Globally over one-third of the world’s population uses smartphones, that’s huge right? Imagine the money
social media apps must be generating, You can also earn money through your own social media app.
Thinking about how to create your own social media app?
You might be wondering that you don’t stand a chance in front of social media giants like Facebook,
right? But that’s not the case, the market is still open to newcomers who can revolutionize the social media world.
Questions like, how to build a social media app like Facebook?, How much does it cost to make a social media app? what is the procedure for creating the app? must be lingering in your mind.
But don’t worry, this blog will get you enlightened.
Key takeaways
- Find out about the trends in social media, how users are constantly growing.
- Explore the types of social media apps
- Learn the process of “how to make a social media app”
- Discover monetization strategies for social media app
- Find out what metrics to monitor for your social media app
- Have a look at the process flow for social media app development.
Let’s have a quick introduction to, What Is Social Media?
Let’s see if your concept about social media is clear or not. If you are one of those people who
think that social media consists of Twitter, Facebook and Instagram then you have a blurry
concept of social media. There’s much more than that.
Social media is any social platform that connects people globally.
Social media can be any platform or channel that brings people together by sharing photos, videos,
posts, statues, etc with each other.
Social media channels like Facebook and Twitter were only restricted to websites, but with the
passage of time mobile apps for these social media became a necessity.
Facts and statistics about Social media
The Pandemic turned the whole world upside down. But the Pandemic helped new social media
apps to emerge and also increased the number of active users. This happened because during
lockdown people were mostly stuck in their houses with nothing to do except using social media
channels to connect with friends and relatives.
2020 alone witnessed over 1.3 million new users who joined social media networks, the social
media usage increase was calculated to be around 13.2%
Growth prediction of social media apps
Over 90% of millennials use social networks and approximately 80% of companies do their
marketing through social media platforms.
Currently, over 3.6 billion people are using social media globally. This number is expected to
reach over 4 billion by 2025. This makes it clear that there is an enormous market available for
people who are thinking of making their own social media app.
Types of Social Media Apps
Let’s discuss the different types of social media apps, this will give you clarity about social media.
1. Social Network Apps
Social networking apps like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn connect people so that they can
create a professional connection or personal connection. Linkedin is a platform for
professionals. While Facebook and Twitter are for personal connection.
2. Media Sharing Networks
This type of social media apps allows sharing of media files like photos, gifs, and videos. Some
prominent examples of media sharing apps are Snapchat, Youtube, Instagram, and Vimeo.
3. Discussion Forums
These platforms are built with the purpose to have a community that can discuss the topic,
answer questions, and shares insights. Quora and Reddit are two examples.
4. Consumer review Network
A platform that is solely dedicated to reviews on businesses by customers. This can be a great
help for people looking to buy any product or service from a business. Yelp and Etsy are two
major examples.
5. Blogging Platforms
Medium and Tumblr are two blogging platforms that let people share blogs. This lets users read
high-quality blogs and let the writer tap into a big audience without the creation of a blog website.
6. Relationship Networks
Dating services app allows people to find partners according to their compatibility. Tinder and
Badoo are popular examples of these apps.
7. Messenger Apps
Chatting with friends and relatives is always fun. Social messaging apps make it easier and
convenient to chat. Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, and Viber are some popular examples.
8. Bookmarking Networks
Apps such as Flipboard and Pinterest let users bookmark content. This is a very useful method of
finding content through interactive visuals.
9. News Apps
News apps let you stay updated with whatever is happening around the world. Say goodbye to
newspapers! Flipboard and Lifehack are examples of these apps.
How to Create a Striking Social Media App?
We have defined a process that will make it easy for you to create a social media app that will get
traction.
Market Analysis and Brainstorming Ideas
It is very important to analyze the market and see what app ideas you can work with. If you plan on
making an app that has no market demand, then you are doomed. So it’s best to make apps
according.
Brainstorm your ideas with your team and do a thorough discussion with them so that you can take
an informed decision.
Device a Strategy
So by now, you have the social media app idea ready, hurray! But now it’s time to create a viable
strategy for it.
The market analysis done in the above step will get you all the valuable insights about your target
audience, competitors, and your social media app type. All these things will help you to create a
strategy with KPIs.
While creating the strategy it is very crucial to brainstorm features to include in your social media
app. This involves interviewing potential users and asking them questions that will determine what
features you should include.
Design a workflow for your social media app
Good designs and visuals can contribute to a great UI/UX.
The process to create the perfect design workflow:
- Sketching and Wireframing
Start with creating the basic outlines of your app, creating visuals, screens, and the basic skeletal structure.
- Prototyping
A prototype is a working model of your app with minimal features. The model can give you a basic idea of how your app will look and feel without entering the core development phase.
