How to Create a Social Media App Properly for Your Business

Social network app development is one of the leading directions in the IT industry. People spend a lot of time online, scrolling the news feed on Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter. The secret behind the popularity of such apps is the freedom they give to users. It’s possible to share your thoughts, dreams, and achievements with the whole world.

If you want to find out how to make a social media app, feel free to read our guide and find out the details. Here, you’ll discover the main types of social media apps, the modern development trends, average costs and many other useful business info.

A social media app is a digital platform that allows users to create, share, and interact with content and other users. These platforms facilitate communication, content sharing, and networking among individuals, communities, and businesses. Users can post text updates, photos, videos, and links, and interact with others through comments, likes, and shares.

The primary goal of creating a social media app like Facebook is to connect people and foster online communities around shared interests, activities, or relationships. The social media platforms provide also opportunities for businesses to engage with customers, advertise products, and build brand loyalty through targeted advertising and analytics.

Social media app development is a rapidly growing sector, driven by the increasing amount of time users spend on platforms like Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. Let’s revise recent domain statistics to underscore the immense potential and influence of social media apps in the digital age.

• According to Datareportal information, the average social platform user spends 2 hours 23 minutes per day checking data in social networks.
• BusinessofApps states that the user base of social media apps is 4.88 billion people worldwide, or 55% of population around the world.
• As to Statista projections, social media app users are expected to hit 7 billion by 2027.
• PewResearch points out that YouTube, TikTok, Instagram and Snapchat are the most widely used social media platforms among teens in the US.

As the process of creating a social network app continues to evolve, social networks have become a compelling domain for innovation and growth. All this is possible thanks to the immense set of benefits that social media app development offers.

Here are some key reasons why building a social media app you’re going to start is profitable for your domain business.

One of the primary advantages of social media apps is their ability to build and maintain strong customer relationships. These platforms offer direct channels for your company to engage with the audience, providing personalized interactions and fostering a sense of community. By responding to customer inquiries, sharing relevant content, and participating in conversations, you can cultivate loyalty and trust.

Social media apps offer sophisticated algorithms and analytics to ensure that content reaches the most relevant users, maximizing exposure and engagement. Through consistent and strategic posting, your business can build a recognizable brand presence, attract new followers, and drive traffic to your websites. The viral nature of social media also allows for organic growth as users share content, further amplifying brand reach and leading to increased profitability.

You can quickly gauge public sentiment about their products, services, and marketing campaigns through comments, reviews, and direct messages. This immediate feedback loop allows your company to make data-driven decisions, adjust your strategies promptly, and address any issues swiftly.

Social media analytics tools implemented when you build a social media app, enable your team to monitor trends, track customer behavior, and identify emerging opportunities, to get a competitive edge. By leveraging this real-time feedback, your company can enhance the offerings, improve customer satisfaction, and ultimately drive profitability.

Social media platforms support various content formats, including text, images, videos, and live streams, catering to diverse audience preferences. Thus, you can leverage social media to share product updates, promotional offers, and engaging stories, ensuring their messages reach a diverse audience.

Additionally, social media apps often integrate with other digital tools and platforms, enabling seamless cross-promotion and expanding the reach of your content. This extensive distribution capability can help you increase brand awareness, drive website traffic, and generate leads, contributing to overall profitability of your business.

Let us discover the major social networking app development trends shaping the future of social media, making apps more intuitive, engaging, and valuable to users and businesses alike.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) implementation in social networking application development enhances functionalities and improves user interactions. AI-powered features like chatbots and virtual assistants offer real-time support and engagement, making customer service more efficient. Machine learning algorithms analyze user behavior to suggest relevant content, boosting user retention and satisfaction.

AI also plays a crucial role in content moderation, automatically detecting and removing inappropriate content to maintain a safe online environment. As AI technology advances, its integration into social media apps will continue to open new possibilities for personalized and automated experiences, ultimately transforming how users interact with these platforms.

This kind of algorithm helps analyze user behavior, preferences, and interactions to curate personalized feeds, recommendations, and advertisements. By leveraging data such as likes, shares, comments, and search history, personalization algorithms ensure that users see content most relevant to them, increasing engagement and time spent on the app.

