Social media platform creation can be a great venture, but you have to think strategically before you dive in. Considering over 5.17 billion people actively use social media, the need for inventive platforms in increasing at an alarming rate. In this article, we’ll take you through 9 essential steps showing how to create a social media platform, that have been validated by the most recent statistics and industry expert insights.
First, let’s look at some recent statistics: The social media app market was valued at $49.09 billion in 2023 and is projected to exhibit a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 26.2% during the forecast period from 2023 to 2030. This is huge for new platforms. But it’s not just about the number of social channels that the average user frequents: They visit six and a half different social platforms per month, putting greater importance on operating across multiple channels.
Next, we’ll walk through how to get your platform to market from concept to launch. Additionally, we’ll discuss each step in detail, with examples and links to related reports so you can make a full understanding of the process.
An Overview of the Social Media Platform Landscape
Social media platform creation is an exciting venture, but before you do that let’s understand the current landscape. In 2024, the number of social media users will exceed 4.9 billion. By 2027, we expect this number to grow to 5.85 billion. In fact, the top platforms for that are Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, WhatsApp, TikTok, and WeChat, which all have more than one billion monthly active users.
One emerging trend is the rise of decentralized platforms like Bluesky. Launched in 2024, Bluesky has since taken off, hitting more than 18.5 million users. Unlike others, this platform allows control by users and data ownership, hence providing a more secure and personalized journey.
One of the other platforms with a net worth of $6.61 billion is Truth Social (as of November 2024). It is filled with controversies, but it is an alternative to mainstream social media platforms.
It’s critical to understand these trends and change your platform so you can compete in this difficult market. For more detailed insights, you can refer to the Digital 2024: Global Overview Report.
The Role of Web and App Development Firms
To create a social media platform, you need expertise on web and app development. The work of web and app development firms is important because it transforms ideas into reality. From the initial concept to final deployment they cover everything, guarantees seamless user experience.
Designveloper is a leading player in this field. Over 11 years, we have extensive experience in delivering projects – some of our projects are the ODC healthcare platform and LuminPDF app. We have a team of 100+ professionals who can do web, mobile, UI/UX and VOIP developemnt.
According to the statistics in recent years, most of software development projects are enterprise applications, thereby, enterprises need specialized firms like Designveloper to perform these types of software. We take a systematic approach to provide cost effective high quality services.
Through collaboration with experts like us at Designveloper, you will benefit from additional knowledge in developing a solid and interactive social media platform.
How to Create a Social Media Platform: A 9-Step Guide
It is a rewarding venture to create a social media platform, and it is necessary to plan and execute carefully. Over 5.17 billion people use social media online and this figure is an opportunity for huge success in business. But it’s no small feat to build a platform that stands out in a market that crowded. Whatwe hope to show you in this guide is a step by step approach you can use to create an MVP social media platform that not only gathers users but stimulates their user retention.
1. Define Your Niche and Target Audience
To create a social media platform, you have to find a niche and know the kind of audience your platform targets. This step is very important as it ensures that your platform is the best among many others in the market.
Currently we have around 5.16 billion active social media users by 2024. However, this also presents a huge opportunity for new platforms, and assuming that a habit can be broken from a single specific touchpoint, it becomes critical for differentiation.
Forbes also reports that the average user now spans out their digital footprint using six to seven platforms per month. It is important to target a specific audience for developing a loyal user base that numbers in the millions.
Think of platforms such as TikTok, which catered to younger audiences through short form video content or LinkedIn which specifically engages in professional networking. Each of the platforms made up where the other did not due to it.
Defining your niche and knowing your ideal audience will ensure that the platform serves their entire scope of interests and personal preferences. Not only does it attract users, but it keeps them too.
