Step 1: Key Idea
Facebook is all about connecting with old acquaintances and finding new ones, as well as discovering news about them. LinkedIn allows you to make business and professional connections. YouTube gives you the opportunity to post your videos online in unlimited quantities and show them to everyone. Instagram has the same idea, but with a focus on photos.
When creating a decentralized network based on blockchain, start by finding an original idea that can be implemented with your capabilities. Such an idea should be popular with a large number of people while encouraging them to socialize or otherwise interact: watching videos, reading texts, commenting, liking, etc.
Examples of decentralized social networks already launched:
- “Reddit on blockchain”, where users can publish, edit and distribute content in open and closed form. Each user who participates in the development and/or popularization of Steemit is rewarded with an SMT (Smart Media Token).
- An analogue of Twitter with transparent and decentralized regulation and censorship. The platform is based on the Ethereum blockchain.
- A system for building professional connections based on the example of LinkedIn.
- A platform for communities where like-minded people share stories and perspectives without fear of social inhibitions or judgment. Users can pay Minds tokens to promote their own, and earn tokens for other people’s views and/or interactions with their content.
- The first social network based on the EOS blockchain and simultaneously the first decentralized network launched in China. Notable for its lack of censorship and Minds-like monetization.
- A decentralized social network focused on publishing and distributing news. Sapien’s monetization model is supposed to reward people for interesting news and punish fakes, propaganda, hidden advertising and other “bad” and “unethical” publications.
As we can see, most decentralized social networks are analogues of already existing platforms. This approach has the right to be realized, but it is better to create something new or make a social network for a specific target audience. This way is more effective in terms of marketing.
Step 2: Name and domain name
Once you have an idea, you can start choosing a name for your social network and create a domain name. Ideally, a name is one or a combination of two words that plays off the idea of your project in an obvious way, is easy to pronounce and remember. Simple examples are iPhone, YouTube, Twitter and Google.
You can check the availability of a domain name at Google Domains, Namecheap, Bluehost and other sites. If the domain is already taken, you can sometimes buy it back, such as at Domain.com, NameCheap.com, or GoDaddy.com. You can still try creating a domain name on sites that combine, trim, and augment one or more keywords in various ways.
Step 3: Requirements and Features
The next step in creating a decentralized social network is to determine the requirements for the site. Most of these are standard (features, security, design, code quality), but some will be specific:
- Which things should be decentralized. For example, who decides in which direction the site should develop, who decides where, how much and what kind of advertising to show, whether and what kind of censorship there will be, who drafts and can edit the User Agreement, etc.
- How to store and manage user data. For example, it is possible to create a decentralized social network in which the function of collecting personal data is not implemented at the technical level, but it is possible to create a system where the user decides whether he or she wants this data to be collected and how to use it afterwards: give it away, sell it, change it, delete it.
- How to distribute the profits that the social network generates. Will the site collect all the revenue into one pool and then distribute it to users according to their contribution. Or each user shows advertisements on his page and receives income from it without intermediaries.
Step 4: Approach to development
Development from scratch. Ideal if you need to create a unique decentralized social network. Requires a lot of time and money, but allows you to stand out among competitors and realize something really new. Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, YouTube, LinkedIn and Twitter and all other popular social networks are developments from scratch.
Based on existing platforms. You can use existing platforms to launch a social network based on them, such as Sola, Steem.io or Loom Network, which are sharpened to launch decentralized social networks, or EOS, TRON, Ripple or Ethereum. This reduces development time and cost, but is limiting in terms of features and functions of the product being built.
Ready-made solutions. White label and clones allow you to launch a social network in a couple of days, spending from 100 dollars. A risky option that can only play if you need to launch a social network in a segment with no competitors.
Step 5: Marketing Policy
For your social network to succeed, you need users, a lot of users, and the easiest way to attract them is through other social networks. To do this, you need to develop a marketing policy that includes the following promotional methods:
Targeted advertising – placing ads based on demographics, previous search history, purchases, and/or behavior. These traits can be either demographic (targeting race, economic status, gender, age, education level, income and employment) or psychographic (targeting values, character, lifestyle, relationship status, personal opinions, interests).
Influencer marketing is a form of social media promotion that uses endorsement of a product or service by influencers (bloggers), people and organizations that have expert knowledge and/or social influence. The endorsement can be expressed either through explicit advertising or through the simple use of the promoted product or service.
Content marketing is a type of promotion that involves the creation and distribution of content on the Internet (videos, articles, blogs and social media posts) that do not explicitly promote the brand, but are aimed at stimulating interest in its products or services.
Step 6: Development and testing
When all the preparations are complete and you have a detailed understanding of what your decentralized social network should be, you can start coding directly. For this purpose, you need a team of developers, which can work either in your staff or outsourced. The first option gives more control, the second – quality guarantees. The cost and development time in the first and second approaches are about the same.
Step 7: Launch the social network
It should be a grandiose event, which is expected by tens, or better, hundreds of thousands of users. It is difficult to create such excitement, but if you properly organize a marketing campaign and start it long before the launch of the site, it is quite realistic to do.
