Social Media App Development: Everything You Need to Know
How to make a social media app that will become a decent competitor to the dominant market players? Some people think that’s impossible but such apps appear regularly and find their audience.
In our article, we will explore many criteria that point toward social media app development hiding plenty of opportunities for newcomers, of course, provided that you have a truly unique idea for the application and are determined to bring it to life. The earlier you start the higher the chances that you will establish a strong presence in this market.
Keep reading if you want to create a social media app and need a handy guide to plan this process. During this read, we will take a glance at the industry’s trends, provide you with the necessary knowledge for product creation, and share our insights into the matter.
Types of social media apps
Before referring to mobile app development services you should choose what type of social media app you want to create. Knowing the app type will help you understand your target audience and conduct insightful market research.
A social media solution is an umbrella term for the following types:
Major types of social media apps.
Social networks
Social network apps are designed to help people connect, engage in networking and build professional communities. Users can express themselves via content such as videos, texts, photos etc. However sharing media is not a primary goal of such apps since an example of a social network application is Facebook which allows users to upload and share content but does not make content the primary means of communication.
Media-sharing apps
In contrast to the first type media-sharing apps are solutions where users interact with each other via exchanging content. You can make a social media app in which a certain content type forms the basis for interaction. For example, on Instagram users share photos and video content whereas on Twitch they do live streams.
Consumer review networks
How does one go about building an app that will be interesting both to consumers and businesses? The answer is to launch a consumer review network. The more companies appear on the business landscape the harder it is for consumers to choose the most suitable one. This is why this app type is gaining much popularity.
Consumer review apps are created to allow users to share their reviews of services, products, businesses, brands, companies and more. For instance, TripAdvisor and Yelp are great tools that help people make informed service decisions.
For a customer such apps are a valuable source of insights into service and buying experience. Meanwhile, for a business such applications give the ground for building a good reputation on the market.
Community and discussion forum apps
Such applications including Quora or Reddit are designed to help users exchange their knowledge and insights. They work in the following way: one user posts a query and other users can respond to it, share their thoughts, like or dislike answers etc.
Why do users spend time on such platforms? Because discussion forums and community apps are places where people can establish authority in their areas and exchange experience so it is best not to count off similar social media application development.
Bookmarking and content curation networks
Social media networks of this type allow users to discover and bookmark the content and create personal content collections. The content libraries help them find inspiration, streamline their work, provide useful insights and more.
Bookmarking and content curation solutions also allow users to share their content libraries as it can be done on Pinterest. The creators of such apps should keep in mind the importance of relevant content recommendations which will determine user interest in further interactions with the product.
Blogging and publishing platforms
As an option you can also create a social media app for blogging and publishing. On apps like Twitter or Medium users can create, publish and consume content. Such apps cover broad audiences and allow people to find the appreciators of their opinions across the globe. Compared to other app types blogging and publishing platforms are easier to create as they usually don’t offer heavy functionality.
Straight to the point these were the main types of social media apps to choose from. However, you can combine the features of different apps in one solution.
For example, Instagram allows users to post short videos as TikTok does. TikTok, in turn, has also introduced new features recently allowing users to post their photos and stories on the platform. You can do the same and offer rich functionality for your customers.
At the same time you should clearly define the core goal of your application and scale it gradually. In this case it will be easier for users to understand what needs they can satisfy with your app while all the additional features will go as a bonus.
Tips to consider when you make a social media app
To facilitate your effort of creating a truly meaningful app consider our tips to create a competitive, high-demand and attractive product.
A list of things to consider when creating an application.
— Keep your audience in mind. This tip is important at any stage of the project cycle. By knowing what challenges your audience faces and what their expectations are you will increase your chances of creating a great user-centered product.
Besides, user research will also be useful at the stage of project execution, when you should figure out what monetization and promotion strategies appeal to your audience.
— Be unique. As said above the social media app market is a highly competitive field so to outperform other companies you should introduce something new to the industry. The easiest way to do this is to integrate innovative technologies into your product and add advanced features that other apps lack.
— Keep it simple. Sometimes companies strive to impress a user so hard that they create complex and multi-layered products that no one understands. To prevent this from happening center the social media app development around your clients.
