A potential idea might be already fluttering in your mind for the past few days for creating a unique social media app. There is no doubt that it’s possible for anyone to launch and own a genuinely crafted social media application. If you are in the software Industry and have app-creating skills then it’s a completely different ball game in itself. Along with little or no additional support, you can launch your social media app across android, iOS and the web.

When having a social media app idea it’s often difficult to figure out your first few steps. Here you will learn the aspects of creating a social media app both from a technical and non-technical standpoint. The creation of the social app isn’t the only angle to consider, you need to know how you can make the app available across devices and cross-country locations. Here you will learn the vital options there are for social media app creation.

The Must-Have features that a modern Social Media App should have

• A News Feed : This will be the Interface acting as the Pool of all relevant posts for the specific user. The posts from all friends and family, celebrities or any organization of interest will appear here which a user can witness through casual scrolling. Make sure your App has got an attractive newsfeed with multiple post-engagement features.
• Live Streaming Features- Social Media acts as the ultimate ‘Sharing’ destination where the urge for instant sharing runs strong. Thus the Live Streaming feature is important to add to the seamless streaming architecture. Livestreams are found to be highly engaging where interactions occur through the integrated chat medium and multiple viewers can watch altogether.
• Public Viewing Profile- Each user should have the privilege of having a personal profile where all basic details can be mentioned and highlighted. A public personal profile is a section by which other people can get an idea of who you are, what you do, what you like and dislikes and similar other general facts about an individual.
• The Notifications Tab- A feature you absolutely cannot ignore is the notification bar. The user needs notifications for everything happening in connection to the social media account. These notifications directly pop up on mobile devices even when the social media app is not open. For example, if someone tags them in a picture, comments on a post or messages on the platform- notifications are the right way to inform the user.
• Multiple Format Posting- Your Social Media app should definitely have the feature to let users make public posts in different formats. The app should support images, text & videos to get uploaded in a post within a few seconds.
• A Search Bar- Your App would be partially paralyzed without an accurate search bar. Your users need to be able to find their friends, brand pages or anything of their interest.

The First 7 Steps for Creating your Social Media App

• Social Media Product Research- You cannot move forward just with any idea of a social media app, you need to properly analyze the credibility. It might be a great idea but do people actually need it today and would they be interested in this app? You need to find the answers through market research. First, create a questionnaire through which you can ask several people if they will use such a social media app or not. Try to have a clear mind when beginning the research and be flexible to alter your primary idea. If you look into successful social media companies like Twitter and Instagram you will be able to understand how much they have adapted and altered the app to remain popular.
• Identify your Target Audience Factors- Every App has an ideal target audience who are the most potential users of the App. As you might already know, the majority of active daily users of social media apps are youngsters in the age group of 20-30. This acts as a Target audience factor you need to figure out at the time of Audience Persona Creation. The Audience Persona is a fictional representation of your ideal customer with several identified factors. For example the demographic, age, interests, annual income, career objective and similar other factors of your Audience Persona should be conceptualized in specific numbers or words.
• Identify the model to Generate Revenue- Creating, distributing and hosting a downloadable social media app does involve capital. You need to figure out how you can obtain this investment from the social media app use and how the app can become profitable. One of the common models is one that is followed by LinkedIn, by keeping a few features within the paid structure. This is a model in which the signup process is usually free with open basic features for the user.
  
  On the same app, there will be features which can only be accessed through a paid subscription. For example, when a free LinkedIn user buys LinkedIn premium multiple features like direct messaging, improved account visibility and many such features get activated. The other common app model is the advertisement model, where ad revenue serves as the prime business sustainability fuel. This model initially starts with the social media platform gaining a huge user base across states and countries with multiple categorical divisions available among the audience. This brings in Ads from top brands across nations asking to make their Ads reach the target audience. Your social media app user-base information which they have publicly shared on social media is leveraged by the App for correct Ad Placement.
• Designing the App for MVP- You might be wondering what MVP is, this stands for Minimum Viable Product- this is more like the basic structure of your full-fledged social media app. In the MVP version of your social media app, you will just have the core functionalities and will be able to fulfil the basic need of the target audience and even measure the feasibility of the business. For the MVP build, Designing the App is a lengthy process. It involves stages of sketching, wireframing and prototyping.

• Quality Testing and Publishing- The specific social media app should meet all technical requirements, platform user guide and rigid standards. The front-end and back-end programs are intensively tested through specialized automatic and manual tests. Live User Experience Testing is carried out for the application before deployment which ensures user engagement and retention. After final approval checks the apps are deployed into specific app stores for multiple platform downloads of android, windows and website.
• App Marketing- You cannot consider app marketing as trivial. The audience needs to know about your app before they hit the download button on the stores. You need to convey the message of why your social media app should be used even after having so many other accounts. The modes of digital/print need to be finalized in balance with the remaining budget for the app business. At the beginning of your social media app project, you need to set aside a great budget proportion only for marketing and promotion.
• First Phase Alteration + Maintenance- Don’t relax immediately after the app gets deployed. You need to keep close track of your app performance, visibility, engagement rate & download count. Your large social media app might face some unnoticed technical faults at the beginning which can be fixed through basic app maintenance. After analyzing the user experience, engagement rate, CTR of sub-pages and multiple other metrics you can identify certain changes in design, if required.
  

Signing-Off Note

The basic funnel process of a social media app creation has been explained here. There are several core understandings of the app creation process which only an app developer will be able to fully perceive. If you want to create it yourself, you need to first learn either the design or development platforms use. Learning app development is an extensive process, thus hiring an app development firm acts as the popular choice.