- Designing App Skin
Conversion of wireframes into social app designs will let you analyze features better, you can keep an eye on UI/UX to find the best designs and use them for social media apps.
Social media app MVP development and QA
MVP is a product with minimalistic features that are introduced to early adopters and used to collect feedback from early users. When an MVP achieves the success it is moved to the development phase where the whole product is fully developed.
It helps you to spend your budget on development without risks of failure.
Rigorous QA is required to test the robustness of MVP, only after that, it can move into the
development phase(provided that it proves successful among early adopters).
Marketing the App
Investing in your marketing is just as important as investing in the initial development of an app.
You should take into account basic costs and needs before releasing it to a platform like Google
Play or App Store, but don't wait until you are done with creating the product.
As soon as your app hits the market you need to publish guides, explainer videos, and other
content that will advocate audience about your social media app.
You need a good marketing strategy that will make your app stand out on the app store and google
play store.
A properly built marketing funnel is important for the success of your app.
Customer Support
Initial feedback is extremely important. You will have to adapt accordingly to feedback and make
fixes to your app if needed. Make sure that your customers receive full support.
Your team should always be ready to do maintenance and fix bugs.
Monetization Strategies for your social media app
Social media networks are the best type of apps for generating high ROI in case of an effective
monetization strategy.
Let’s discuss few successful approaches for generating high revenue:
In-app advertising
In-app advertising is a way to get your app seen by more people.
In today’s world of technological advancements, in-app ads are one of the most popular
methods for making an application go viral!
In-app advertising is a practical monetization strategy for mobile app owners that both the app
developers and advertisers appreciate. With sophisticated data tracking, user targeting, and ad
placement options within your own application; you can reach consumers with pinpoint accuracy
to drive conversion rates which will earn more revenue.
In-app purchases
If you're looking to offer your users free standard and premium feature sets for an extra
payment, having in-app purchases is the way to go.
For example, when you opt to create a dating app like Tinder, it is important that premium
features are integrated. These include the ability for users to monitor their page visitors and
reduce irrelevant profiles from view. To attract even more of an audience to your app, give them
a short-term free trial with these added features before asking for payment so they will know
what they're getting into.
Paid version
The best way to make money at the beginning of your social app is by making it paid. To do this,
you need a well-designed marketing plan that will attract potential users and get them hooked
on your product.
For example, you can offer a free trial for a while so that more customers will be willing to sign
up and pay on an ongoing basis.
Metrics you need to monitor for social media app
For a business to be successful, it's important that you track the engagement of your social
media app.
For every app, these are the metrics that you should monitor:
User engagement
User engagement is the key KPI that will define the success or failure of your app.
The first moment a user enters your app and the last when they exit is just one of many different
ways to measure engagement. Other key metrics include how long users stay on the app during
each session (Session Length).
Churn rate and Retention rate
The churn rate is the statistical figure of your users who have stopped using the app. For a
successful app, the churn rate should always be very low.
Retention rate is the no of users who have returned to the app after their first visit. After any
updates or fixing of bugs, it is important to monitor the user retention rate.
Acquisition rate
Two of the acquisition KPIs are: CPI and CAC
Cost Per Install(CPI) is a term used to represent the amount of money spent on advertising in
relation to how many installs happened. It's calculated by dividing your ad cost by the number of
people who installed or downloaded an app after clicking on one of your ads.
The cost of customer acquisition(CAC) is the money spent on marketing efforts that are needed to
attract a client.
User activation
Monitor the active users in comparison to all the downloads made.
Traction
It is the most important metric to measure if you want a company's growth. It tells us about the
demand for your product and how that will affect it in the near future.
Burn rate
The amount of cash that you are utilizing on your app is called the burn rate. It can include
marketing, server costs, employee cost, etc.
Summarised process flow: How to create a social media app?
Here is a summary of the process flow for making a social media app.
- Find a trusted team of experts
- Idea validation
- Strategic Planning
- Designing
- MVP development
- Development of the Client-side of a Social Media App for Android and iOS
- Implementation of features for social media app
- Developing the server-side of a social media app
- Developing a social media website
- Quality Assurance and Testing
- Deployment of the APP
What is social media app development cost?
This is one of the most common questions asked by people, but the truth is there is no fixed
price. It all depends on the complexities of the app. A basic social media app can be built for
around 15-20k US dollars, a medium complex app for 20-20k US dollars, and complex apps for
>over 50k US dollars. But then again, this is just a rough estimation.
The process of creating a social media app is not easy and requires a lot of time, effort, and
money. However, the potential benefits are worth it! We've provided you with all the information
you need to know about how to create your own social app in this blog post. If you have any
more questions or want help getting started on developing your idea into an actual viable
product for consumers -let us know!
Our social media app agency will be happy to consult with you free of charge so that can give some feedback on
what's missing from your plan.
