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Social media application development has changed the way the world interacts with each other. We use social media apps for building a personal and professional network. We also primarily use it as a useful tool to generate business opportunities for our products or services. The most commonly used social media apps are Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and so on.
So you must be wondering, when we already have so many apps available in the market, then why develop another social media app? We are social animals, and we need means to connect with people of like interests. If tomorrow we develop a social media application targeting only the painter’s community, all new and experienced painters would like to join to share topics of their interest, work, and so on. It would give them a great platform to interact with people of like-minded interests. They can use it to share their ideas, any course available to enhance their skill, any work opportunity, and so on.
Various Types of Social Media Applications in the Market
When you plan to develop social media applications, you must first understand the different types of apps in the market.
1. Public Network
It develops people connections for personal and professional reasons, for example, apps like Facebook, LinkedIn.
2. Media Sharing Network
These apps are used to share media files like photos, videos, and so on. Examples of such apps include YouTube, Instagram, Snapchat, and many more.
3. Customer Review Network
People share reviews about a particular service or product they have used with a larger community through these apps. For example, Zomato, Foursquare, and so on.
4. Discussion Platforms
There are popular platforms used to answer various questions, discuss various topics, and share any trending news. For example, Quora, Reddit, and so on.
5. Bookmarking Network
Here people find, organize, share and save a resource they like from the available resources. Examples of such apps are Pinterest, Flipboard, and so on.
6. Dating Networks
It is used to find a match looking to start a new relationship, for example, Tinder, Muzmatch, and so on.
7. Blogging Networks
It is ideal for newbie bloggers who want to share their blogs or ideas with the world like Medium, WordPress, etc.
Why need Social Media Application Development?
The existing social media apps do not give complete information about the people with whom you interact. They want you to come back to them for business. With social media application development, you have the privilege to access all the data of your community. Also, you can directly interact with your customers without any restrictions.
Also, social media application development for your business gives you a choice to design your application’s layout. You can choose the functionalities and ways of interactions that best suits you. Also, you need to be sure that the content you publish should reach your targeted community. Your people are also not distracted by unnecessary ads.
Functionalities of Social Media Application Development
Below is a list of necessary features to incorporate in your social media application
- Registering a new user
- Creating a personalized user profile
- Connecting with friends
- Sharing stories
- Social News update
- Instant private and public messaging services
- Getting notifications for comments, messages received, etc.
- Search capability to find a particular group of people
- Live streaming on social media apps
Here are a few additional features that you can consider for social media application development.
- Providing content according to the location of the user
- Providing AI-based chatbot service to the user for quicker responses
- Using AR technology to give a unique experience to your audience
- Provision for Peer-to-peer payment facility
- Sharing of content among different platforms
Step-by-Step Guidance for Social Media Application Development
A social media application development comprises of:
- The customer or client uses the front-end interface to post their messages, connect with friends, etc.
- A backend technology like Node.js is used to manage the performance and scalability of your social media application.
- MySQL and PostgreSQL are preferred databases used to store the data of customers on social media apps.
Now let me discuss the steps that you should take to develop your social media application.
1. Define Purpose and Target Audience
First and foremost, decide what will be the purpose for which your customers will download your app. Are you going to provide them with a platform to search for local friends from their city or share career opportunities with them? Please find out the unique purpose of your app. It will help you in finding your target audience too.
The next important step would be to study your competitor app. Try to understand which are the most popular features. Also, please find out the ones missing from them. Try to incorporate all such features during social media application development.
2. Designing
Now we must design the layout of the social media app. It will help you in understanding how many screens are needed. It will also enable you to understand what features and functionalities need to be implemented using the app. You also need to decide if the application will run on Android or iOS or both platforms.
3. Social Media Application Development
Once the design is worked out, you need to start with the wireframing process. It will give developers a view of the core structure of the application. Then they can proceed with developing the prototype for the social media application. The prototype developed will help in understanding the look and feel of the application. Any changes, if needed, can be implemented at this stage. Then you can proceed to code the final social media application.
You would need to configure the servers and databases. Integrating the applications with APIs helps to achieve the desired functionalities. Also, you would need to perform system integration and performance testing.
In addition to these features, you will also have to provide a secure environment for your users. They need assurance that their data is safe with you.
The designing and social media application development go hand-in-hand. Here, you can take the help of an experienced company that can offer you social media application development at a reasonable price.
4. Publishing and Marketing the Social Media Application
You need to create sample screens and videos used as promotional materials while launching the app. You can also develop a strategy or introduce offers that will attract customers and ensure that they download your app.
Marketing should ideally begin during the development stage. It will help you get maximum downloads soon after the launch of your app at different play stores.
5. Continuous Monitoring
Now the real test begins after the launch of the app. You need to continuously monitor how many people are downloading your app, how long they stay back. Also, analyze what issues they are facing while using different features. Also, keep track of how many users are uninstalling your app. You can take feedback from your customers. All this data will help you in making enhancements to your social media applications.
Factors on which Social Media Application Development Cost Varies
The cost of any social media application development depends on various factors like;
- The complexity involved in creating the graphical interface for the user.
- The functionalities that needed to be implemented.
- The platform where the app needs to be deployed.
How to Monetize your Social Media Application?
As a business owner, you will be investing in social media application development. So you should also be able to generate revenue from the app.
The different popular methods to monetize your social media application are;
- You can advertise different relevant brands to your users. But you should not crowd the social media page with advertisements; otherwise, it can become bugging for your user.
- You can also provide free subscriptions for viewing valuable content on your app. Along with this, you can offer paid subscriptions to your customers to access premium content.
- You may sell the fancy community merchandise that will help you create an income and improve brand awareness.
- You can also provide purchase options to your customer who wishes to purchase any of your e-books. It allows to book a ticket to your webinar, or buy a course from you.
Why Supersourcing for Social Media Application Development?
At Supersourcing, you can easily post your requirement in five minutes. However, you will get a chance to interact with the verified agencies directly and get quotations from them based on your requirement. You can directly discuss and finalize the agency that satisfies all your desired criteria to build a Social Media application for you. Additionally, can close the deal, and your work on Social Media Application development begins with our continuous support and guidance during the process. We assure you of the quality delivery of the social media application in committed timelines.
At Supersourcing, we are an outsourcing platform that will help manage the project taken up by the agencies to give shape to your social media application development idea. We provide you with development work completed in less time and the lowest project cost while effectively managing the project.