6 Things to Know Before Creating Your Own Social Network

1
6 Things to Know Before Creating Your Own Social
Network

• http//www.halkwinds.com/

2
As we all know, the social media industry is one
of the most flourishing ones in the present
netizens world and todays digital era.
According to a survey conducted by Statista, over
3.6 billion people, out of 4.66 billion internet
users across the globe use social media, which is
close to 80 of the total! Social media has
become one of the biggest tools in influencing
public opinion, marketing, communication,
building a business, meeting new people,
establishing your brand, entertainment,
educational purposes, and so on. The uses and
opportunities that social media provides are
endless. People use different networks for
different objectives LinkedIn for professional
purposes, WhatsApp for texting with friends,
family, and acquaintances, Instagram and Facebook
for socializing, Tinder and Bumble for dating and
meeting new people, etc. although the purposes
are not always so definitively outlined. However,
there is always an opportunity to create a new
niche, a new purpose, and target a new audience.
If youre looking to create your social
network then read on, in this blog you shall find
6 things that are a must-know to succeed!
3
1 Know Your Target Audience
4

• First and foremost, identify and define your
  community know who could be the active and
  prospective users on your platform. This is very
  crucial as it makes the foundation/core of your
  network all other steps that youll subsequently
  make will be based on your target audience. Doing
  this right will lower the risk of failing in
  later stages of development. Certain methods by
  which you can achieve this are as follows
• Conducting online polls asking people to share
  their vision and opinion on a new social network
  in the market.
• Conducting online research on the market scope
  for your idea. Dig deeper for the right data that
  will help you analyze your target audience.
• Conducting a trial test run. Create a demo
  version of your network and test it on real
  people. Take their feedback and work on your
  shortcomings till you get it right.

5

• 2 Define The Key Features And Functions Of Your
  Social Network
• This is extremely essential as different
  networks have different features based on their
  audience and the purpose they serve. Some
  important features that must be thoroughly
  elaborated right from scratch are
• Profile page (users need to have a profile page
  as it serves as their identity on the platforms
  which helps their connections identify them and
  get to know who they are. It incentivizes people
  to stay on the network by getting social
  recognition and validation).
• Friending (allowing users to connect with others
  and become mutual friends, followers or
  connections of each other).

6

• Photo/video/document uploading (people love to
  share content in all forms, be it audio, visual
  or text, stories, pictures, music tracks, memes,
  etc. This creates variety and makes the content
  more exciting and personal so this feature cannot
  be overlooked.)
• Chat (Communication is key in any social network,
  people like to chat with each other most simply
  without having to leave the site. This is also a
  superb user retention strategy and must be kept
  in mind during developmental stages).
• Event calendars (the reminder/notifications
  feature allows users to stay up to date with
  whats going on and mark important things that
  theyd like to set apart and be reminded about).

7
3 Choose The Right Technology For Developing
Your Social Network It is recommended that you
dont perform this task alone and take the help
of a comprehensive software engineer or
professional developers to ensure that the
latest, most efficient, and most relevant
technologies are used in the building of your
network. This will also save time and costs and
reroute them to be poured over purely business
needs. However, if you choose to do all
operations in-house, then it is suggested that an
analysis of the existing platforms must be
carried out to learn about which technologies
they use and how they apply them.
8
4 Develop A Growth Strategy Based On Your
Users You need to define a consistent growth
strategy based on your target audience as your
commercial success depends on it. The strategy
phases can be viewed as a cycle of birth, growing
up, aging, and death. First is just the
introduction phase wherein you introduce your new
network to your audience and gain members. Start
small and local and then slowly expand your base,
the first few users are most likely geeks looking
to try something new. Next is the growth phase
wherein you acquire new users and functions. In
this stage your increase in the number of users
might not be much, however, this is where you
start to gain recognition from big influencers
and businesses. Your platform is noticed as a
potential tool for marketing, promotions, and
customer management.
9
The next one is the maturity phase wherein your
user growth may be very slow, stagnant, or even
negative. This is the time to launch your user
retention program by adding unique and exciting
new features to your network to revive user
interest. Last is the decline phase wherein
youve reached your peak and will now start to
lose traction. This is unavoidable and must be
dealt with smartly by maximizing the potentials
of the first three stages.
10

• 5 Making Money
• All of this has been in the pursuit of earning
  money and there are numerous ways in which you
  can monetize your social network. Some of the
  ways are
• Ads (companies pay you for putting up sponsored
  posts, brand/product placements, pop-tags,
  special mentions, banners, etc on your platform),
• Selling products (you can sell various physical
  and digital products on your platform such as
  ebooks, games, music, premium versions,
  memberships, food, beverages, merchandise, etc),
• Donations (Donate button these are passive
  receipts from your users),
• Event participation (members pay to participate
  in events hosted by/on the platform),
• Partnering with influencers and businesses
  (affiliate marketing you place their
  banners/ads on your platform and they post your
  banners/ads on theirs).

11

• 6 Promote And Market Your Platform
• To gather users, members, sponsors, and partners,
  you must promote and market your platform
  effectively. Get the message out there, spread
  word about your business direction and goals,
  show that your platform is unique and special,
  and let people know whats in it for them! Keep
  in mind that people are more attracted to
  benefits over features. Before implementing
  anything, plan well so that resources are used
  efficiently and you get your desired result. Some
  of the ways are
• Sending limited invites to a few people and
  giving them free access to some premium features.
  People like to receive exclusive offers and would
  be willing to participate,

12

• Making your network go viral. You will need to
  partner up with popular influencers for this.
  Influencers lead and shape public opinion and can
  help drive traffic towards your platform,
• Using the cross-promotion technique. Rope in
  other social networks to work with you by
  providing them with incentives and request them
  to promote your platform on theirs by putting up
  your banners/ads.
• Now youre ready to venture out to create your
  social networking platform! It is not as easy as
  it sounds, creating something in a market with
  monopoly giants that have huge traction is not a
  cakewalk. If you truly understand and assimilate
  these key points and not just read them for the
  heck of it and put them into practice, then and
  only then can you successfully launch your
  network. If youre ready to take on the
  challenge, then hope this has helped you and now
  you have an idea of what to do.
  And, Halkwinds would love to contribute to your
  success. All the best!

13
Thank you

• info_at_halkwinds.com

• http//www.halkwinds.com/