How To Build An Engaging Social Network From Scratch? By James Tredwell on September 30, 2019 Most of us know about the social network, it is an online platform through which people communicate or share their views. To start communication, people need to fill their personal details in the account pages to express themselves to the whole world. It is quite essential to survive in this digital world without online communication. People spend most of their time by surfing social channels to check news feeds, messages, comments on different posts. On the other hand, business enterprises are using networks to grow sales & ROI. To understand the social network development process, let’s first understand what the network is and how to build it. Introduction to Social Network It is a platform that provides people the opportunities to interact with others by sharing posts, leaving comments and sending messages on other posts. People expand their business by connecting with others connected already to the platform. Types of Social Network Platform This classification is beneficial for a business to meet their needs. Hybrid Networks Web-Based Networks Mobile Social Networks The process to Build A Social Network The process to build a network completely depends on the business purpose and requirements. In this blog, proper steps are mentioned for better understanding: 1. Analyze Audience Requirements The most important thing to start any project whether it is related to website development is the analysis of the audience requirements. What is this network and who will benefit from it? This is an important question to which answer is required & it helps in making the strategy of the development work. Do some data mining for proper insights regarding the latest marketing trends, competitor strategy, and consumer behavior. It is important to take the analysis on a serious note as it is the base of the complete project. 2. Design & Development A social network website development is a big and complex job to do that needs a dedicated team of developers. When you have analyzed a proper requirement plan about your target audience and shared with the developers, they will begin the coding work. They will design an engaging UI/UX design to engage visitors to the platform and increase customer engagement. In this step, your idea gets converted into reality. This process comprises of other tasks as well like setting up servers, databases, and API. 3. Testing & Quality Check Once the social website is developed, the testing phase starts. In testing, all code and functionality are verified to ensure everything is running appropriately and no errors are present. Different kinds of testing are done including unit, Agile, and module to see the application performance in every scenario. Quality checks are executed by the experts’ team to make sure if any kind of error is present or not. Quality is the utmost factor behind success and can’t be compromised at all. 4. Deployment Once the social network is tested and is performing properly, it’s the perfect time to deploy it over the servers and analyzing its actual performance. The app is released on Google Play and AppStore. Once the deployment is over, the user feedback is studied regarding website working, network layout, performance and engagement. 5. Support & Maintenance After the project is deployed, support & maintenance is essential. If any error occurs regarding the social network performance, functionality, an update is needed, the support team immediately fix issues. For a successful network and proper performance, reliable support is very essential. 6. Build on Latest Technology If you have decided to build a social website, it is important to comprise of the latest technology. The users want a smooth running website for optimized performance. A good technology always improves the functionality of the social platform. A small mistake can lose potential customers and can put a bad impact on business sales. Always hire a team of experienced developers because they know the latest technologies that give the audience satisfaction they are looking for. 7. Marketing It is an important phase which needs special attention and several enterprises assign a specific budget for it. It is a long term process and can be done before the development phase. To reach users and improve business sales, marketing is highly significant. It will take you ahead of the competitors and recognized for sure. It connects a business to the actual user. Marketing is a great way to present yourself to the customer and without this, it is difficult to connect with them. If a user doesn’t know the platform, how will they interact with it? 8. Include Current Trends Users love to explore the latest technologies and trends on their website. It is highly important from the business point to integrate the latest trends on the website. To stay ahead of the competitors and bring users in big numbers you need to be updated. The most popular trends are: Media Sharing: – Users love platforms to share their photos and videos to express themselves. The website users communicate with their friends and family. Messaging Platform: – This completely changed the way people interact with each other. Some social platforms are known for their interactive communication feature. Conclusion: People love exploring social network websites because it connects a user to another in a very appealing manner. To start a social website, it is highly important to know the audience requirements, competitors work and current trends. Once all requirements are analyzed, it is easy to start the development job. Developing social channels for your brand, you will get a perfect business solution for the desired requirements. Hire a team of developers having the proper experience and skills to deal with any challenge with ease. Author Bio – Noor Moore is the Sr Social engine developer in SocialEngine India – Social Network Development provider worldwide. She has great experience in social engine technology and loves to share her knowledge with all tech lovers.