How to create your own social network and make it successful?

I want to apologize in advance for my English, this is not my native language, but I try to improve my skills. For more than 20 years of experience in the field of creating highly loaded and complex projects, I want to share my experience and knowledge and discuss with you on the topic “How to create your own social network?”. I run a fairly large IT company, the main activity of which has been the development of social networks for a long time. And when I see ads from various web studios and developers who use public solutions (for example, Wordpress) to create such complex projects or a technology stack that is not designed to create scalable projects that can handle multi-million web traffic and colossal volumes information, “my eyes are bleeding”. 😭😭😭

This article was written not for SEO purposes, but in order to explain in simple words — what points should be taken into account when deciding to create your own social network, and “how not to step on a rake”. That is why I will try not to use long sentences and will try to explain the essence of the question. So, let’s go…

How to create your own social network (search for an idea)?

No matter how sophisticated the technical solutions, no matter how perfect the stack of technologies used, the final success of your own social network will depend on a whole set of factors, one of which is the idea of the project. On the one hand, the idea itself is worth absolutely nothing. But the idea combined with the right technological solutions is the foundation of success. I will not “suggest” ideas. The only thing I want to remind you about is that all ingenious is simple. The idea doesn’t have to be complicated. Determine the needs of your target audience and offer them something that no one else has suggested — of course, your social network most likely will not be 100% unique, but it should have a unique paradigm — a unique combination of solutions and ideas. Breathe your soul into your project.

How to create your own social network (technical characteristics of social networks and how it differ from regular websites)?

There are a lot of people who want to create their own social network. Fewer people have interesting ideas. Even fewer people have sufficient funds to invest in creating their own social network. And very few have an idea of the technology stack that must be used for all this. The fact is that the average layman thinks that social networks are also ordinary sites. For this reason, 99% of attempts to create social networks fail at the stage of the wrong choice of technological solutions or a developer. No. Social media is not regular websites. Under the hood of such projects, there are a number of solutions invisible to users that make the project viable. Social networks use solutions for aggressive caching, high-load DBMS, load balancing systems between nodes, as well as a whole host of solutions in the field of information security. For this reason, to create such projects, in no case should you use a technology stack or engines that are used to create ordinary sites and portals. You cannot use Wordpress. This engine is most often used in attempts to create social networks by ignorant developers. There are other web-engines — there are hundreds of them. But name me at least one large and successful social network using such engines? Oups… To create a viable social network, it is necessary to use specialized solutions specially combined and created for similar projects. For example — QSNE.

How to create your own social network (search for a developer)?

Unfortunately, most of Google’s responses to requests about social networks creation are dead-end solutions offered by developers whose main goal is to get your money, not the success of the project. We have been creating specialized solutions for high-load online projects for almost 20 years and have a portfolio of well-known projects that have achieved success, including thanks to the specialists and engineers of Qwerty Networks. To be honest, we deeply study the competitive environment and can only cite 2–3 companies in the world that are capable of creating real social networks. And we are among them. Qwerty Networks creates infrastructure similar to well-known CDN networks, as well as software and server solutions and scalable DBMS for the development and launch of powerful social networks that will be able to cope with high loads. Sorry, but I will not be shy and I believe that we are the most powerful team at the moment capable of creating international social networks (if you do not take into account the IT giants).

How to create your own social network for free?

No way, it’s impossible. Based on search engine stat, the word “free” combined with the phrase “create a social network” is the most frequently used combination. I would like to appeal to those who enter such search requests — are you serious?

How to create your own social network (cost of creation, search for an investor)?

The average cost of building sophisticated social networks ranges from $50,000 to $300,000. At the same time, one must understand that the creation of a small social network (for example, a narrowly focused one) can cost an investor about 30–100 thousand dollars. And the creation of a highly loaded social network or a project of the level of YouTube or Facebook can cost 100–300 thousand. At the same time, Qwerty Networks is interested in interesting ideas and we are ready to co-invest up to 50% of the cost in your project.

Should you make your own social network similar to Facebook or Instagram?

Should not be doing that. Facebook is already there. Instagram too. Don’t try to copy existing projects. But in the old days this could lead to success — for example, Pavel Durov (the creator of the well-known social network VKontakte in Russia) initially borrowed the idea from Facebook (up to stylistic decisions) at the initial stage. In modern realities, this will no longer work. You should strive to create a unique project.

We create our own social network based on QSNE. Stages. Where to begin?

On the basis of the Qwerty Social Networks Engine platform, you can create almost any complex project — a social network, a high-load application, or even a video hosting.

Creation of a social network usually goes in several stages:

1. Discussion of the form of cooperation. At this stage, you need to choose — do you want to be 100% the owner of the project and use us as a contractor and IT partner, or we sign an agreement on joint investment in the project, within which Qwerty Networks retains a share in the project. In this case, we provide the project with a number of bonus preferences (for example, infrastructure and free support during the operation phase).

2. Discussing the concept, agreeing on the final cost and signing the contract. Of course, you know which project you want to receive, but we will help you shape your vision, according to global trends and our capabilities. After the concept is agreed we sign the main contract, you make the first investment (as a rule, it is about 15% of the project cost), and we start working. This stage takes 1–2 weeks.

3. Project naming, development and approval of mockups, approval of the project style. Yes, only after this stage we proceed to the main stage — development and installation of functionality. Typically, this stage takes 2–4 weeks.

4. Development and installation of social network functionality. This stage often consists of 3–5 substages. During this period, we gradually launch the functional blocks, test them with you, discuss and move on.

5. Pre-testing and discussion of additional nuances and blocks. Yes, yes, despite the fact that we have agreed on a concept with you, we may want to add something else to the project. After all, the final vision of a holistic project helps to form additional wishes. It may take some time, usually 1–2 months.

6. Test launch and billing integration. This is more an organizational than a technical stage. We will coordinate with you connection of the payment systems, check operability of all parts of the project and final dates approval of the public start and announcement of the project. This stage takes about 1–2 months.

7. Social network launch. You achieved the goal! We launched a new social network. We recommend not stop there but invest part of the profit from the project in its further development.

Once again, I apologize for any inaccuracies that may be caused by the lack of English proficiency. I hope I was able to detail the main points and answer the most common questions related to the problem of creating social networks. You can contact our engineers or me personally and discuss it. Thanks!