Social Media Towards Its Next Evolution Set By Technology

What is social media? Here are 34 definitions... | Econsultancy

From a time when an old school telegraph was considered to be the hottest medium of establishing communication to now when Facebook has doubled down its effort on the development of a mind-reading device, social media has already crossed several stages of evolution. Stages that have established it as a sector that is here to stay and grow. One of the pivotal factors behind the unprecedented growth that the domain is witnessing both in terms of users and scope of constant growth is the technology used in social media.

These number projections are the direct result of the direct influence of technology on social media. The constant inclusion of communication and content creation, distribution aiding technologies like native mobile apps – getting business access to users’ camera and GPS – geotagging, AI for image recognition, etc. have helped shape the current stature of the social media domain on a global scale.

In this article, we will be briefly revisiting how far social media technology innovation has come since Six Degrees, the platform that ruled 1997 followed by a look into the new technologies for social media.

The Evolution of Social Media – A Timeline and Key Events 

The future of social media technology began in 1997 with SixDegrees.com, the first social media site. The platform enabled you to create a profile page, curate a list of connections, and send messages to your network. At its peak, the website was used by over one million users before being bought over for $125 million and facing an ultimate demise in 2001.

The failure of Six Degrees, like its success, was followed by a number of social media networks. Around the time and early 2000s a number of new social media platforms like Friendster, AmIHotorNot.com, MySpace emerged and witnessed their decline in the domain.

However, there were a few that, at the back of their strong business model ready for growth from day one. Here are some of the social media platforms that continue to come on top of the social media landscape in terms of user count –

In addition to these, there were some other key names in the social media technology evolution landscape – LinkedIn, foursquare. Grindr, Pinterest, Snapchat, amongst others.

An unvalidated fact behind the growth and sustainability of the selected social media platforms can be seen in the incorporation of the right technology in the domain. Let us delve into it deeper.

The Importance of Technology in Social Media

The role of technology in social media evolution, although starts with the advent of smartphones and laptops on a precise level, begins with mobile apps. In 2019 alone, it was estimated by a Lyfemarketing report that over 91% of all social media users use social channels through mobile devices.

There can be a number of reasons behind the rise in mobile application adoption for social media usage:

  • Convenience in terms of not having to open a laptop and opening the application within three clicks.
  • Integration with mobile in-built features like camera, location, microphone, etc.
  • Ease of capturing and sharing content

We believe that up until this point you must have gathered the need for social media application development. However, the list of the impact of technology on social media doesn’t just end with one component. There are a number of other technologies like APIs, geotagging, QR codes, etc which have contributed to making social media where it stands today.

Technology incorporation makes social media accessible, safe, and real-time in addition to making the sector operate seamlessly with users’ experience through the mode of automation, integration with other social media applications, and eCommerce.

With the benefits of technology and social media peeked into, let us move on to the list of technologies that are helping social media app developers take the sector to its next evolution set.

Technologies Driving the Future of Social Media

1.  RFID – Radio Frequency Identification Tags

RFID (radio frequency identification) • MASS Group

RFID, in layman terms, means a small computer chip that can store information about an individual or object. Every chip comes with a unique serial number that can be tied to the information present on the chip. Let us give you a practical application of this technology through this example – Suppose you are at a music concert and you scan your RFID device with an RFID device that has social features integrated into it. By simply bringing your RFID device to the other one, you will be able to Like a band on Instagram or Facebook or download a couple of their music tracks on your device.

The growing popularity of RFID in the event and eCommerce domain (through the mode of NFC) has led to a number of social networking app development companies integrating RFID into their mobile applications.

2.  Augmented Reality

What is augmented reality, anyway?

AR and mixed reality are some of the most popular social media application features. There are a number of use cases that social media houses experiment with when integrating AR with their applications but the one that has witnessed mass popularity is the use of face filters. Popularized by Snapchat, AR-driven filters are used by both individuals and businesses to deliver engaging content.

Another example of business-level usage of AR in social media can be seen in social media advertisements. Last year, Snapchat created an AR-based app for Snap Original where Bhad Bhabie interacted with the users as if they were interacting in the real world.

