Communication belongs to eternal values that bring to people's lives colorful emotions, necessary information and feeling of social support. These factors explain why social media platforms are in a high demand among users regardless of their age, gender, race, social status and interests. The statistics are impressive: the major half of the global population is involved in the world of social media.

To find a new job or freelancer, to get acquainted with potential companions for journeys on vacation, to find an appropriate expert or to search for inspiration...There's a plethora of incentives and motivations why people register on social media apps. And if you have a fresh vision on how to optimize and facilitate communication and content sharing, create a social media app honed for a specific audience or with special functionality.

How to create a social media app which attracts millions of users

Popularity is usually paired with profitability that is why it makes sense to focus on the user's needs and desires in order to make sure the service can take place in visitors' hearts. Which problems can be solved through a new solution? That's the first question you'd better think over in advance, and when the answer is articulated clearly and precisely, create a social media app to transfer its idea to customers.

You can explore existing solutions in order to find references which can serve as guiding samples for designers and developers. Let's make a superficial observation of the types of social media platforms that you can reference to.

LinkedIn is a sample of social media apps honed for professional networking. The platform allows users to hire effective employees and find freelancers, and helps people promote their career expectations.

Instagram is aimed at sharing short videos, photos and other visual content that enables us to refer to it as a media service. That makes the platform to be in demand for show and creative business.

Quora motivates people to communicate on a diversity of issues and unites users in communities in accordance with their interests.

Pinterest equips visitors with bookmarking tools in order to save and keep "digital treasures" in the form of inspiring pictures, photos, illustrations and so on.

This overview can give you an impetus to analyze the data and search for unconventional approaches to organize people's connection.

Business history knows samples of lucky attempts to create a social media app by adding a new spin to the common functionality. TikTok demonstrates the fusion of traditional social media service with video streaming, as you know the experiment was rewarding. Telegram started with just messaging functionality, but nowadays, the messenger which is proud of its security expands its features by public content sharing that turns it into a social media platform.

Let's consider several ways to create a social media app resonating public interests.

Focusing on different demographic groups empowers you to organize features that let people satisfy their needs. You can concentrate efforts to create a social media app with developing content for kids or youth, all-services-in-one (expert support and community) for young parents, for therapists and patients, for psychologists, for event organizers, for young scientists, for handmade amateurs and so on. Research the market and make questionnaires in order to find out the pain points of the audience to satisfy them.

You can promote platforms with different types of functionality aiming to create a social media app empowered to delight users. So, if you want to help musicians and arrangers to present and promote the results of their creativity, you'll try to mix audio streaming services with well thought searching tools and opportunities for personalized settings and messages. The platform for tutors and students evidently requires effective tools for comfortable interaction: they need not only text and voice messages, but in-built white boards and automated tools for checking homeworks.

As you see, there's a wide space for originality when it comes to creating a social media app for a certain audience. Of course, the attempt to create a social media app that's universal like Facebook can take place, especially in the light of the recent restricting and provoking policy of the service. People appreciate transparent rules and fair approach to content promotion, and you can compete with coryphaeus in the industry.

What's the basic functionality and minimum social app development cost?

Regardless of its uniqueness all social platforms have some features which are common for their viability. When you entrust an IT agency to create a social media app, define the core functions it should include. The practice-tested list of requirements units:

• Sign up page which serves for acquaintance users will the platform and their onboarding;
• Personal profile where user can introduce himself and organize his information flows;
• In-built messenger for connecting with the other participants of the platform;
• Content editing and publication functionality to optimize photo, video and text sharing with the audience.

Depending on the quality and quantity of features, the contractor will be able to estimate the scope of work and its cost. The average budget of social media platforms designed in Purrweb revolves around $50,000.

Which trends are actual if one's target's to create a social media app?

Multifunctionality is trendy: it's convenient to use the app for different purposes if it allows you to do it effortlessly.

To mix social media app and financial app features or to implement educational tools: you can invent your own alternative to the conventional platforms. The perspective variant is implemented e-commerce opportunities.

To create a social media app that is fresh and unusual, add some features that will differentiate it from competitors. Subtly tuned filters for navigation in the information ocean if you're building a media focused app, or original algorithm for matching partners if you're going to modernize a networking app can facilitate standing out among similar services.

To sum up

Gather like-minded people for brainstorming and catch the variants on how to add a pinch of originality to the concept of social media app. And if you feel that you have come across something fresh and promising, don't delay the discussion of the idea with the experienced IT experts.