Moreover, personalization algorithms can suggest new connections, groups, or topics of interest, fostering a more connected and engaging community. This trend not only improves user satisfaction but also enables businesses to target their audiences more effectively, enhancing the overall value of the app.

E-commerce implementation in social media apps is transforming how users interact with brands and make purchases online. Integrating shopping features directly into social platforms allows users to discover and buy products without leaving the app. Features such as shoppable posts, in-app stores, and seamless checkout processes streamline the shopping experience, making it more convenient and engaging.

Social media apps are also leveraging influencer marketing, where influencers can showcase products and provide direct purchase links to their followers. E-commerce implementation not only drives sales for businesses but also increases user engagement by blending social interaction with shopping.

UI/UX design novelties are critical in creating intuitive, engaging, and aesthetically pleasing social media apps. Designers are focusing on minimalistic and user-friendly interfaces that simplify navigation and enhance the overall user experience.

Dark mode options have become popular among other UI design trends, offering a visually appealing and battery-saving alternative to traditional light themes. Interactive elements, such as swipeable stories and tappable icons, are being incorporated to make interactions more dynamic and engaging.

Personalization in design, such as customizable profiles and themes, allows users to express their individuality. Additionally, accessibility features are being prioritized to ensure inclusivity, enabling users with disabilities to navigate and use the apps effectively.

If you want to know how to start social media app development, you should understand what type of social media your idea belongs to. In this case, you can define your competitors, target audience, and offer users more appropriate functionality.

Let’s single out the most essential types of social media apps.

Example: Reddit, Quora

These social media networks gain popularity since people love learning something new from experts and discussing different topics. Discussion forums allow finding the required information. It’s also possible to start a discussion, ask questions, and get answers from experts or just knowledgeable users.

Examples: Facebook, LinkedIn

The primary aim of this type is connecting people. Such social networks connect users pursuing different goals. For instance, LinkedIn helps find a job and build professional relations for more than 1 billion people worldwide. Facebook offers plenty of thematic groups and over 3 billion monthly active users to befriend with.

Most social network apps allow sharing thoughts, uploading photos and videos. As a result, such features are a must-have to build a social network app.

Examples: Instagram, Snapchat, YouTube

If you delve into analysis, you can see that the apps of this kind are quite popular among the users successfully following their expectations and needs. Thus, taking the given examples to analyze their user base, we can see that:

• Instagram has over 2 billion monthly active users
• Snapchat boasts a user base around 422 million daily active customers
• YouTube possesses about 4.49 billion monthly logged-in users

Such networks tend to offer sharing content of various types: photos, videos, and live videos. These days, the line between social networks and media sharing networks are blurring since such apps as Facebook also offer to share photos and videos. However, there are media sharing networks like YouTube that focus on one content type.

Note: you can discover the cost to build an app like Instagram with our guide!

Examples of popular social media apps: WordPress, Medium

Blogging is not as easy as it sounds. First, you must have excellent writing skills and simply love writing. Bloggers need an app that would let them write posts from all their gadgets. It’s not difficult to build your own social media app like this. But what type of social media app to develop?

Facebook and YouTube are the leaders of the domain of social media app development. However, in recent years, several more platforms have gained popularity. You can see the most popular social media platforms by the number of users below.

We’ve told you only about the most essential types of social media solutions. The type of social media app is defined by the needs of the target audience. Therefore, when creating a social media app, it’s crucial to understand the group of users you want to develop the app for. It will help you make a future ground of successful social media app development.

Must-have or Minimum Viable Product (MVP) features stand for basic functionality to satisfy user needs and offer them appropriate user experience. It’s common to launch an MVP version of the social media app and first feedback before investing more money in the idea for an app. It allows understanding what features need improvements. After that, you add several advanced features when you make your own social media app.

To give you a hint, we’ve singled out some essential features of a social media application.

Depending on a social app type, you should let users create various profiles. This screen should have such options as contacting other users and viewing their media files or posts. A thoughtful profile can make customers subscribe, so you need to consider user experience and page layout.

The search and discovery feature enables users to find other users, posts, and content within the app. A powerful search engine that supports various filters and criteria, such as usernames, hashtags, and keywords, enhances the user's ability to locate relevant content.

