How many times a day do you grab your phone to check your social media?

About 20 years ago, social networks and social media platforms as we know them, were not a thing. Today, it’s incredible to know that the average internet user uses about 8 social media platforms on a daily basis.

According to the latest statistics, 4.9 billion people have access to the internet around the world. Each user spends an average of 7 hours a day on the internet. 93.4% of those internet users spend an average of 2.5 hours daily using social media platforms. 

Interesting, isn’t it?

First, let us define what a social media platform is.

What is a social platform?

A social network, or a social media platform, refers to an online community where users can interact with each other, share content, and more. These platforms can be in the form of a website or a mobile application.

Social platforms vary in purpose. They can be built around socializing with contacts, entertaining content and activities, education and knowledge exchange, professional networking, informational queries, and even scientific research.

The common denominator that allows us to classify all these platforms as social networks is the concept of online communities that interact with one another.

Now that we understand what a social network is, it’s time to discuss what features users expect to find on these platforms.

What should a social platform allow users to do?

Any social platform, be it a website or a mobile application, contains a set of features that users have become accustomed to expecting when using that platform. These features include, but are not limited to:

• Logging in and identifying users

• Creating personal profiles

• Publishing content

• Viewing published content via a feed

• Interacting with published content

• Messaging other users privately

• Searching the platform for users, content, etc.

• Receiving real-time notifications

• Streaming activities and sharing life updates

• Exchanging media with other users

• Creating and connecting with social circles

• Creating and managing business profiles

UI/UX design transforms the collected research data on user behavior on social media into insights that can build a gratifying user experience. The features then allow users to enjoy spending time using the social platform and benefiting from it. 

We’ve talked about how users expect to use a social network in this day and age. The next logical step is to understand what it takes to build one.

How can you build a social platform?

Any product goes through a business development process to produce an MVP with the most important features to a selected audience. After developing the business model for your social network, it’s time to get your hands dirty and actually build it.

To build a social network, you’ll need a technical team that consists of at least the following calibers:

• Product owner 

• Scrum Master

• Development team

• UI/UX Designer

• Testing and QA Engineer/s

These teams adopt agile software development practices to produce an MVP that can be enhanced later on after receiving user feedback.

Be careful not to fall in love with your product because, in the end, you are building a product for users, not just for your team.

Once your social platform is up and running on different devices or browsers, it is necessary to dedicate resources to maintaining and enhancing the platform.

Don’t forget to plan how you will monetize your social platform. Even if you are designing a free product, you will need a monetization model to sustain it.

Remember: all social platforms, regardless of their niche, started one way and evolved into the platforms users can’t get enough of today.

At Uniparticle, we build social apps that serve users and offer a secure environment to create communities and network with other users.

Do you need software development? Contact us.