How many times have you browsed the Internet without checking out the updates on Facebook or checking up on the tweets on Twitter? Don’t remember when was the last time that happened? Do not be surprised because you are not the only one hooked to social networking sites.According to the latest Pew Internet’s research, 69% adult online users use social networking sites every day, out of which 66% of online adults use Facebook, 20% use LinkedIn and 16% use Twitter. It is thus not very surprising that businesses want to share a piece of this large pie. But to enter the highly competitive social media domain, a few things should be understood.
5 Guidelines for Developing Social Networking Sites
1. Introduce Features With A Bang: A clear concept, easily definable features and easy navigability are some of the first things that should be taken care of at the very beginning. However, it is not just the looks that need to be clear. Even before the site is launched, you should have a clear outline of the objectives of launching the site, communicate the same with the developer and thus get started with a neat social networking site.
2. Truly Adhere To Web 2.0: There isn’t an iota of doubt that any website launched in today’s time needs to comply with Web 2.0 but for a social networking site, the need to do so is much more. Everything needs to happen in real time. Truly speaking no one has the time to sit and wait for their messages to be updated neither do they have the time to wait for the pictures to be uploaded. All these should happen immediately. Ensure that your site is in an efficient server which works fast and has the ability to handle immense load.
3. Make It Easy for The Users: A social networking site which doesn’t lure users to sign in and stay on is as good as dead. A social networking site heavily depends on user activity. From improved search engine rankings to increased revenue, ads etc. everything will only happen when users like the site and regularly use it. To make this possible, the social networking site needs to be user-friendly. Allow users be the masters of their pages, let them decide how they want the page to look, enable them to update content regularly etc.
4. Let Users View Others Easily: Most people use social networking sites to upload their pictures and check out their friends’ pictures. They also like to connect with people they know. So if you want an ever-improving traffic to the site, you have to make it easy for the user to upload images, find friends, connect with them and ultimately stay in touch. Once all these happen, automatically more and more people will connect through your site.
5. Keep Reinventing: Change is the only constant. Yes, for a social networking site to remain popular, you will need to reinvent yourself, introduce cooler features, make some drastic changes and give more power to the user. Only then will you survive.
The contributor of this post is an award-winning web development company, PixelCrayons. The company specializes in social networking website design and open source cms web development, though ecommerce, CMS and mobile are also come among its primary solutions.