Ready to Launch Your Own Social Network? Follow These 10 Steps!

Every successful business has a successful beginning. Starting a social network business is no different. Even though it may seem like a difficult and challenging task, with the right strategy and approach you can achieve success. It requires a lot of research, smart planning and an unwavering belief in yourself and your business. So let’s get started.

Starting a social network business is a great way to leverage technology for success. As of 2017, there were as many as 3 billion social media users around the world, and this number continues to grow exponentially. This presents an opportunity for entrepreneurs to participate in the rapidly evolving social media segment and create their own social media venture.

It’s important to do your research and plan ahead before launching your social network business. You’ll need to create a thoughtful, user-friendly platform, acquire the right resources and technologies, establish a successful network infrastructure, but also develop a solid financial model that outlines your target revenue and budget.

In this article, we’ll break down the essential steps of creating your own social network business into a convenient checklist. We’ll cover the key items of successful business planning that are specific to the social media industry, so you can launch your business confidently.

Ready to get started? Let’s dive into the steps you need to take to start your own social network business!

1. Clarify Business Type & Goal

Before starting, it’s important to take a moment to analyze and evaluate the type of social network business that you want to start and the goals you want to achieve. Create and maintain a definite business idea and goal. Create a mission statement and find a way it can help investors, partners, or other people understand the objectives of your business. This should include the target audience and what the project hopes to accomplish. It’s the best way to establish your business’s foundation.

To create an effective mission statement, consider answering the following questions:

• What type of product or service will you offer?
• What is your long-term goal?
• What will make it stand out?
• What audience will you target?
• What value will you bring/provide to them?
• How will you make the product or service attractive?
• How can you measure success?

Answer these questions and you will gain the clarity to move forward.

It is also important to understand the competitive landscape and industry you are entering as well as the potential growth of the market. Take the time to research and analyze competitors and potential industry growths to create a strategy for success.

2. Research The Market & Competition

Whether you’re starting up a Social Network Business or developing a new product or service, it’s important to identify the market and competition. Conducting market research and competitor analysis will help you better understand your industry and your target audience, and will provide valuable insight into the potential success of your venture.

Conducting a competitor analysis doesn’t mean that you’re trying to copy or beat them—it means that you’re taking stock of who is currently providing similar offerings in the marketplace. It’s essential to understand the strengths and weaknesses of the competition so you can create a strategy to differentiate your product and increase your competitive edge.

• Identify your current competition
• Analyze your competitors’ products and services
• Analyze your competitors’ pricing and positioning strategies
• Analyze your competitors’ marketing activities
• Monitor developments in the competitive landscape

It’s also important to research the current state of the market, and understand the opportunities and challenges present in your industry. You can use this information and insights to enhance your offering and strengthen your overall strategy.

• Understand the current needs of the market
• Identify any market trends or shifts
• Analyze the potential impact of emerging technologies
• Evaluate the current state of the industry

3. Create A Business Plan

Creating a business plan is the first step to take on your journey to start a successful social network business. Your business plan should include a mission statement, operations plan, financial plan, and goals for the upcoming months and years. It should also feature a breakdown of all the services your business offers and a description of how these services will promote the growth of your social network.

Business plans can help you identify and address potential risks, remain organized, and visually represent your vision. An accurate business plan is essential in assessing the feasibility of your project and is a powerful communication tool while approaching future investors.

• Define your mission statement
• Outline operational information for long-term success
• Include financial projections and goals
• Describe the services your business offers
• Detail how these services will promote the growth of your social network
• Evaluate potential legal risks
• Create a strategy to maximize profits
• Develop a plan for marketing and advertising your social network

4. Define Financial Model & Budget

Having a solid financial model is essential to the success of any business, and that’s especially true of a social network business. A social network business not only needs to make money through user fees or sponsorships & marketing, but it must also have the proper cost-controls in place so that costs don't exceed profits.

When creating a financial model and budget for your social network business, it’s important to factor in the following expenses:

• Startup costs: These include legal and technical fees needed to create and launch your platform.
• Hosting and Infrastructure Costs: The cost of maintaining and operating the technology for your social network business.
• Staffing Costs: The cost of hiring the people needed to run and maintain your platform.
• Marketing Costs: The cost of advertising and promotion to attract new users.

It’s also important to consider the potential revenue streams for your social network business. They may include:

• User Fees: Charging users a fee to access and use your platform.
• Sponsorship & Marketing: Working with companies and organizations to generate ad revenue or to provide sponsored content.
• In-App Purchases: Charging users for additional features, upgrades, or virtual goods.

Creating a detailed financial plan and budget for your social network business is essential to its success. With a clear understanding of the costs and potential revenues, you’ll be better equipped to make informed decisions and keep your business on track.

5. Pursue Required Permits & Licenses

Before you begin the process of setting up your social network business, you must make sure that you have the necessary permits and licenses. Research the different regulations and laws in your area. This may include zoning regulations, taxes, and other business permits. Contact local agencies to ensure you understand the requirements. Most permit applications may require a fee, so make sure you understand the cost and timeline associated with obtaining the necessary permits.

When it comes to obtaining licenses, you will need to provide proof of identification and proof that you are the rightful owner of the company. In some cases, you may need to provide financial statements or other documents to prove you have the necessary capital to start the business. Some jurisdictions may also require user documentation for users that interact with your platform. Make sure you are familiar with the various laws and regulations in your area and understand what type of license you will need to operate your business.

