How to Start a Social Website

Video chat is a popuar way to interact online.

Websites like YouTube, Facebook and Flickr have transformed the way we interact with our friends and view entertainment. They are one of the biggest cultural forces of recent years. People find peers who share common interests and passions, or simply socialize on the web. The platforms for these interactions are valued at billions of dollars. But even a small social networking website stands to be very profitable.

Things You'll Need

• Internet connection

Instructions

1. Think of a unique service your site can offer. Answer this question: why should someone want to visit your site? There's YouTube for sharing videos, Flickr for sharing pictures, Twitter for short messages. But smaller sites also exist for specific communities, say for fans of Rex Stout's "Nero Wolfe" novels or Star Wars fan fiction. Like any new enterprise, you should find a niche that has not been filled by an existing service.

2. Think of a catchy name for your domain. Since this will be the entry point for users, it has to be easy to remember and unique.

3. Decide on the features that you will provide. These features will be at the core of your social site, so they must be relevant and well-chosen. For example, an automatic geotagger is a handy feature for a site for hikers. For a chess strategy discussion site, not so much. Similarly, the chess site would be well served with a tool that could interpret chess moves and automatically generate a visual move-by-move representation of the game. This feature would be useless almost everywhere else.

4. Create robust interactive features. The most important aspect of any social website are its people. You must make it easy for users to join your site and interact with each other. Most sites already have photo comments, status updates, and direct messaging features. If you can add a feature that is new and unique, then that will give people a compelling reason to join your site. Every successful social networking platform is built on delivering one such unique interactive feature.

5. Generate content. A social website depends on content generation to stay alive. Why will a user log in tomorrow if the content is the same? Most social websites depend on users to generate their content. Let people upload their blogs, pictures and videos. Install a content rating system so that most people have immediate access to the best content. Promote content generation by holding competitions and giveaways.

6. If you are a web programmer, make your site. Otherwise, hire engineers to make your site for you. There are many software packages that will automatically create a social networking site for you. However, even the simplest ones require web programming expertise.

Tips & Warnings

• Your site's name doesn't have to make sense, as long as it's fun to say and easy to remember.

• One of the biggest concerns about social networking is privacy. Make your privacy statements explicit.

References

• Creativity Unbound: It's time for advertising and social media to work together.
• Boonex: Dolphin 7