Recommended reading: Social Media Strategy for Small Businesses: Complete Guide [2023]
2. Conduct Market Research
The first step to creating a social media platform is to look at the market. The act of doing thorough market research aids in identifying trends, it brings out audience who the product can be targeted on and who the likely available competitors could be. Here are the steps to follow:
Identify Your Target Audienc
Figure out who your potential users are. Then, look into demographics like age, gender, location and interests. For instance, if you are developing your platform for professionals, your target audience could include working adults between the ages of 25 — 45.
Analyze Competitors
Study existing social media platforms for travelling. Brows their strengths and weaknesses, their features and user engagement. It will help you know what to use, and more importantly, what NOT to use.
Gather Data
You should use tools like Google Trends, social media analytics and surveys to find the data. For example, according to Statista, the social media app market is estimated to reach $49.09 billion in 2022, growing to $212.68 billion at a CAGR of 26.2% during the period 2023 – 2030.
Understand Market Trends
Follow the hottest trends of social media. According to Forbes, by 2027, the number of social media users worldwide will sneak up to 5.85 billion. This brings the attention to an increasing role of social media in people life.
Evaluate Market Needs
Find out about the gaps in the market that your platform will be able to fill. Take, for instance, a social media app that seeks to provide more privacy related features to users, consider further integrating stronger privacy features.
Conduct Surveys and Focus Groups
Potential users get straight feedback. Get invaluable insight into what features and improvements users want via surveys and focus groups.
Review Industry Reports
Check out reports, such as the social media global market report 2024 by The Business Research Company. They give you in depth analysis and forecasts to base your strategy on.
Analyze Financial Viability
Calculate the cost of your platform. Account for development, marketing and maintenance costs. Make sure that you have a workable revenue model, like advertising or premium features.
If you follow these steps, you will better be able to gather information needed to make informed decisions that will allow you to create a social media platform that not only meets its users’ needs but stands out in the market.
Recommended reading: 5 Best App Builders to Help You Get an App Faster
3. Create a Business Plan
Creating a business plan is a crucial step in launching a social media platform. It’s a roadmap — a how to for developing whatever you are developing, and how to fund yourself. Here are the key components to include:
Executive Summary
Begin your social media platform with a short introduction. In this post, we highlight the uniqueness of the problem, and the need it solves. State who your targeted audience is as well as the potential of that market.
Market Research
Do thorough market research to know your target audience and then your competitors. Back your findings up with recent statistics. Take for instance that, by 2024, there are over 5.17 billion social media users worldwide. You can learn trends and opportunities by looking at this data.
Business Model
State how your platform will make money. Will your ads be using any subscriptions or in app purchases? Give specific examples of business models that have worked on other social media platforms.
Marketing Strategy
Draw out your plan for enticing and holding users. Mention your marketing campaigns, social media, and partnership. For example, the plans as to how TikTok became so famous was by using viral marketing strategies and partnering with influencers.
Operational Plan
Explain how your platform functions day to day. It includes the technology stack, the development team and the customer support. Say what third party services you’ll be using like cloud storage or payment gateways.
Financial Projections
Provide financial forecasts for the next three to five years. Projection of revenues, expenses, and margins of profit. During preparing projections, support these projections using reports and studies. Services like Twitter and Facebook are also included in social media app, for example, social media app market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 26.2% by 2030.
Funding Requirements
If you’re looking for investment, identify how much funding you want and what you intend to use it for. Bring out the possible return on investment to investors.
Risk Analysis
Try to identify potential risks and challenges that your platform can potentially face. Create ways to address the risk of these risks. For example, address data security measures as well as concerns that the privacy of addresses is being breached.
4. Design User Interface (UI) and User Experience (UX)
To build a social media platform you need a good user interface (UI) and user experience (UX) design. Here are the steps to achieve this:
Understand Your Audience’
First of all, research your target audience. With enough understanding of the needs, behaviuors and preferences of your users, you will be able to make informed decisions about how to design a mobile website. For example, it can be more colorful and in interactive mode for a younger population and simple and easy to use for an older one.
Create Wireframes and Prototypes
Simple sketches of your platform layout are wireframes. It helps visualize where elements such as buttons, images and text, will be placed. Interactive models that simulate the user experience are called prototypes. This step can be helpful with tools like Figma and Sketch.