6. Secure Funding

Funding your business is necessary to get your social network idea off ground and running. It is required for launching the business-related processes, making investments and assigning salaries. All of this need money, which can be secured from various sources:

• Friends & family - This is the most common source of business financing. Reach out to your close connections and explore ways they can help you with funding.
• Angel investor - Angel investors are individuals investing capital in your business with the promise of making money in return. They are a great way to dole out money to fund your business idea and do not require giving away a portion of the business.
• Crowdfunding - There are websites dedicated to helping entrepreneurs like you set up crowdfunding campaigns. With crowdfunding, you can easily attract potential investors who are willing to donate money in exchange for product samples, discounts or public acknowledgement.
• Bank loan - You can apply for a loan from the bank but keep in mind that it might be difficult to get one as a startup. The chances are higher if you have collateral or a co-signer.
• Venture capital - Raising money through venture capitalists means that you have to give away some ownership in your business to the venture capital firm. It also involves a long-term commitment with the firm.
• Government grants - Depending on your location, you may be qualified for government grants to fund your social network business.

7. Acquire Resources And Technologies

Before starting your social network business, you need to acquire the necessary resources and technologies. This includes adopting the right technologies, platforms, resources, and third-party systems.

First and foremost, you need to select the right technology stack for your business. You need to ensure that the technologies and platforms you select are reliable, secure, and can accommodate any scalability requirements. The technology stack will depend on the type of social network you’re developing, the expected user base, and the functionality. Depending on the complexity of the project, you may need to consult with a technology expert.

Next, you need to acquire the necessary licenses, tools, and software. This should include services such as DNS registration, hosting, and web servers. You also need to select development tools, such as an IDE and version control software. Additionally, you need to select an analytics tool to measure your users and engagement.

Third, you need to consider third-party systems, such as payment processors. This will depend on the type of social network you’re creating and what services you plan to offer. For example, if you’re creating a platform that requires payments, then you need to select and integrate with a reliable payments processor. Other third-party services you might need include customer support, chat bots, and marketing automation tools

8. Establish Network Infrastructure

Creating a social network platform requires a secure and reliable infrastructure. At a minimum, this should include: dedicated servers, networked storage, a quality firewall and an available domain.

Although there are lower cost hosting options, dedicated servers from a reliable hosting provider are recommended for social network businesses due to the additional functionality they offer: scalability, better security, discounted flat fees, and source code control.

In addition, your team should consider investing in a high-performance SAN (Storage Area Network) for data storage. This is often available through both traditional (non-cloud) and cloud hosting providers. A SAN also offers important security features such as RAID 5, NAS, and encryption.

In order to protect your business from malicious hackers, you'll need a quality firewall. CloudFlare offers an excellent solution, including the ability to block malicious traffic, ensure data privacy, and prevent DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) attacks.

Finally, make sure your social network site can be easily accessed by users. This includes setting up a domain name and registering it with your hosting provider. Make sure to use a domain that is easy to remember and not overly complicated or confusing.

9. Design Promotion & Marketing Strategy

As a business identity and presence progresses, it develops and evolves. It eventually grows enough to attract customers and employees. Prior to the official launch on the market, the success of a social network business must be well-planned and well thought out. It is important for the business owner to create a promotion and marketing strategy which has the potential to connect to the target audience and create a hype before the official launch.

When creating the marketing and promotion strategy, one should consider following aspects:

• Know the target audience. It is important to clearly identify customer personas - their needs, wants, tastes, and preferences. Also, consider the age bracket, gender, ethnic group, religion, and geographic location.
• Create a mission statement. This statement should reflect the core values and the purpose of the social network business.
• Develop various forms of communication. This could include text-based or multimedia communication, such as website, social media, video, printed material, and mailings.
• Create a content plan and calendar. This should state the number of posts and their frequency.
• Determine the budget. Allocate resources, including employees, money and time.
• Measure the results. Track the progress and prioritize results.

10. Monitor Business Performance

It is equally important to track and monitor the growth and performance of your Social Network business. The key metrics to track are revenue, user growth, user engagement, customer satisfaction, brand recognition, and market penetration. Make sure to stay up to date with all the key metrics and make necessary adjustments to keep your business on track.

Keep track of your revenue to monitor the sales trends of your products and services. Growth in revenue is indicative of the success of your Social Network business, recording which can be a great motivator.

User growth is critical to the success of a social network business. Keep a close eye on how many new users are signing up and engaging with your platform. Understanding the sources of user growth and engagement will help you to improve and target your efforts better.

The lifeblood of any Social Network is user engagement. Track user engagement metrics like time spent using the network, visit frequency, followers, reactions, and mentions. These metrics will provide important insight on user behavior that you can use to improve the user experience.

Measuring customer satisfaction is important to determine if your customers are enjoying your product or service offering. Use customer surveys, feedback mechanisms, and customer service inquiries to determine the level of customer satisfaction.

Brand recognition is essential to the success of a Social Network business. Monitor brand mentions, followers, and engagement rate to understand how your brand is doing in the market. Track changes in these metrics to find opportunities for improvement.

Market penetration measures the level of brand recognition in the market. Monitor market penetration by tracking trends in brand mentions, followers, website visits, and customer satisfaction.

With the above 10 steps in mind, you are now equipped with the knowledge and resources to create your very own social network business. Investing the time and energy to strategically plan ahead is essential for success in this industry. Understanding the market, researching the competition, identifying resources, and creating a strong financial model are all key elements of a successful social network business. Getting these things right from the start can mean the difference between success and failure.

With hard work, dedication and a bit of luck, you can launch your own social network business. We wish you the best of luck on your journey and hope that the information in this article was helpful in getting you started.