3.  Artificial Intelligence

Artificial intelligence and Machine learning made simple

Out of all the new-age technologies that you will read about impacting the social media sector, the one name which will be placed on the top is Artificial Intelligence.

AI is a prime component of every social platform active in the market today. This is the number one reason why the technology is now involved in the social media app development cost on a default note.

  • Facebook utilizes advanced machine learning for a number of tasks: recognizing faces in poss to targeting users for advertisements and even for strengthening their search functionality.
  • LinkedIn makes use of AI for offering job recommendations, suggesting people whom they’d like to connect, and sending them specific posts for their feed.
  • Snapchat uses the capability of computer vision for tracking physical features and overlaying filters that move with them in real-time.

These business examples are a validation of how AI is a crucial part of all the different genres of the social media domain.

4.  Blockchain

How Blockchain Is Influencing The Social Media ? | Mirror Review

Decentralized social platforms is one of the most up and coming genres of the social media sector.  There are a number of use cases of social media and blockchain convergence which businesses from both sides are experimenting with. Here are some of them –

  • The social media networks depend on ad-based business models that share a common shortcoming: the creators are unequally compensated for their content on the platform. A smart contract can be put into use here for ensuring that the creators get the amount that their content is worth without any delay or unannounced deduction.
  • There are businesses working towards combating internet censorship. Usually, based on a distributed ledger, the individuals will be able to read and curate their own content with a surety that no entity will be able to block access to content.

5.  IoT

IoT definition | Strate, School of Design

The last in our list of social platform and technology trends is the Internet of Things. The technology is used heavily for social media monitoring and marketing purposes by some of the top names in the industry like N&W, Disney, and Tencent, etc.

Organizations are constantly on the lookout for an IoT skilled social media app development company that would help them create solutions around real-time monitoring of data and insights coming in from social media to help them make better business decisions.

Here were the five technologies which are taking the social media sector towards a new evolution era – one that will be a lot more open and transparent in nature. Want to be a part of the revolution? Contact our team of social media experts.

Wanna learn Designing of Social Media App? Come Here!

How to Develop a Social Media Application, Social Networks & Media App Developmen

From a business point of view, social media is one of the most promising markets. Want to create a social media app?

There is no denying the fact that social media cannot be ignored by today’s society. From a business point of view, social media is one of the most promising markets.

Many organizations use social media as a marketing tool to promote their business since they have their audience present on Facebook, google+, Twitter, Instagram, or Pinterest.

The rapid development is opening new landscapes within this play-area and social media app development has become a major game in the business world!

Want To Create a Social Media App? Let’s Look At Some Facts Shall We?

  • Over 3.6 billion people were using social media worldwide in the year 2020. This number is projected to increase to almost 4.41 billion in 2025.
  • On an average, internet users spend 144 minutes per day on social media and messaging apps.
  • Market leader Facebook was the first social network to surpass one billion registered accounts and currently boasts approximately 2.7 billion monthly active users, making it the most popular social network worldwide.
  • In June 2020, the top social media apps in the Apple App Store included mobile messaging apps WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger, as well as the ever-popular app version of Facebook.

When planning to design a social media app, it is essential that one understands all the types of apps there are in the market. This will help you find your niche and identify your competitors. Not only this, but also understand your target audience, and offer users a more appropriate functionality.

Types Of Social Media Apps

1.  Social networking apps

5 Emerging Social Apps Trends in 2018 so far

The main goal of these apps is to connect people for personal or professional reasons. From finding a job, joining a new community to connecting with a long lost friend, these apps will do the magic. For example: LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram.

2.  Media sharing apps

7 Great Apps for Sharing Media While Mobile - Techieapps

If you want to target artists and creators, this is the app for you! People these days love sharing videos, photos, GIFs etc to platforms like Youtube, Instagram, Snapchat, Pinterest etc. 

3.  Blogging and publishing apps

9 Best Android Apps Every Blogger Should Use

Writing is not as easy as it looks and writers do need an app that would let them write their mind. Such apps help writers to write from any gadget they want anytime. For example: WordPress, Medium. 

4.  Discussion forums

ACC Online Learning: ACC DISCUSSION FORUMS

If you want to build a social media app where a community of people share their insights, experiences, ideas, opinions etc, this type of app is for you. For example: Quora.

