Social networking platforms have recently emerged as a successful business model seeing their commercial success and popularity. Today, these platforms are our second life and everyone having an internet-enabled device spending time on these social networking sites or apps. Internet-based social networking services (SNS) have been around for many years but seeing the business opportunities and popularity, many business organisations, startups and individuals are trying their luck in this dynamic industry.
“Social media is not a media. The key is to listen, engage, and build relationships. “
– David Alston, author
Success or failure of a social networking platform depends on how they help ease the life of people. People just don’t need a platform that eases their work but a product that is easy to use and lovable. So, before you start building your social network, let’s have a look at the characteristics and features a social networking platform must-have.
Must-have features & characteristics
These are the basic features you can’t imagine a social network without but not the complete list you need to build your social networking site. You just don’t need another Facebook but a product 9 times better than the existing one to succeed and survive in this competitive world. So, deep dive and find what additional features and characteristics will help you stand out and win over the current players in the market. Here’s the list of must-have and basic features for your social networking site.
Virtual identity/digital personas
- Login
- Profile building
- Customisation of profile
- Control the degree of publicity of profile
- Status updates
- Blocking unwanted links
Network building
- Friend suggestion
- New friend alerts
- Interest-based groups
- Import contacts
- Forums
- Search engine
Network maintenance
- Friend / Unfriend
- Exit groups
- Block people
- Connect to other platforms
- Profile change timeline
- Alerts – email, SMS, push notifications and RSS feed
Interaction
- Chat
- Like, share, mention and comment
- Poke
- Activity alerts
- Forums
User-generated content
- Upload video
- Create video
- Upload images
- Blog, status and articles
- Quizzes, events and polls
Privacy
- Content privacy
- Profile privacy
- Account deletion
- Change or deletion of contact information
- Opportunities to report group, content or profile
Summing up
Social media is not just a media today but a powerful tool for business organizations to study their potential customers. You can build, run and scale a social networking site if you have an idea that can add value to the people’s life. Start building and change the world today. Wish you luck!
