If you have a brilliant idea for a niche social network that can be a guaranteed success, then there are two options for development. You either build a social network from scratch, or you use a CMS platform.
For the first option, you will have to register a domain, get web hosting, and then build the social network from scratch by yourself or by hiring a developer. From the looks of it, this seems like a long term job before your social network goes live. And the fact that you have to retest the network time and time again for technical issues and bugs make it more trouble than anything. The second option, on the other hand, will help you set up a social network quickly while giving you room to add tools that can compliment your ideas. Now that you know what a CMS can do, here are two examples that can effectively translate your ideas into a network.
SocialEngine
SocialEngine is probably the most popular CMS today for social networking. Multinational corporations like Apple, EA Games, MasterCard, and even NASA are using SocialEngine. One of the biggest incentives of creating a social network on the CMS is that it allows users to install the network on their web server. In other words, you have complete ownership of the social network, the user data, and the content. SocialEngine is fairly simple to set up with multiple login options and fair share of flat and responsive themes. You don’t need to have programming or designing skills to use the CMS. It helps users to establish communities with multiple frameworks. For example, you can easily create Twitter-like followers or Facebook style friendships using SocialEngine. The platform supports thousands of add-ons, plug-ins, templates, and themes. In other words, it gives you the ideal platform for your niche social network at affordable costs with little knowledge of its technical aspects. It’s an ideal option if you’re looking for a comprehensive CMS with sleek and stylish templates.
phpFox
phpFox is probably the most powerful social network solution provider. It allows users to create communities with integrated features like content sharing, similar to Facebook and Twitter. phpFox features rather impressive designs for themes and templates that are responsive and support feature integration. For example, you can easily integrate ‘likes’, content tagging, brand pages, forums, blogs, quizzes, social media sharing, and much more with phpFox. phpFox deploys a single sign in feature that allows the visitors to use their social media accounts to access your site. While it may not adhere to your niche social network ideas, it can be a useful tool to boost your community in the initial phases. Similar to SocialEngine, phpFox has an impressive community with thousands of modifications and add-ons available. The opensource software is fairly simple to install, personalize (or socialize), and manage. But what makes phpFox really stand out is the fact that if you ever want a new or exclusive feature of add-on developed, the CMS providers can make that for you. This can conform to your idea of having a ‘niche’ social network.
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