5.  Customer review apps

9 customer review examples (and how to get more reviews) | RingCentral

The major goal of these apps is to share their reviews about brands, services and products. Good customer reviews can help one grow business. For example: Yelp, TripAdvisor.

6.  Service Provider apps

Home Service Provider App | Urbanclap & TaskRabbit Clone Script

These types of apps help you undertake a particular service. From booking a cab, finding a plumber to booking a hotel etc, these apps are at your service. For example: Ola, UrbanCompany.

Now that we have understood the existing apps, let’s focus on how to make a social media app.

How To Develop A Social Media App?

Step-1: Find your purpose, target audience and competitors

How to Find and Target Your Social Media Audience (Free Template)

The first step for social media app developers is to know the purpose of their app. Network apps allow people, organisations and companies to create, exchange and share information over a network of people.

If you have an idea, good for you, but a full understanding of the market, target audience, potential users and what your current competitors lack is very important information. Also, if you want to earn money from your app, think of all possible monetization options.

Once you are done with conceptualizing your future application and its missions, goals, user engagement ideas and competitive analysis, get ready for building out of the box growth strategies.

Step-2: Design social network app’s workflow

24 of the Best Mobile App Design Tools | BuildFire

The next step is to create a defined workflow. This is to attain a specific pathway a user will follow in order to achieve the required set of goals. Hence, this step will define a complete user journey. The app workflow is a very critical step since it defines steps the user takes while they interact with your product.

Step-3: Development and design for both iOS and Android

How to Design an App for Both Android and iOS | AppIt Ventures

As the name of this step suggests, it is equally important to design a social media app for android and for iOS. If you are using a SaaS solution then you don’t have to worry about this step but if you are planning to start from scratch so we suggest you start with creating a wireframe. Wireframes are the skeletal structure of the app, which represents how the app’s fundamental looks.

A wireframe will help your design and development team to visualise how the app works and what pages link together. The next step is prototyping which will create a working model of your app. This will help everyone understand how the app is functioning for android and IOS.

Step-4: Build your community and market the app

8 Steps to Take When Beginning Your Mobile App Development

Now that your app is ready, it is time for you to win users and build a community! Start thinking about initial marketing strategies and campaigns that help draw the people’s attention, increase app downloads and user engagement.

7 Tips To Design Social Network App

Social App designs, themes, templates and downloadable graphic elements on Dribbble

Social networks app development is a tricky game! You must be sure that the app’s design is intuitive, easy to use and that same time appealing to your audience. Let’s talk about the best practices one can keep in mind while planning the look and feel of one’s app.

  • Keep it simple – A clean design always helps since people are already familiar with using the same. It helps you enthrall the users towards your value rather than distracting them away from it. When you focus on your offerings you don’t give your customers the space to think only of your brand, in turn. If you want to use your social media app for business, this is one of the key characteristics that you should focus on.
  • Communication is key – Allow your users to communicate with each other with the help of video call, audio call, recorded voice notes, ability to share content with each other. This is how you will build your community and keep your users engaged.
  • Focus on the Navigation – The minimalistic approach is the best one when it comes to designing navigation. If you create navigation with numerous features it will be too complicated for the user to keep up. The best practice is to ensure that all your icons and buttons are placed in the best part of the screen for the user to identify them easily.
  • Keep it consistent – You need to make sure that the design of your app remains synchronised in order to avoid any confusion that the user might face. By using consistency in your app it will create a logical structure that will clearly define where users can find what. This process will spare your app from confused and frustrated users.
  • Round design elements –  Do you know why Facebook or Instagram use round profile pictures? Well, it helps to focus on a user’s face and further makes it simple for other users to remember or distinguish them from others.
  • Allow people to personalise – Provide users the freedom and choices to share information, media, links, content etc in order to add their personality to their specific profiles.
  • Color codes are very important – Choose colors of the same family that help in providing a seamless user experience.

How can you make money from a social media app?