The discovery aspect can showcase trending topics, suggested users to follow, and popular content, promoting engagement and exploration. Personalization algorithms can tailor the discovery feed to match user interests and behaviors, making the experience more relevant and enjoyable.

This feature helps users stay tuned. All updates and new information from friends and communities are located here. It’s possible to integrate this feature as Instagram did. In this case, the news feed becomes a home screen of the social media app.

This feature should support real-time messaging, ensuring instant delivery and notification of messages. Users should be able to send text, emojis, images, videos, voice notes, and files, making communication rich and versatile. The messaging system should also include read receipts, typing indicators, and message status notifications to enhance the user experience.

There are various push notifications users can get like a new post from the community they are subscribed to, a new message, a reaction or comment to their post, and more. Push notifications are good for user engagement. Developers choose FCM to develop push notifications.

This feature allows users to create posts, upload photos and videos, and share links or other media. An intuitive and user-friendly interface for content creation, including tools for editing photos and videos, can enhance user satisfaction.

Users should be able to tag locations, mention other users, and add hashtags to increase the reach and discoverability of their content. Providing options for scheduling posts or saving drafts can add flexibility for users.

Comprehensive privacy and security settings ensure users feel safe and in control, fostering a trustworthy environment. Data protection measures, such as encryption and secure data storage, are essential for maintaining user privacy.

Offering options for two-factor authentication and secure password recovery processes further enhances security. Transparent privacy policies and regular updates on data protection practices can reassure users about the safety of their information.

Effective support and feedback mechanisms used during social network app development can build a loyal user base and ensure the app evolves to meet user needs and expectations. Providing multiple channels for support, such as in-app chat, email, and FAQs, ensures users can get assistance when needed. Regular updates based on user feedback demonstrate a commitment to UX improvement.

Now is the time to discuss how long it will take to develop these features for a social app that users will love. In this article, we will consider the development time for the backend part (everything that happens "behind the scenes" of the application) and the frontend part for each platform separately.

At its core, we will describe the development time for features for a native iOS and Android application. This means you will need another social media app with two separate versions that do not overlap and are exclusively created to work on the same platform. Understanding this will help in building social media apps effectively and ensuring the smooth flow of your app.

Despite this, there are cross-platform applications that are designed to run on both iOS and Android. The development of such an application takes a different amount of time and we will not consider it in this article.

Once your social media app with its core features has demonstrated its viability, you can enhance its functionality by incorporating advanced features. This will provide users with added convenience and significantly increase their engagement and interaction with the app.

Among the advanced social media app functionality you can use, there are the following:

AR filters. To make a social media app more unique, you can integrate various filters and effects to the photo or video. For example, Instagram and Snapchat have a bunch of AR filters from the dog’s ears to beauty masks. Exciting filters help attract users to your social networking app. To add AR filters to the social media app, developers need to use ML Kit and ARCore. AR technology offers a unique user experience. By the way, we’ve developed a fantastic AR library. You can also check our portfolio to learn more about ARFaceDetection.

Editing. A social media app that allows users to edit their pictures is highly beneficial. This kind of social network can offer options such as cropping and rotating images, removing unnecessary objects, creating collages, and more. Developers of a social media app might integrate these editing features using FFmpeg.

Location-based content. One more exciting feature of a social media app is providing content according to the user’s location. The app analyzes the location and shows content posted by other users with the same location. Also, users can add their whereabouts to the photo or video. Google’s Places API can help with developing location-based content features.

How to create a social media app and make it profitable? You need to consider several monetization strategies to get revenue. Here are several popular ways:

• Advertisements
• Premium features
• In-app purchases

Let’s single out the details of each option.

Ads are the most popular way to get revenue for a social media platform. A lot of apps choose this variant to let customers use the app for free. For example, Instagram shows relevant posts and stories to the users in their news feed. As for YouTube, it plays ads before playing the video.

A lot of social networking sites (e.g. YouTube, LinkedIn) offer premium subscriptions to get some additional features. For example, LinkedIn offers premium options for job seekers. Users can see who looked at their profile and get access to 15,000+ learning courses to improve their skills and knowledge.

Another way to monetize the social apps is to add paid content that users can buy. For example, Facebook has its own sticker store where users can buy their favorite pack of stickers and then use it in the official Facebook messenger.