Remember that people come to social media networks to relax, not to solve the riddle of how to use them. This is why the interaction with an application should always be intuitive and smooth.
— Promote interactions. The more people will interact with others in your app the longer they will stay there. So to increase user retention provide them with diverse tools and means for social interactions.
Offer users the chance to interact with others quickly, for example, by reacting with emojis. For those who prefer deeper involvement offer extended interaction methods like replying to one’s post or leaving video feedback.
— Listen to the feedback. The importance of user feedback after product release cannot be underestimated so listen to your audience and their concerns to improve your solution.
Ask users to rate your application and leave comments as this will help you better understand user satisfaction rates and get insights into how your app performs in your audience’s eyes.
How much does it cost to make a social media app?
The cost of developing a social media app differs from region to region, for example, in the US the average hourly rate charged for mobile app development is around $150. In Eastern Europe the same service will cost you around $50–60 per hour.
Regardless of the region app development involves doing a certain volume of work so by knowing what features you will build and what region you focus on it will be easy for you to calculate the social media app development cost.
Costs of developing a social media app.
Based on the work volume from the table we can estimate that a basic app development project launched in the US will cost you around $350,000. Meantime, in Eastern Europe you will have to allocate a significantly lower budget — $75,000 or less.
So the project costs hugely depend on the region where the development process takes place, as well as the volume of work and project stages that need to be completed.
How to make a social media app monetizable
One of the things stakeholders are concerned about when it comes to developing an app for a new social media is how it is going to drive consistent revenue. Indeed it is natural to wonder in what way will the investments in such a sizable project will return. Luckily there is no need to worry as there are several monetization strategies you can implement to make a social media app.
Monetization models.
The four main types of monetization models in this application will include the following:
Advertisements.
The most widely used way to make a profit off of an application is to feature third-party ads. Many corporations are looking for platforms to place their adverts in and since social media by nature collects vast amounts of data it is the perfect opportunity to attract so-called investors.
While there is a negative side to ads such as users being annoyed by them you have to be diligent in terms of disclosing what kind of personal information is gathered and whether users agree to it. Still personalized ads have been proven in their effectiveness.
Premium subscription.
Many if not most applications nowadays are offering premium subscriptions that unlock special features and values to the users. As a social media platform there is a lot of potential on what you can “gatekeep” under premium offers incentivizing customers to take a step forward and make a purchase.
What you should certainly keep in mind during social media app development is that the features under this subscription have to be truly worthy of the money. Otherwise users won’t have any need in the plan.
Freemium model.
Similar to the previous monetization strategy, a freemium entails building an app that is, in simple terms, half free half paid. Which means you can allow customers to use the app for free but to gain access to certain benefits they will need to pay for them. One example of this is letting users make a one-time purchase to disable advertisements on their application.
In-app purchases.
Last but not least engaging monetization model to consider when building a social media app is the ability to make in-app purchases. You have likely encountered such an option when using a similar application as they typically expand to being able to buy a special feature like customizing the profile with additional colors and fonts.
On top of that you can introduce purchasable tokens that users otherwise won’t get their hands on. For example, you can introduce special emojis or sticker sets that can be used in private messages or within profiles further driving home the uniqueness of your app and the level of engagement.
Features a social media app should have
Your application will have two types of features, main and additional ones.
Main or core features will reflect the basic goal of an application and will be what motivates people to open your solution. Secondary or additional features will be the ones that are used not that often but provide users with extra value and opportunities.
When creating a social media app you can focus on the main features first and then scale your app by adding extra functionality. But how do we classify the features into core and secondary?
The answer is that without the core your app would lose its significance and couldn’t serve its purpose. Without the additional features the app will keep working and satisfying user needs yet neglecting these features will lead a business to missed opportunities.
Below you can see the list of main and secondary features an average social media app has:
Main features
The main features include signup, user profile, search, newsfeed, chat etc. Let’s take a look at each of them:
Main features every social media app have to include.
— Signup. Apart from offering standard signups with email or phone numbers provide your users with the chance to register in your app via social media profiles like Facebook or Twitter. It will streamline the process of signing up and signing in and encourage more users to join your social media solution so it is essential when building a social media app.
