In the modern world today, where everyone wants to be followed, connected with, and kept up with the latest trends. Social media has been an integral part of the lives of the generation.
The immense popularity of Facebook as one of the biggest and most loved platforms in the world, earlier in this decade, is the proof that explains it all.
Community development has always been one of the major segments modern technology continues to target. But, the way it has been growing and transforming in the past few years has helped it heighten the need for social media to its peak level.
Instagram, WhatsApp, Snapchat, and other similar applications have been ruling the largest market of the century.
Facebook is the largest social networking platform with 2.8 Billion active users. Social media industry is growing at the rate of 45% constantly and is expected to grow with the same rate in future as well. The rise of social media is an interesting journey.
Social media platforms have their predefined goals and should prolong to keep up with them strictly and significantly to serve their users. Some of them are:
Platform Centric Requirements
1) Communication
The prime aim of any social media platform is to bring different people of society together and form a community that can grow and evolve. The major aspect to contribute towards the same is communication.
Objectives of a basic social networking platform are:
- A social networking platform should be based on making communications effective and real with authentic identities upon the platform.
- The main objective of people on social media is to come close and connect. Needless to say, hassle-free communication is the major key here.
The social networking sites and applications have been continuously trying to safeguard the interest of the people and have been keeping up with the norms and regulations to maintain an authentic and real userbase to serve the community well and with value.
2) Anonymous Social Networking
Several platforms have been serving their users with the opposite of what everyone else has been serving. The same has been served as their USP since their inception.
The basic reasons people will like it:
- Such platforms are based on the anonymity of users. To that end, all the user profiles on such social networking site are hidden.
- People have been enjoying Omegle and the likes of it for the anonymity they provide. Instead of being like others with open communication and connectivity, these platforms have chosen to be different.
- The intricate details of the users in these anonymous social networking platforms are hidden and only a few basic details show up to the userbase. These types of applications are usually focused on the degree of anonymity.
3) Safety and Security
One of the major features that have come up as a necessity in recent times is security and safety on social media. Any such platform must ensure they’ve taken enough measures to ensure user safety.
Safety and security standards highly affect the trust of users:
- Users are well acquainted with the importance and usage of data and are highly concerned about how their data is being utilized. Encrypting everything you have isn’t the only solution.
- According to a report, in the year 2018, hackers stole about half a billion of the databases and personal records making some people bid adieu the platforms.
Social networking platforms should be aware of this fact and take care of it. Each data being collected by the platform from the customers is important and needs to be kept safe from unauthorized access.
4) Determine a Community
The major and important aim of any social networking facility should be to define and determine a market for its platform to succeed and get maximum output against the amount of input.
Understanding the prospective market and devising the strategy as well as the platform would be very advantageous:
- To serve the users better and collect a larger number of market share in the market.
- Get a better ROI from the social networking platform.
- To have more effective and efficient strategies and techniques developed focused upon the target market.
5) Features and Functions
The quality of your end service depends upon the features and functions of your social networking platform.
The platforms need to equip the platforms with better features and functions:
- The userbase is comprehensive and comprises of several different types of users with different requirements.
- The demands of every user may range in different directions and all need to be taken care at once.
- The platform thus developed to win a larger pie of the market is needed to consist of such features and functions that possess the capability to suffice the demands and expectations of each user and keep them up with the platform.
6) Fetching Technology to the Platform
After the basic planning and model for the social networking platform is worked out and ready to be presented before the world, the development of the platform follows.
Technology is important to back the platform:
- The choice of technology being used at each step of the developmental process can make a huge difference. These are going to be some of the most important decisions because they are going to determine if your networking meets the customers’ expectations.
- The same aspects are also going to define the customer experience that needs to be served once your social networking platform reaches out to your target audience.
- In a world like today, technology is changing and is at its peak. Therefore, the aim has to be to choose technological support that will serve to be efficient and effective for the long run and would not get outdated soon after you launch.
It requires a lot of brainstorming to choose the right technological requirements and codebases to work on.
User-Centric Requirements Of The Platform
1) Serving the Users
Once the basic framework of the social networking platform is planned and worked out. You need to work on the factors that are going to affect the user experience on your platform.
Social networking platforms are not just about connecting people but also about facilitating them with services and support to remain connected. Some of the factors that affect the service are:
2) Customer Care
A happy customer is always the final goal of every business to make it successful.
With great customer service and support, you can enhance the user experience upon your social networking platform highly and keep up in the market.
3) Assurance
Win the trust and support of your users by assuring them the security of their data and media upon the social networking platform.
Trust and support from the users will take the platform a long way and help you expand your user base continuously.
4) Stories and Status Updates Are A Big Hit
Social Networking platforms are mostly about communicating with society and updating the community about what your life looks like. Status updates and story features have been observing great and enormous popularity among the young generation.
Every platform has been playing it differently. Twitter allows users to post just 280 characters of status updates while Snapchat at the same time plays upon the number of times the snaps get opened.
Every established platform has found a specific stratum it wants to play upon and has continuously been benefitted by the same. Likewise, you need to find your poison and roll with it.
5) Content Moderation
The world in today’s era is highly dependent on what it is fed. Indeed, content is the king. It is the most popular aspect of what people consume in their day to day lives now. Content has also been the real element for the success of all the major businesses and continues to be.
For a social networking platform to succeed, the quality, as well as the quantity of content, plays a major role. What your social networking platform serves is how people see and categorize it and stay up on the platform for the same reason. If it doesn’t suffice the content requirement of your target audience, it fails.
The content needs to be engaging in itself in a way that the users feel the urge to spend more time on the platform. Looking for inspiration?
Research has found out that 74% of total Facebook users access the platform daily and 51% of the users visit multiple times a day. If a college dorm discussion can turn out to be a billion-dollar business, yours could go beyond.
Conclusion
Social Networking platforms are a big hit in the world today and will continue to be. According to Statista again, 3.1 Billion users are predicted to be online in 2021.
The developers need to focus on the key areas of the industry and facilitate the targeted user base with the desired services to become a major hit in the market. The industry has a great scope and constant phase to welcome new platforms now and then.
