and the option to add images and videos of the most recent activities in your life.
It should be an open gateway to an easy-to-use interface for nearly everyone with an internet connection and a simple, smart device.
Now, why should you create one while there are already established social media platforms out there in the market?
Yes, already there is competition in the market. However, you can still target the audience based on some very basic yet effective approaches to the security of data, say no to an advertisement on the platform, keeping it simple, and catering to a specific skill set or percentage of people interested in a common topic.
Hence, thanks to modern technology and the internet, you have the resources and opportunity to create your own custom social media app that is dedicated to your social sphere and customized to your community’s needs.
Benefit To Create a Social Media App
1. Creating Direct Relationships and Interactions
Using your own social media app can be really helpful as you are not bound by outside rules and regulations. You can design and add additional features which seem good for the community.
2. Safe Community Space
Creating a secure community space that allows us to connect with followers, fans, and other subscribers can be a selling point of your brand new app. Therefore, you can practically push any useful functionality available in the market as you are free to make any decision you want.
3. Easy Monetization
If you have full control over the social media networks, you can strategically place advertisements through-out the application that would not hamper the user experience and would give you a chance to generate income for you and your team.
4. Kick-Out Distractions
There are many unwanted content and bloatware blogging in the current app ecosystem, and you can block such disadvantages giving you the best possible advantage.
So now, while creating a social media platform, it is a prerequisite to have a mobile application, and a lot of effort in developing the app would be in the backend. Backend is the real deal that makes the complete system run smoothly.
You can design an app entirely from scratch or use an already existing web app and work on adding your specific requirements to it.
Requirements of a Social Media App
Now let us discuss the application requirements.
1. User Interaction
This is the main component of any application or software. The features such as push, SMS, Email, publishing the content, animations, gestures, flow, and much more comes under the user interaction or UI.
2. User Management
User registration, along with personal information such as Email, phone number, can be asked from the user to make a unique ID for the social registration.
3. In-App Communication
This includes the use of basic chat options, video calling and social media sharing options, ability to comment on the social media posts.
4. Geolocation
Continuous location tracking can be used to give relevant experience to the user, such as nearby places to eat, cab booking, friends near me, and much more.
5. Data Placement
The audio, video, and texts on the app should be displayed accurately with proper database and structured data, lists, texts.
6. Data Sources Integration
You can use and display data from various sources using API calls. This can diversify the content you are displaying and increase viewership.
However, you can add other features as well, including security using encryption and add payment services if you want to have some premium content for the users, like premium articles, videos, and much more.
You can also add a web portal where you can manage your app statistics and operations.
How to Create a Social Media App: Step-by-Step Guide
Some critical steps need to be followed to answer how to create a social media app.
1. A Well-Planned Strategy
You should thoroughly study your idea to get the best possible strategy for the extra competitive market, analyze the requirements and sort the audience you want to serve. Establish the key performance indicators that should point you to the best possible scenarios and help run the application successfully.
2. Designing the Workflow
Designing the app is always the difficult part of any development cycle. There are many parts to the designing part.
a. Sketching
It includes the basic outline of your future dream application. As a result, they really help assess the features, their implementation, feasibility, and the interaction between them.
b. Wireframing
With the right wireframing platforms, we can start visualizing our sketch and creating the skeletal structure of the application.
c. Prototyping
It is a working model of the future application. It helps in realizing the development of the application. You can add and edit specific elements of the application before starting the development work.
d. Design App
Complete the User Interface and User Experience to provide the best possible solutions.
3. Development on both Android and iOS
The development of the application on major mobile platforms is utterly crucial for the success of the app. Thus, after the prototyping of the application is done, the backend services are set using servers, APIs, database, and storage settings. Manual and automated testing scenarios should be set using the latest quality assurance software. So after extensive testing and application development cycle, we can sort out the best possible app for the extensive rollout to the common public.
4. Publishing and Marketing
Marketing the app is more important than development. A professional team of best management talent is important for the success of the app. However, you can use various platforms to publicize the application, including other social media applications, reviews by professionals, ad campaigns, video guides, and an effective description of the application. This helps the business to stand out at Apple or Google Play Store.
5. Maintenance and Support
Maintaining the app after the initial launch and the customer support for possible bugs is utterly important. Therefore, regular updates with new features should be pushed regularly.
Some Quantitative Measures for How to Create A Social Media App
1. Acquisition: CPI and CAC
a. Cost Per Install (CPI)
It is calculated by tracking the number of installs that resulted from the effective advertisement. The calculation includes dividing the cost involved by the number of installs.
b. Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC)
It is the sum of all the costs involved in all the marketing campaigns that have resulted in attracting a client. This can help in understanding the scaling opportunities available in the future.
2. User Activation
It is the number of active users divided by the number of downloads.
3. User Retention
It includes the proportion of the users who are still using the application after a specific amount of time.
4. Traction
It corresponds to the market demand for such a product.
Conclusion
Social Media App Development is not an easy task that can be completed in a day. A good team with a strong development background, a strong team of social media players, paired with a good and continuous flow of good and innovative ideas in flow with the market, can strike a deal for you.
Therefore, to start working on how to create a social media app and give a life to your dream project. However, we do here at EngineerBabu, which is a next-generation platform to provide your business an opportunity to work with other businesses. Reach out to us, and share your ideas with us to make your dream project a reality.