Let’s discuss the major steps you should take to succeed with social media app creation.

1. Conduct market research
2. Define core features and functionality
3. Choose a social media app development vendor
4. Develop a social network with basic features
5. Launch social media app
6. Plan a marketing strategy
7. Implement advanced features
8. Ensure scalability and future growth

Now, let’s discover them one by one.

Before embarking on the development of a social network app, you should conduct thorough market research to prove your idea for a social media solution. It means you should analyze current market trends, identify potential competitors, and understand their strengths and weaknesses. Determine your target audience and gather insights into their preferences and pain points.

Additionally, you should consider the latest technological advancements and how they can be leveraged to enhance your app. By gathering comprehensive data, you can make informed decisions and create a solid foundation for your app’s development.

Based on your market research, outline the core features and functionality your social network app will offer. It’s important to strike a balance between offering essential functionality and ensuring the app remains easy to use.

This step involves creating wireframes and mockups to visualize the app’s layout and flow. Clearly defining the core features will guide the development process and ensure the app meets user expectations.

Selecting the right development partner is crucial to the success of your social network app. This way, you should look for a vendor with a strong portfolio and experience in developing social media applications. Moreover, check the following matters:

• The provider’s technical expertise through their portfolio
• Understanding of current trends, and ability to deliver a high-quality product
• Their communication skills and willingness to collaborate closely throughout the building flow
• Client reviews on Clutch page and testimonials to gauge the vendor’s reliability and reputation

You should ensure the vendor can provide a scalable solution that can accommodate future growth and feature expansions. A well-chosen development partner will bring your vision to life, ensuring the app is robust, user-friendly, and aligned with your business objectives.

Now you need to focus on coding a social media app and implementing the core features identified in the previous steps. This should provide a functional and engaging user experience while keeping development time and costs manageable. Together with the vendor’s QA engineers you should conduct thorough testing to ensure the app is stable and free of critical bugs.

Release the social network with the core functionality to a select group of users or in a limited market to gather initial feedback and identify areas for improvement. Monitor user interactions closely to understand their behavior and preferences. Use this data to refine features and enhance the user experience before a broader rollout.

An effective marketing strategy will drive user adoption, build a loyal user base, and ensure the long-term success of your social app and promote it. These are the key actions you can do after social network application development:

• Develop a plan that includes pre-launch activities, launch campaigns, and ongoing social media marketing efforts.
• Utilize various channels such as social media, influencer partnerships, content marketing, and paid advertising to reach your target audience.
• Create compelling marketing materials that highlight the unique features and benefits of your app.
• Engage with potential users through teasers, beta invites, and early access programs to generate buzz and anticipation.
• Focus on user acquisition, retention, and engagement strategies.

After implementing core functionality of your app for social media, launching it and gathering user feedback, you should proceed with implementing advanced features and enhancements. Prioritize features that enhance user convenience, interaction, and satisfaction. Investing in ongoing development and innovation ensures your app remains competitive and relevant in the dynamic social media landscape.

Ensuring scalability and planning for growth will position your app for long-term success in the competitive social media landscape. Thus, you should optimize the app’s infrastructure to handle increasing user loads and data volumes efficiently. Moreover, care about implementing scalable backend solutions and cloud services to support growth without compromising performance.

Stay updated with the latest technological advancements and be ready to incorporate new innovations into your app. You should also regularly review and refine your development and marketing strategies to align with evolving business goals.

Let’s talk more about how much the social media app will cost for you to develop. Keep in mind that the exact cost to build a social app project is hard to estimate at once for any IT vendor specializing in social media app development. During the estimates, they rely on many cost-forming factors, some of which we’ll consider below.

The complexity of a social media app is a significant cost-forming factor, as it directly influences the development time and resources required. The level of customization, the number of user roles, and the variety of content types supported also add to the complexity. Thorough planning and a clear understanding of the desired features can help manage the complexity and align the development process with the budget.

Choosing a scalable and reliable tech stack is essential for ensuring smooth performance and future growth, but it requires careful consideration of the initial and ongoing costs. Choosing the tech stack for your social media app development, you need to consult with professionals. The final toolset always depends on your technical needs and project requirements.

