“Hot” or “Not”, also known as Facemash, developed in 2003 by Mark Zuckerberg, was the origin of the world-famous Facebook. It got shut down in a few days by Harvard, and Mark Zuckerberg faced charges of violating individual privacy and copyrights and breaching security. We all know the story of what happened later, Mark Zuckerberg became the world’s youngest multi-billionaire.
But did Zuckerberg invent social media? The answer is no, it had existed before, he revolutionized social media. In 1973, a 17 year-old boy named Dave Wolley wrote a real Notes program. The idea was to create a bulletin board where users can write notes and people can respond to them. He also created Talkomatic, a multi-user chat room. Both of these offer early forms of social media.
The history of social media is long, but all of them were created in order to interact and share with others online. From Notes to Facebook to Linkedin, every platform facilitated the basic urge of ours, i.e., communication. The ever-evolving technology has also made us reimagine the ways we interact and build a social network. Social media apps in today’s time have become a necessity, they facilitate communication and cater to our need for connection.
Do you also have an idea on how we change or modify this digital platform-based communication channel? If yes, then we got you covered with our complete manual on how to create a viral social media app.
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Just like other areas in our lives have transformed over the time, social media apps have also evolved and transformed. What exactly is a social media app? Well, it’s a digital platform to connect, interact, share, and consume content. They anyway cater to various interests, target audiences, and demographics, but they also unifies the users. There are various social media apps, and here’s a list of common categories:
Social Networking Sites: Facebook and Linkedin are examples of this category. These are designed for connecting with friends, family and networking with professionals, respectively. If you wish to build a social network, our industry experts are here to help you.
Photo and Video Sharing Apps: These apps focus on creating and sharing multimedia content such as YouTube and Instagram. Youtube offers uploading and viewing videos of all lengths, whereas Instagram focuses on short videos and photos.
Messaging Apps: Their role is to provide a messaging platform. WhatsApp and Telegram are the biggest players of this category. They also provide features of audio texting and video messaging.
Content Discovery and Aggregation: These allow users to discover, discuss, save and share content. For example,on Pinterest you can discover and explore content and on Reddit you can discuss topics of your interest.
Social Gaming Platforms: Twitch and Discord are known names in the gaming world. These apps have combined the world of gaming and social interaction. They made us all flip out at some moment.
Dating Apps: These apps were designed for romantic connections, to help find users their romantic partners unlike finding or connecting with “friends” or “family”. Tinder is known for its swipe-right-to-like feature and Bumble made the statement with the “Women takes the first move in heterosexual matches” feature.
There are other types of social media apps as well, such as Microblogging Platforms, Review and Recommendation sites, professional development and learning apps and many more. Each app has its own unique features and purpose. If you are also looking forward to building a networking app, continue reading the blog.
Well, you have an idea, and you want to know how to create a social media app. You also want to make it viral, like Instagram, TikTok, and many more. We understand, all this can be overwhelming; hence, we have prepared a manual on how to create a social media app. Starting from planning to deployment, we are here to help.
It is a crucial step as the success of your social media app is going to rely on its features and user engagement. Take a notebook and pen or an iPad and jot down the following things:
Who are we building the app for? This means you need to identify your target audience.
What is the App’s Purpose ? Establish the primary goal of your social media app. Is the app for building a social network, sharing multimedia content, facilitating communication, or something else? The purpose of your app will determine the features of the app.
Once you have clear ideas about the purpose and the target audience, we can move on to the next step.
It is a key task ,and it will help you position your social media app uniquely and avoid features that are already successful in the market. It is important to determine what gap or need your app will be filling. You must research similar existing apps and see what they offer and what their shortcomings are.
A SWOT Analysis will work really well here. By doing a SWOT ( Strength, Weakness, Opportunities, Threat) analysis, you will be able to figure out a lot. An example of how to do a SWOT analysis and a template are given for you.
The last step of the ideation process is thinking about how to generate revenue. This could affect the app’s features, such as premium features, subscriptions, providing in-app purchases, and many more.
It’s okay to feel a little confused and stressed. Our team of seasoned web developers is here with you in the ideation process as well.
Once the whole process of ideation is over, we must address the elephant in the room, i.e., how to create a social media app. The development of an app is a tedious task involving the development of various features, and it depends on various factors. Well, we tried to break down the whole process for you briefly.
