Are you fed-up with sharing your hard-earned traffic with your competitors on Facebook?
Well, then you need a website which gives you the power of personalization. You need your own social networking website where you can control everything from design to organization and even the privacy policy.
Facebook has been the ruler of the social media world for at least the last 10 years. As of the year 2020, Facebook has more than 2.7 billion active users. Where nearly 255 million active monthly users were from the U.S and Canada.
But, Facebook cannot be the solution to every person’s problem. Hence, various other social media channels exist.
- As of 2020, 65.8% of business owners are using Twitter for marketing and promotional purposes.
- YouTube has the highest reach in the U.S. Leaving behind Cable network a traditional mode of information for the Americans.
- Instagram and Snapchat are the most popular social media channel among teenagers.
Market leaders are looking for personalization options. They know that their target audience craves for a personal touch. Something more unique, Something more relatable, Something more exciting.
Now the question is, Why should we create our own social network?
Reasons to Create your own Facebookesque Social Network
Facebook is not perfect. At least not for a business owner looking to utilize the full capabilities of a social network. Its news feed is not ideal, it doesn’t allow you to focus on any one specific topic and monetize your business. And it’s privacy policy is quite frankly very questionable.
What is the solution to this problem, one might wonder? The answer is creating your own social networking website. WordPress paired with BuddyPress offers you a great opportunity for creating different types of social media networks. In fact, it has never been easier to create your own social networking website.
Steps to Creating a Website Like Facebook
1. Start with an Idea
Ask yourself, Why do I need a social network? Make your objectives following the answer to this question. Your objectives should then align with your audience. Remember, your network should add value to its members. If you are determined to make your network profitable, you have to set yourself apart from your competitors.
2. Select your Niche
Next, you need to decide whether you are targeting specific demography or a massive circle of individuals. Your chances of success are more when you opt for the former. Given how feasible it is to reach a small audience at the beginning. Stay away from generic demographic groups because your success will be hindered by the major competitors in the market.
The best option for you is to invite people you know first on your social network. Although your community will be small at launch it will grow further because this will be your basic audience.
3. Buy a domain name and Hosting
Once you know your audience and objectives, you should first find a proper domain name before starting with the website. The name should match with your network. This is also the right time to finalize a hosting service because WordPress is a self-hosted website.
Also Read: Steps To Grow Your Email Marketing List
4. Create your website and Install BuddyPress
Once you have a domain name and hosting service set-up, you need to install WordPress and start creating your website. It doesn’t need to be mentioned that your website should be unique, user-friendly and memorable to say the least. To do this you can choose from the thousands of free and paid list of Themes available on the WordPress store.
After building your website. The first thing you need to do to transform your website into a social network is to install the BuddyPress plugin. With the BuddyPress plugin installed, you are good to go.
5. Pick functionalities you want
You can add all the features you like while setting up the BuddyPress plugin to create your perfect social media network. From creating user profiles to sending private messages. You can choose what functionalities you want your website to offer.
6. Start Developing Content and Promoting your Network
Once you have created your website, designed it and added the functionalities of your choice. You need to add content, to attract new users and to retain patrons. While simultaneously working on the growth of your social media network via promotion and marketing. You can create a dedicated mobile app, advertise your network using Google Ads etc.
Also Read: Create Facebook Clone Using WordPress
Advantages of having your Own Social Network
You can shape the website the way it would help you in achieving your goals. Some of the outstanding features that you can benefit from are:
- Critical Analysis of your audience– You can get a lot of information about your members like who are they and what are they interested in. You can then do targeted marketing. You can also decide who can and can’t be a member of your network.
- Monetization- You can make more money than you would if you were using Facebook. You have more options for making money from your content through Google Ads, Paid Membership, Paid Acess and Donations.
- Content Management – You get to decide what information is worth posting and in what format. You can put up blogs, post photos, etc. And with a little bit of SEO, your content will be listed in search results of major search engines, increasing your visibility on the web.
Advantages like faster customer support, communication options, activity feeds, etc are some of the other benefits of creating your social networking website.
Final Note
Creating a social networking website isn’t hard at all when using WordPress. All you need is an interesting idea to build it upon. And an idea of what your networking’s speciality will be and then you are good to go on a new adventure with your new Facebook-like social networking website.
Interesting Reads:
Ways to Get More Facebook Likes
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