— User profile. This feature enables the users to create personalized profiles that include information about a user and their photo and help people identify each other and connect.
— Search. The search bar function helps users find the content, people, products, news and communities of their interest. Without the search it would be extremely hard to navigate the social media network.
— Content feed. This is one of the main app features where users can view other people’s updates and new content in one single place. Newsfeed creates a consistent content flow for the audience and is the main place in the app where they can check on others’ activity.
— Chat. How to create a social media app with high user retention rates? The answer is to offer them the feature of a chat which is the primary feature for one-on-one communication.
Provide your users with the chance to write text messages, attach files and media, send photo and video messages etc. Interesting tools for communication will help you make their conversations more engaging and long-lasting.
— Content creation. Social media apps are all about self-expression so build features that will allow your users to upload, edit and spread different content types via their profiles including photos, videos, texts, GIFs etc.
— Push notifications. Notifications can help you keep your audience engaged. Automated push notifications will inform users about new content, updates, requests from other users and more. Yet you should provide your users with the chance to customize notifications to prevent user irritation and anxiety.
— Social interaction features. Enable users to respond to content in your application by leaving likes, comments, shares, emoji reactions and alike.
Additional features
Additional features can include analytics, live streaming, third-party integrations, customer support and others. Let’s discuss them in more detail:
Additional features for social media apps.
— Analytics. Analytics visualizes data on the user performance in your application. Usually analytics are provided in dashboards that inform users about the time spent in your app, the engagement of their audience, the demographics of the followers and more.
— Live streaming. When making a social media app consider adding the feature of live streaming which is streaming video or audio in real time. It’s a popular way of interacting with the audience: people can answer questions in real-time, communicate with other users via live chat, send real-time reactions and more.
— Third-party integrations. To facilitate user experience on your platform you can also add third-party integrations to your product. For example, you can integrate your app with music streaming platforms to allow your audience to add music to their content.
— Customizations. It will be a plus if you give your users the chance to differentiate from others by customizing their profiles. For instance, they can get the opportunity to change the background color of their profiles, customize their profile picture, add nicknames and more.
— Customer support. Effective customer support is essential if you are only entering this competitive market. By quickly responding to customer queries you will earn user trust and help them learn how to use your application. What’s more analyzing client queries will also help you generate insights on the aspects of user flow that need improvement.
Ready to create a social media app?
This is everything you should keep in mind before developing a social media app. If planned out well the process is not as tough as it seems at first glance.
However, the responsibility for your app’s success lies not only on your shoulders, it also hugely depends on the competence of the app development company you partner with. The latter is supposed to help you with everything to build a social media app from product discovery and planning to app support and maintenance.
If you are looking for a partner whose core expertise is app development you are at the right place. Limeup is an app development vendor trusted by businesses across the globe.
Our cross-industry expertise allows us to build impactful products in a range of spheres. Our solutions always work smoothly, look attractive and serve a purpose.
Contact us to schedule a free introductory call on your app development project.
Social media app development trends and market prospects
The volume of time that people spend on social media is only growing year by year as reported by Statista, in 2012, the average social media usage time was 90 minutes while in 2023, it has grown to 153 minutes. Just think of it: this is more than 2 hours of conscious consumption of content people produce on social networks.
Popular social media applications cover wide audiences. Facebook which is an industry leader has over 3.3 billion active users as of October 2023. What’s more the global number of social media app users is expected to reach about 5.9 billion by 2027. Such a tendency makes this market a promising investment area for both new and established businesses.
Most popular social networks worldwide.
One may say that social media app is a highly competitive field with dominant players like Facebook or Instagram that are hard to outperform. And this is true, however, the rise of novel technologies gives new companies all the chances to create a social media app successfully enter the market and make a difference there.
For instance, the integration of VR/AR technologies into the product can provide users with an immersive experience they won’t get on any other platform. Another example: you can add gamification elements into your solutions to blend the user reality with the gamified context and make their interaction on social media more entertaining.
If you want to enjoy the benefits the social media app market provides we shall dive into the vastly important factors that you should be considering in our read.