How to make money from social media - Save the Student

You can easily monetize your social network app design and start earning returns from the cost that you invested in social media app development. Below are a few ways to achieve your goals:

  1. Paid subscriptions: With an app based community, you can offer users paid subscriptions. It is best to first offer a free trial with good content and one or more paid trials that offer more in-depth and high-value content.
  2. Paid content: If you have a lot of users engaged with your content, you can use social apps for business. Paid sponsorship is one way you can convert your user reach into money.
  3. In-app purchases: You can give your users the liberty to directly make digital purchases. For example, ebook, a video or audio file.

Final Words

I hope that creating a social media mobile app is not as tough as you previously thought it was! I have walked you through the facts of social media apps, we have also talked about how to make an app from scratch, right from ideation to implementation and designing. Feel free to reach out to a social media app development company to guide you better and create your own app in no time. Take the first step today!

What Characterizes the Success of Social Media Apps?

How to Secure Your iPad Social Networking Apps - Social Media Impact - Social Media Impact

Beside the connections with friends, colleagues, family, and strangers, social media gradually helps brands to connect with the users and audience.

Current estimates peg the total number of social media users worldwide at 4.20 billion in 2021. While the uninitiated connect the rise of social networks with the mass production of smartphones and the overarching reach of free internet, that is far from the truth. The actual evidence points to a rather slew of social media app features plugged-in to play around with the chemistry of the human brain.

Having analyzed the best social media apps in the current times, let’s know more about the social media apps like WeMe that are creating the buzz and benefiting the wider community of social media application development.

Below, you will discover a 2D view of the social media universe that is largely responsible for the average user spending 145 minutes per day on such platforms. Let’s get to it!

What is Common Between Successful Social Media Apps?

The following traits have been observed to connect the subjective dots between the leading social media platforms of the day.

Built-in social hypnosis

Hypnosis for weight loss: does it work?

Any social media app for mobile aims to get popular and prolong its use with the help of viewers. The features of a successful social media app therefore, must integrate specifications that can keep users hooked so much so that they lose track of time. Irrespective of the platform-type, it is safe to say that a social media app should have an unending supply line of content that intrigues users and raptures their subconscious minds.

A successful social media app places huge bets on first being free to use, and second offering next-level personalization (more on this in a bit).

The goal is to be authentic and naturalistic. Just as user engagement goes up, so do the ad revenues which primarily are the blood vessels of the most used social media apps.

Personalized content

Socialmediaapps

The secret recipe to create social media apps with a lasting impression is to offer personalized content. Thanks to a hyper-involvement of AI, ML, and big data silos that a social media app developers like us at Anteelo, have the capabilities to harness user information for tinkering and tailoring content offerings. Never downplay the role personalization plays in user engagement. 74% of the customers feel annoyed if the website content is not personalized.

Facebook can curate data with uncanny accuracy because it has over 5000 data points on each member.

Millennials and Gen-Z together form the Demand Generation. They want content on-demand. A successful social media app can fulfill this hunger for gratifying content only if it has built-in mechanisms for data collection, the elixir for pinpoint personalization.

Infinite scroll

AddyOsmani.com - Infinite Scroll without Layout Shifts

The infinite scroll proved a path-breaking discovery in terms of innovation and social media app ideas. It is the social network equivalent of the auto-stream feature on video platforms like YouTube and Netflix. For anyone wondering how to create a successful social media app, this is where you start. Scientific studies have uncovered the workings of the exposure effect.

Long story short, the more often your brain views a certain (neutral) thing, the more it is disposed to like it.

While social media app users may not be aware of it but that is the methodology their brain is subjected to. As a social media app development company, we know too well how things come a full circle.

Offer likable content – develop user interest – customize content feed – keep at it.

Social reward mechanism

Dopamine, Smartphones & You: A battle for your time - Science in the News

One of the advantages of social media is that it lets people share their achievements, state of mind, and ongoing experiences. But there is another side to their personal story. Users rejoice when their friends join in on the act and engage with posts by likes, emojis and comments, and re-shares. The most used social media app, Facebook, has leveraged the power of ‘likes’ to its fullest on its subsidiary concern Instagram, with the competition following suit.

For social media app users likes and dislikes are the strongest indicators of the shareability of a post. Research posits accumulating likes on a post releases dopamine that delivers a satisfying kick.