Focus on Usability
Make sure to make things simple for your platform. Minimizing the learning curve for new users is the prime benefit of a good UX design. Don’t create unclear labels, unclear labeling, neither unclear nor be unclear.
Incorporate Accessibility
An accessible platform is a platform that’s available to everyone, disabled or not. This means providing text alternatives to images, keyboard navigation, use of high contrast color schemes, etc.
Optimize for Mobile Devices
As people use smartphones more, your platform needs to be mobile friendly. Your platform has to look and operate normally on all devices, regardless of any device that uses your platform.
Test and Iterate
Gather feedback through usability testing with real users. Iterate on your design using this feedback. UserTesting or Hotjar are tools you can use to gain valuable insights.
Stay Updated with Trends
Monitor the top UI/UX trends and best practices. Other platforms such as Dribbble or Behance show off revolutionary designs to inspire your own work.
Following these steps will enable one to create a social media platform that is able to attract massive numbers but is very much user friendly and attractive. The key is not to forget that you want to make an experience users return to.
Recommended reading: Top 10+ Software Development Companies in India
5. Choose the Right Technology Stack
The right technology stack selection is crucial to create a social media platform, therefore. Choosing one of these systems has implications in terms of performance, scalability, and ultimately user experience. Here are some key considerations:
Frontend Development
Use modern Framework such as React.jsor Vue.jsfor dynamic user interface that is also responsive. These are popular frameworks due to the fact that they are flexible and a well supported within a community.
Backend Development
Consider using Node.js as the backend. It’s practical for dealing with real time data and adaptable to meet increased user demand.
Database Management
Choose to use a solid database solution like MongoDB or PostgreSQL. It comes with such databases that have a high performance and are suitable for handling big amount of data.
Cloud Services
Host your platform and manage with cloud platforms like AWS or Google Cloud. With these services, you get scalability and reliability: your platform can handle traffic spikes.
Security
Encrypt user data on the client side and implement strong security to protect this user data. Communicate securely with SSL/TLS and if possible, add two factors of authentication to increase security.
Analytics
Integrate integration analytics tools like Google Analytics or Mixpanel to track user engagment and platform performance. These tools make data driven decisions to better the platform.
APIs
Use third party APIs for payment processing, social logins, or a CDN. It can rescue development time and passable services.
Mobile Responsiveness
Make sure your platform is mobile friendly. According to Statista, over 5 billion social media users exist and globally the majority of them access their platforms utilizing a mobile device.
User Experience (UX)
Create an intuitive user friendly interface. Perform user testing and collect feedback to improve UX continuously.
Scalability
Choose technologies that will scale easily and plan for how you will grow in the future. It means using load balancers and optimizing the code for performance.
If you are careful in choosing the right technology stack, you can build a solid social media platform that puts users’ needs first and lasts.
6. Develop Key Features
Building a social media platform takes a lot of thought and work. The key features are what will make your platform stand out from other web platforms. Here are some essential features to consider:
User Profiles
Ultimately users will be able to create and customize their own profiles. This also encompasses adding profile picture, bio and other personal information. Yet user profiles are an integral part of what the report by DataReportal refers to as all social media platforms.
News Feed
Implement a dynamic news feed that users receive updates from whom they are connected. All of this keeps users engaged and visiting the platform.
Messaging
Provide a strong messaging system to privately communicate between users. It can include anything from text to images to videos or even voice messages.
Content Sharing
Let users share different kinds of things like text posts, photos, videos, and links. This is one of the core features of every social media platform.
Notifications
Push real time notifications to keep users informed of activity on their profiles like likes, comments and messages.
Search Functionality
Enables users to search for other users, content or hashtags. It allows users to quickly navigate through the platform and find what they want.
Privacy Settings
Give users the power over their privacy with configurable settings. Some of the restrictions are included for who can post on their accounts, who they can message, and what information is public.