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Designing in social media app development involves creating the visual and functional aspects. It also ensures that the app is user-friendly, aesthetic, and many more. It will majorly involve four steps:
Wireframes: These are simplified visual representations of the app’s layout and basic structure. They help in defining the placement of the vital elements on the pages. In all, they will provide a clear idea of how content will be organized on the app. These will allow quick revisions and feedback. This also helps in visualizing user interface and flow of the app.
Prototype: These are interactive and simulate the user interaction with the app or website. They will help in refining the design before the development of the app takes place.
User Interface (UI): This is the designing of the visual aspects of the app. This includes everything from the colors to icons. It helps in enhancing the overall aesthetics and align the app with the brand or the target audience.
User Experience (UX): This involves the designing of the user journey. It simply means, how the users will navigate, interact with the app and many more. This will define whether the app is user-friendly or not. One of the factors defining the success of an app or a website is its user experience. If the users are not in ease while using your app, they will not return back.
Front-End Development: It refers to the development of the client-side of the app. It focuses on the User-Interface (UI) and User-Experience (UX), about which we just discussed. Our team of experienced front-end developers can help you with your social media app development process.
Back-End Development: It involves developing the server-side components. These include databases, server logic, and more.
API Development: Application Programming Interface (API) refers to the tools and functions required for communication between two programs.
Testing and Quality Assurance: The last step in the development of a social media app will be testing. Testing ensures that all the components and functions are working smoothly and correctly. It will also require texting the app in a controlled environment as well as testing it with users. And finally, fixing if any issue or bug arises.
Now, when the testing is complete and the app is ready, you have to deploy the social media app. It means preparing the app for release. You have to submit the app to relevant app stores, such as Apple App Store and Google Play Store, and follow their review processes. The launch of the social media app for the users comes next.
The app also requires post-launch support. It consists of monitoring the app’s performance, updates and maintenance, and much more.
We also have to promote our app so that people are aware of its existence. It can start pre-launch or post-launch, whatever suits you the best. Pre-launch will be more beneficial if you ask for our suggestions. You have to implement marketing strategies for awareness and visibility. It can include social media marketing, content marketing, partnerships, billboard advertising, and much more. You can also go through our blog on Top 5 outstanding Digital Marketing services to Improve Results
There are few tips you can keep in mind during the ideation process for an enhanced user experience. The more users feel comfortable, the more successful your app will be. So, here’s the list:
User Profiles: A customizable profile is always a popular feature. You should also decide what information users can share about themselves. This often includes profile pictures, personal information and bios.
Content Creation and Sharing: What type of content users can create and share. For example, on Youtube we can create and share videos of all lengths, whereas Instagram has a limit.
Interaction and Communication: How your users will interact with each other. This is an essential component, as the purpose of social media is connection, communication, and interaction. It will include features such as likes, comments, video calls, private chat rooms, reactions, and much more.
Privacy and Security: You have to integrate robust features of data privacy and security.
Analytics and Insights: You must offer the feature of tools to track their engagement and activity. It can be to track their views, follower growth, or others.
You can discuss all these while discussing your planning with the developers. If you need help with planning, you can also discuss that with our developers. Technoprofiles is known for its custom web development.
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So far, we have briefly discussed the emergence of social media, types of social media apps, and social media app development. We also touched upon the components of the design and development of an app. It was all discussed in brief, and it needs to be discussed in a detailed manner to understand more.
There are different types of programming languages, databases, and much more that need in-depth analysis, and we will be covering a few things in our next blog. It will be beneficial for you to understand what is better for creating a social media app and building a social network.
It’s suggested to give ample amount of time to the planning and ideation process as it digs the foundation of your success. The development of a social media app will require a seamless blend of creativity, technical expertise, and a deep understanding of your target consumers. There are enough people available in the market to help you out, and you must seek information wherever and whenever required.
By planning ahead and by taking proper precautions and following guidelines, you will be able to create a viral social media app. You must also spend time in marketing. Lastly, I would suggest taking a leap of faith and starting your journey of entrepreneurship and building a social media app.
Daksh, is an experienced Frontend developer with a passion for social media marketing and writing technical content. With more than 4 years of experience in the development industry, his expertise lies in UX and UI designing, Tailwind, and Bootstrap. When not coding, Daksh enjoys staying up-to-date with the latest trends in social media marketing and technology. He also enjoys sharing his knowledge with young, aspiring developers.