This is nothing but a reward mechanism, something of an open secret to building a successful social media app.

Leveraging social urges

I urge everyone to maximize on leveraging social media because in this day and age, I don't think there is anything more powerful than that” — Naina Hussain, Illustrator and Co-Founder at

Social media app design ideas are guided by human psychology, at least in the current scheme of things! They integrate and to an extent, tap into our levers of social pressures to make us prolong the app use. Consider WhatsApp for instance. In what has been one of the most well-received social media app ideas of the last decade, its success prompted developers to zero-in on granular aspects of sociology.

By convention, humans feel obliged to respond if they know their message has been read. Therefore, when WhatsApp introduced the blue color read receipts, it integrated a feature that made people respond instantly. As a social media app development company in USA, we know how important such tactics are to the success of the venture.

Types of Social Media Platforms 

Alright, so it is clear what distinguishes successful social media ventures from those that flounder. Yet a few questions remain such as:

  • What types of social networking platforms are there?
  • What is the cost to build a social media app?
  • And, what programmable features should social networking app development companies pug-into such platforms?

Instant messengers and video curation platforms aren’t the only networking alternatives in the market, though they have come to dominate it.

We can classify social networks by their TG in the following brackets: 

1.  Network building apps

Modern Network Solutions | Future Of Networking | VMware

This encompasses Facebook, Twitter, and the LinkedIns of the world. Their USP is connecting people on either a personal or professional front.

2. Media sharing apps

Video Sharing Applications - Social Media Tools 2019 (1)

Networking isn’t all about opinion exchanges. Smartphones metamorphose our feelings into shareable content be it videos, images, or articles. This category focuses on such media sharing and has names like YouTube, Imgur, and Pinterest. 

3. Discussion boards

Discussion Board Best Practices | Learning Technologies at College of DuPage

You have multiple alternatives to voice questions, answers, and opinion pieces on networks like Quora, Reddit, StackOverflow, and lest we forget, Yahoo! Where it all began. 

4. Business review forums 

23 Absolute Best Small Business Forums the Internet Has to Offer

Feel you’ve been duped by a brand? Shout out your story to the world and offer a tell-all to others in the community. Websites offering such services include Yelp, Business.com, and the Expressit App.

5. Company review platforms

The Top 5 Sites for Employer Reviews & Ratings [2020 Update] | Ongig Blog

Since we are reviewing our purchase decisions, how about employers! This category has opened Pandora’s box in letting out insider information to the public. Examples include Glassdoor, Indeed, and the Muse.

6. Blogging networks

Мужчин блоггер: скачать картинки, стоковые фото Мужчин блоггер в хорошем качестве | Depositphotos

Content will always be the king. Networks like Medium, and Steemit reward writers for their work amplifying the unbending power of the letter.

7. Relationship networks

Relationship Networking: 9 must-read tips to build relationships on events

Their goal is to match profiles based on the registered biodata. From dating to hitchhiking, and rent-sharing, this bracket includes sites like Tinder, Badoo, and Airbnb.

Features Of Social Media Apps

Social Media Wisdom for Businesses & Start-ups | Features | Social Media Management | MN2S

If you are budgeting funds for the cost of social media app development, then it is better to first go to the drawing board and finalize the app’s features. This is not an overnight procedure but a well-defined loop that involves project management, custom development, business analysis, and quality assurance. Yet, speaking strictly of features some are universal in apps of such nature.

In our experience, the following specifications make the cut for all social networking apps of the day:

File-sharing

The platform must support multi-media file sharing

Multi-lingual support

If you plan to go global, then supporting target-region languages is highly recommended.

Privacy settings

Members should be able to customize their profiles and make public only the necessary facets of personal info.

Notifications

Send reminders to people of picking up where they dropped off.

Content personalization

This is more of a capability than a feature, the extent of which is directed by Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning.

Comments, likes, shares

In trying to create social media apps, ensure that they allow cross-platform content sharing.

Audio content

This is the new audio based social media app feature. In audio only feature, the users are able to enter the chatroom only if they are invited. Example: Clubhouse

Infinite scrolling

One of the greatest advantages of social media is that people get to discover new content. Take advantage of this yearning and offer a limitless supply of scrollable dope.

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