Analytics
Provide analytics tools for the posts and profiles of your users to track their performance. Users can benefit from using this so they can understand their audience and make their content better.
Integration with Other Platforms
Users can your allow them to connect to their social media accounts from a other platform and share a content as well as interact with wider audience.
User Support
Produce a support system which allows users to report issues, receive help, and solve problems.
7. Implement Security Measures
Security has to be a core feature of any new social media platform, since they store so much personal data about their users they need to protect it and be trusted. Strong authentication is essential to be implemented. This includes adding an extra layer of security in the form of multi factor authentication (MFA) – which makes it much less likely that an attacker will be able to compromise an account. According to a Google report, 20% of social media accounts will be breached at some point. On the flipside, this risk can be mitigated well by using MFA.
The other crucial step is encrypting data. All sensitive data in transit and at rest must be encrypted. This metric ensures that data is intercepted, unreadable to unauthorized users. Security audits are normally quite important in ruling out and all the time fixing vulnerabilities. Performing these audits proactively empowers the stay ahead of those potential threats.
Next is keeping software and systems up to date, with the most recent security patches. Cybercriminals will exploit outdated software, so it’s imperative you keep your software current. Advanced threat detection tools on their own are of little use if they are not used in conjunction with monitoring tools to detect these threats in their earliest stages, saving the company from catastrophic damage.
Finally, with role based access controls, only the users who need the certain information and the features get access to it in their end. Relevant data protection regulations like GDPR and CCPA compliance is important to avoid legal issues and earn users’ trust.
8. Test and Iterate
Social media platform creation demands lot of testing and iteration to maintain user service requirements and competing with an existing platform. You can launch a beta version to hook into a small group of users to give them feedback. Identify key metrics to monitor like user engagement, retention rates and feedback to see room for improvement.
Take, for example, Instagram: before taking their features (like Stories or Direct Messaging) global, they tested them with a limited number of users first. With this approach they could develop features based on real user experience.
On a regular basis update your platform based on the feedback from your users and the new trends that are emerging out on the market. Conduct A/B testing to test different feature and design ideas. For instance, a subset of users are commonly tested with new interface designs by Facebook to understand its effect on user experience.
Know about the latest of social media stats and trends. For example, a report shows that that the average amount of time people spend on social networking per day is 2 hrs and 20 min. With this, you cement that platform and create features and/or content to keep them on your platform, making your product valuable to them.
And lastly, don’t be scared to pivot, if you have to change big time. For example, Twitter has redesigned and had various feature upgrades, in order to improve user experience and engagement.
9. Launch Your Platform
The most important step is when you start running your social media platform. That’s the moment when your idea goes from your mind into the world. Here’s how to do it effectively:
- You can’t just go live without thorough testing. Ensure that all features are working seamlessly and then fix any bugs encountered. This is very important in preventing technical issues that will excite your users.
- Make a detailed plan on how you can launch. Your plan should contain a timeline, marketing strategy, and key performance indicators (KPIs) to determine if you have succeeded.
- Knowing what it takes to identify and engage these potential early adopters. These people can offer your users valuable feedback, and get the word out about your platform.
- Connect with influencers that are able to sell your platform to their fans. This can do wonders for improving your visibility and bringing you new users.
- Promote your launch on existing social media platforms. Create excitement with teasers, countdowns, behind the scenes content.
- Once live, watch the platform’s performance closely. Monitor user engagement, receive user feedback and encounter any problems.
- Make necessary improvements based on user feedback as well as performance data. Keep updating and improving your platform, so users would remain engaged and happy.
- Just launching your platform is not enough. From there, it’s now your real work to grow and maintain the user base.
Conclusion
It’s challenging, but rewarding when you create a social media platform. If you want to do so, you too potentially can build a platform which connects millions of users around the world with a bit of help. Remember, success in this field requires continuous learning, adaptation, and innovation. Stay updated with the latest trends and technologies to keep your platform relevant and engaging.
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