Have you ever wanted to exist within its own social networking environment for people such as simply fitness enthusiasts, food lovers, pet lovers, or even book readers? While websites have momentum, it is evident that the internet is moving away from a one-size-fits-all approach and toward niche social media sites that are set up for people to meet and connect with others who share the same interests. The smaller, focused communities or websites are growing fast, because they offer members something that Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc., no longer can offer them – a personal and meaningful space where they belong.
The problem you face is that, regardless of how great your idea is, your social networking website will not be successful if it is not a suitable design. Design is what turns an idea into a thriving online community. From the selection of the features to finding a unique and engaging experience for your users, design is what converts a simple idea into a successful and engaged network.
In this guide, we will provide you with a step-by-step process to design a social networking website for any niche.
Know Your Target Audience
Aside from making your platform aesthetically pleasing, the first action is knowing who that social network is for. Each successful niche platform begins with an understanding of its target audience.
Here are a few questions to consider:
- Who are the people I want to connect with?
- What challenges are facing them that brought them to my platform?
- What type of content or interactions do they want the most?
To give you a few examples, for a fitness community, they might be looking for the ability to track their workouts, diet tips, and share their progress with friends. For food lovers, they would probably be looking for recipe upload, rating recipes, and challenges on cooking abilities. As for a professional niche like entrepreneurs or freelancers, they probably would want professional network tools, a job board, or networking groups/discussions.
When you understand your target audience, you can make everything based around their expectations: features, layout, design style, or even the tone of your content. Knowing your audience will be the difference maker when it comes to your site’s ability to get members and keep them active.
Add powerful niche-focused features using the Business Listing Plugin and Classifieds Plugin, depending on your community type.
Define Core Features Based on Niche
All social networks have features that you need – user profiles, friend connections, messaging, activity feed, etc. If you’re designing for a niche space, you can apply core features to the community in new ways by including niche-specific features that match your community’s unique needs.
For example:
- A fitness community may want workout logs, step counting, and integration with fitness applications.
- A food lovers’ network could use features for sharing recipes, rating recipes, and uploading cooking videos.
- A travel community could have trip planners, maps, and photo albums.
- A business-oriented network might require job listings, project management, and group discussions.
So remember to keep universal features and niche features in balance. You don’t want to bombard the website with too many features. It will confuse a new member base. Start with a few basic features and as your community grows, add more advanced features over time.
Finally, good design makes the entire experience simple, useful, and fun while channeling energy to the most important core, people connecting in the niche.
To see how successful platforms identify their users, check out our blog Who Uses SocialEngine & How They Monetize Communities.
User Friendly Design (UI/UX)
The know-how to build a social networking site is that it is not measured by the number of features added but rather by usability. The easier you make it for members, the higher the probability that they will stay on your site! While your home page feels clean, simple, friendly, and responsive, users will want to spend longer on it.
A few important things to understand:
- Easy Navigation: Make sure all menus, buttons, and sections are clearly easy to identify. No member or visitor should feel lost on your platform.
- Visual Branding: Consider the color palette, typography, and theme that represent your niche audience. Use calming/welcoming green colours for a wellness community or more bold and vibrant colours for a sports network.
- Mobile First: The majority of social media is accessed online via mobile devices. Keep in mind that images must load on both desktop and mobile devices; screen and desktop resolutions will differ.
- Accessibility: Think of user needs with impaired vision – ensure your font is readable, images and/or videos will play on slower connections.
A UX/UI tailored to users creates an inviting, trustworthy space that transforms first-time visitors to loyal members of your niche community.
Boost interaction with the Groups Plugin and Forums Plugin to make your niche community lively.
Add Community Engagement Tools
The power of a social networking website is in the engagement it generates. People choose to join niche platforms to connect, engage, and share, not just to scroll. So creating features that inspire engagement to get users interacting and actively participating is extremely important.
All the elements of engagement tools below can inspire engagement in different ways:
- Discussion Boards & Groups: Create a space where members can start conversations around specific topics.
- Polls & Surveys: Can work as a quick way to gather opinions to start conversations.
- Events and Meetups: Use our posting feature to engage your communities iteratively, either online and/or in person.
- Gamification: Use gamification to incorporate fun into the platform and get users involved and motivated.
- Push Notifications: Use notifications to alert your users to return to the platform with notifications of messages, comments, engagement, and/or activity.
- Personalization: Create your users’ “home,” by presenting them with content related to their interests.
Incorporating these community engagement-focused features into your platform makes your website a living and breathing community that members engage with to build their relevance and networks.
Secure and monetize your platform using the User Profile Lock Plugin and Authorize.net Payment Gateway Plugin.
Choose the Process & Platform that is Right
Every good social networking site is built on the right technology stack. Your site will need to be quick, secure, and scalable for your community to grow as your community grows.
Here are some possible paths to consider:
- Social Network Software: There are off-the-shelf social network software options. For example, SocialEngine allows you to launch your niche social networking site quickly with available, ready-to-use features and plugins.
- Open Source: If you prefer the flexibility of an open-source framework, you will have control and customization without the constraints of a site builder. However, you may need to possess a technical skill set.
- Custom Development: You may consider custom development to design your social networking site and have full control and unique features. However, it is the most costly with time, making it the least desirable option.
For community growth strategies, check out Why a Community Website Beats Facebook Group for Growth & Control.
Conclusion
In creating any social networking site, it matters to get this thing right for the audience so that they feel in a safe atmosphere where they can engage freely and where the experience is pleasant to undergo. Give your members relevant features, easy navigation, and ways of interacting with each other, and they will feel engaged and revitalized.
Start small by choosing a niche, building around their needs, and iterating when you receive feedback. As your community grows, your platform can include more advanced features, grow to include monetization options, and scale.
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