Below we offer some of the tools our social media app developers use during the work on their projects:

Mobile architecture:

• iOS: Swift, Alamofire
• Android: Kotlin Networking, OkHttp 3
• Cross-platform: Flutter, React Native

Web architecture:

• Back-end development: Node.js, Express 4, MySQL, Socket.io
• Frontend development: React, Redux, Axios, Webpack, Sass, HTML5, CSS3

Third-party tools:

• FCM, Google Maps, Amazon S3, Elastic Email, Elastic search, etc.

The composition of the development team significantly influences the cost of building a social media app. A typical team might include roles such as project managers, UI/UX designers, frontend and backend developers, business analysts, QA and DevOps engineers, as well as a Solution Architect. The experience and expertise level of the team members, whether they are junior, mid-level, or senior professionals, affect the overall development cost.

However, you may need not to hire the fully composed team of professionals, but only separate experts for your project. In this case, staff augmentation services offer a flexible and cost-effective approach to building your development team. By partnering with a specialized development company, you can access a pool of skilled professionals without the overhead of hiring and managing full-time employees. This allows you to scale your team up or down as needed, ensuring you have the right expertise at the right time.

A well-chosen vendor can optimize costs while ensuring a smooth development process and delivering a high-quality product. Additionally, the vendor's geographic location plays a role, with costs varying significantly across different regions.

To find out more about the exact influence of vendor’s location on social media app development, you can look through the hourly wages of the most popular outsourcing destinations below:

• North America: $100 - $150 per hour
• Western Europe: $80 - $120 per hour
• Central and Eastern Europe: $50 - $80 per hour
• Asia: $20 - $50 per hour

North America and Western Europe are the most costly regions for social media app development, but cost doesn't always equate to quality. Careful vendor selection can help optimize costs while ensuring a smooth development process and delivering a high-quality product.

Thus, you can choose social media app development outsourcing to Central and Eastern Europe, that unites all the above aspects the careful vendor should possess.

After we’ve considered the most important factors influencing the cost of your social platform creation, let’s discover how much time you need for the social media app building.

How to calculate the final price of social media application development? You need to add back-end development time and iOS or Android development time, depending on the chosen platform. After that, you need to multiply the time by the team’s hourly rate or salary.

So, to create a social network app, you need at least $118,050 for one platform (iOS or Android) and $196,750+ for two platforms. In order to understand how much the social app development will cost for you, you can also look through our article about TikTok app development cost as one of the most popular social media app types.

However, the prices can vary depending on the location of the development team. For example, software builders from North America have higher hourly rates in comparison to developers from Central Europe.

Skilled social media app development vendor’s assistance will help you build a robust and attractive social network for your business. As a social media app development company with 12+ years of experience on the IT market, Cleveroad can help you do that. We offer social networking app development services that help you meet your objectives, improving your user engagement and expanding your sales funnel.

What can you expect from our collaboration?

• Increasing your brand visibility through social media app development: media sharing platforms, social and blogging networks, dating apps, messaging apps and so on
• Social media app development for Android and iOS, as well as cross-platform software creation, with the help of platform-specific frameworks and programming languages like Flutter, Swift, Kotlin, etc.
• We provide a free Solution Workshop stage to help you match the right technical implementation with your social networking app vision.
• Our tech services are supported by ISO 9001 and ISO 27001 standard certifications ensuring strong and efficient software security and quality management.
• In order to accomplish the intended outcomes on schedule and within your budget, our project management office is prepared to supervise the social network app creation

Let us share the latest successfully delivered social media app projects from our portfolio:

• The software system for creators and spectators of sports activities. This is a cross-platform app with a responsive web-based admin panel that aligns teams and spectators in offline and online sports.
• Social global network for dancers. This new social app is designed to unite dancers worldwide and let them properly communicate with each other.
• Mobile platform connecting enthusiasts of team sports. This is a mobile app aligning people for team games and engaging them in sports activities permanently or occasionally.

Ready to turn your social media app vision into reality? Let’s discuss your new social media project and explore how our Cleveroad team can help you build a standout social media website or social media app in 2024. Contact us today to schedule a consultation.

Here is what John Salmon, Founder at Unified Potential. Inc, tells about cooperation with our Cleveroad team on their social platform development called DeltaSport: