How to Create Social Media App
Create Social Media App
Social media apps are among the most popular apps in the world. Many startups create a mobile app with unique ideas and consider Instagram as a strong competitor as a social media app. Instagram has inspired several startups to create amazing photo and video and social apps. Creating a social media app is not an easy job, you have to consider various factors like app requirements, features, cost, monetization strategy and many more. You also have an app idea and are planning to create another “photo/video” social media app, then you have come to the right page for effective tips and success stories.
Instagram is not just a photo and video sharing app, but has become a powerful marketing tool with a “social commerce” strategy. Through this blog we will know how to create a social media app like Instagram. The following checklist will help you create a robust and user-friendly mobile social media application.
- Finalize the app concept, strategy and design
This is a very crucial part of the project. A mobile app with a unique concept and design becomes popular and features in the app store. Before creating a social media app, you should strictly use paper and pencil to develop a concept and vision for your business that your app fulfills. Creating a photo sharing app is very common, but creating an app with different concepts will bring success and value in the market.
After completing the functional and non-functional requirements, defining the vision and goals of the application development, you should prepare some wireframes. It would be a good idea to use a software tool like Balsamiq or Microsoft Presentation to create wireframes of your application.
Design is the key success of the photo sharing app. If you can’t create user-friendly responsive designs, you should contact a design agency to create an intuitive user experience for your app.
- Features you want to have in your social media app
Social Instagram Messenger: A social app is incomplete without a messenger feature. Instagram has also improved its messaging feature to increase interactivity between users. A modern messenger can have useful features, audio messages, video chat, GIF sharing, quick reply messages and camera image sharing.
Photo editing rather than sharing: Users love to share photos on social media. Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat have color filters, crop and edit photos, tags, text and contrast to make pictures more beautiful. These beautiful pictures can be shared on social networks.
Short and long videos: Videos are now more popular on social media. We can believe that videos are the best content for app monetization and revenue generation. Instagram also allows users to post short and long videos on IGTV.
Stories: Story is also a very popular feature on Instagram. users can create stories and share them on social networks.
Social Commerce – Offers/Coupons: Your application may allow business users to post offers and coupons to users.
User post: share status, news, announcement or any thought. Others can like, comment and share.
Business Post: Allow business users to create sponsored posts and promote products and services.
Followers/Followers: This is the most useful feature for all social media and photo/video apps. Users can follow other users, business pages, brands and artists.
Interactive user profile: profile page can have followers/followers, likes, photos/videos. - Prepare an app monetization strategy
As a social startup, you should focus on generating revenue and monetizing your apps. Before starting development with a company, you should prepare your app marketing and monetization strategy.
This would act as an incentive and you should start marketing with your app launch date. This is the best way to reach people with your app. When working on a monetization strategy, you would consider the following options:
A. Advertising
Instagram’s business model generates a large portion of revenue through advertising. Carousel ads, video ads are very popular features for businesses to promote their products and services. You have to factor it into your business model.
B. Sponsored or Commercial Mail
A sponsored post is as simple as a normal post with a description and a photo/video, but with a “sponsored” label. Business creates sponsored posts that reach thousands of target groups in selected regions. It is more popular on Instagram than on Facebook.
C. In-App Purchase
Your social app can have premium features like photo filters, effects, memberships to sell and generate income.
D. Social commerce
It allows businesses to create business pages, promote brands and sell products. Businesses can gain followers and create brand awareness.
- How much does it cost to develop a social media app The most important thing is to evaluate the cost of developing the application. Apps like Instagram require more effort in terms of time and cost. There will be areas of application development tasks, and each requires a different set of technical skills and costs accordingly. The following resources are needed to create a featured social app:
A well-financed startup or an established company also hires a CTO who monitors the quality of the project. Estimate the cost of a similar app on Instagram based on the following rates and timeline:
To optimize your project costs, you should look at some of the points below:
Compare offers from onshore and offshore teams.
In the initial phase, your goal should be to create a minimum viable product (MVP application) with a set of defined features. Strict budget for MVP.
It is advisable to start with one platform like iOS or Android and get user feedback and work on it in future versions.
Also check the cost of developing native apps versus hybrid apps. A hybrid app will not cost much and you will have an app on both iOS and Android platforms.
- Find a developer to create a social media app
There are several companies that specialize in social media application development. You would like to view their portfolio and go through their social media apps to see if they have developed a similar mobile app.
It is recommended to work with a mobile app development expert because an Instagram clone is not a simple app that can be created in a month or so. Creating an Instagram clone app requires years of experience in the mobile domain. If you are in the US, you will have the following two options:
A. You can hire in the US
Hiring an onshore development team is a suitable solution. There are several professional app and web development companies in the US. A local team will support you throughout the project. Hiring an onshore development company has several advantages. They will provide you with excellent support and communication. You can meet them personally and discuss the progress of the project. You should request a quote from multiple teams to evaluate onshore development costs. It doesn’t have to be too high and within your budget.
B. You can hire an Offshore Team
If you are on a tight budget and looking for a highly professional team, you can hire an offshore team from India, Europe or China. An offshore team that also has an office in the US is a much better option. You can interact with their project managers, BA and US sales team. You also won’t have to compromise on code quality and they can complete your photo sharing app within budget.
- Don’t forget to check how the competitors are doing?
The App Store is loaded with photo and video sharing apps. Before you finalize anything, you need to go through competing photo sharing apps to see how they serve users. What activities does the user enjoy while using the app? What’s trending in these apps?
This quick survey will help you finalize the features and services of your app that you will offer to users.
Business model
Before you create a social media app, you need to know the Instagram business model. Instagram was bought by Facebook in 2012 and they are the backbone of this business. Apart from Facebook, there are several big investors who have invested in Instagram.
Instagram is available on the main platform and has a large network and user base. The app is now more popular because it has introduced several new features such as story, messaging, business promotion, product sales, live TV and advertising.
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