All it takes is an idea to change the world.

But what many entrepreneurs don’t realize is that ideas alone aren’t enough to disrupt the world. The key lies in the flawless execution of steps that lead up to the realization of that idea. Mark Zuckerberg’s Facebook wasn’t the first social networking platform – not by a long stretch. But when it was first launched, the site was able to get many things right that its immediate peers (the dinosaurs of the time) were unable to.

The ease of use, attractive dashboards and layouts allowed Facebook to become the juggernaut that it is today. Twitter and Instagram are a few other success stories that also managed to come to grips with the secret sauce of what made social media networks stick in this cluttered market.

So if you want to take a crack at social media websites and build one from scratch, here are a few steps you can follow to lay the proper groundwork.

Identifying Your Niche

Any business that doesn’t identify its demographics is going down the proverbial rabbit hole, one that they won’t soon be able to crawl out of.

This is doubly true for social media platforms. You need to brainstorm what your niche is going to be. Once you have narrowed down on a possible community, start by identifying what they like and dislike. Prepare a checklist of their possible hobbies and the psychological factors that could be used to get their attention. It is also possible that the solutions your platform currently offers simply doesn’t have a demand in the market. This is why getting your hands on the psychographics data to identify your niche is important to create that need.

Getting the Features and Functions Right

Every social media platform has specific features and functions that are rather exclusive to them. They are centered on what the user wants and needs. This won’t be possible unless you gain insights into what are your user’s wants and needs. Start by identifying what you want your users to do?

And then move onto the features you can provide on your social network platform that can support these functions – features such as posts, the circulation of posts, chat options like one -on -one text chats, group chats, audio calling, audio conference, video calling and a lot more, depending upon the nature of your social community platform.

Speaking of chat options, CometChat is an all in one chat solution for your social networking website. It can be easily integrated with over 92+ platforms with minimal effort. Once integrated, your users get access to a plethora of engaging communication and collaboration features.

Making Use of Technology

Another key feature that makes the likes of Facebook and Twitter work well is the right use of technology. Sure you have identified what your user base wants from a social media platform, the key challenge, however, lies in how you can deliver an effective solution. With the help of professional developers, you could try building a social media platform from scratch or simply create one with help of CMS platforms like BuddyPress, WordPress, Community Builder etc.

Also while choosing the right technology & solution make sure that it completely supports your ideas in terms of features. Here’s an article which can help you select the right technology while building your social network platform.

The Backbone of Your Platform

To make sure that your average consumer gets a seamless experience, you will want to make sure that the online platform runs as smoothly as possible. For which, privacy is one of the most important factors to keep in mind. One way to go about it is by finding a reliable security system that provides encrypted services so users won’t have to worry about issues stemming from the intrusion of privacy.

Making a Scalable Community

The social media platform needs to be designed in such a way that it can expand and grow easily. You should be prepared for all challenges, such as an unexpected increase in traffic, a surge in user activity and rapid growth of popularity. Your social media platform has to be able to expand easily and quickly so it can follow the pace of your growth.

Takeaway…

Developing your own social network, it’s a process that can last up to at least six months. Following the checklist will let you slowly and on time transition from each phase. If you are able to at least get the core values of your social media platform right, success is more than likely to follow.