Social networks have become the new version of staying connected with others who share the same interests as you. Especially social networks like LinkedIn allow you to expand your network while seeking job opportunities. If you are eager to create your network like LinkedIn, you don’t need any coding knowledge! Just keep on reading this article to learn more about the useful features of such social networks, benefits, costs, and how to create your own with Raklet!
LinkedIn’s Social Network
Launched in 2003, LinkedIn aims to provide a social network and online services for professional networking on its website and mobile application. The main difference between LinkedIn from other social network examples is that its target community is made up of business- and employment-oriented people. The platform allows job seekers to post their CVs, check out job opportunities, and develop themselves via educational courses while giving the space for job posters to fulfill their needs. Today, LinkedIn has over 87 million registered users, and 11 million of these users are decision-makers.
How much does it cost to build a website like LinkedIn?
The first question that comes to mind when thinking about building a website like LinkedIn, is probably about the cost of the whole process. The overall cost of such a social network varies largely depending on your needs and plans. If you would like to include diverse features that will involve large groups of people, the cost is likely to be higher. On the other hand, the service that you choose to create your own social network has a high impact on the final cost. Let’s get into more detail about the possibilities of different features and options of services.
Features of Social Networks like LinkedIn
There are several different features that your social network like LinkedIn may include depending on your community’s aims and desires. With the increased customizations and technological advances, the limit to the features your social network can possess almost does not exist! According to your community’s size, budget, plans, and other elements; you can pick and choose from the endless possibilities! Let’s have an idea of social network features from the examples below:
1- Job boards
The first thing that comes to mind about social networks like LinkedIn is the exclusive places to post and search for job opportunities. Job boards are one of the essential features of such social networking sites. Allowing for different filter options, and customizations will diversify the reach and potential of your social network.
2- Networking options
Another key feature of social networking sites is to provide endless networking options to people from similar backgrounds as well as very different areas! You will have the unique power to bring together a diverse group of people as an exclusive opportunity for your community. The ways you can deliver this to your community include creating customized member profiles, adding related fields such as interests and location, and private messaging.
3- Communication channels
Related to the networking opportunities, you should also give your members of the social network a chance to express themselves. Categorized and customized forums allow you to have open communication with different kinds of posts, images, and videos. Your members will also answer each other and react to each other’s posts with emojis. Your social network will be the hub to share ideas, projects, and questions with each other!
4- Custom notifications
One of the fundamentals of creating your own social network like LinkedIn is delivering updates in the form of a unique feed and custom notifications to your members. Each member can choose their interest areas and have a unique feed with related posts on these topics. Similarly, their notification will be uniquely designed according to their interests, past engagement history, job field, and other factors. With Raklet, the notifications can come in all different forms including mobile app push notifications, emails, and SMS!
5- Analytics
The last example of the key features has to be the analytics and reporting of your social network since it is the right tool to analyze how your network is doing. The analytics and reports may come in different formats focusing on various areas from member engagement to content reach rates. You should continuously check the data and compare your strategies to improve along the way. Raklet’s over 4000 integrations including Google Analytics and customizable forms help with analyzing your social network easily!
3 Benefits of Creating Your Own Social Networks
Creating your own social network like LinkedIn comes with many benefits since you will provide an exclusive platform to your community. Let’s see some of the key benefits together:
1- Targeted audience
In comparison to mainstream social network platforms, your own social network will be unique to your community members who are already on the same page about their interest areas, business needs, and many more. Rather than addressing a very large group of people, you will have a targeted audience, which will ease all processes and save your members time while finding the right opportunities quickly!
2- Monetization options
Creating your own social network like LinkedIn will bear the opportunity of monetization. Some of the monetization options include creating exclusive content, special educational courses, unique products, and much more! You can offer different membership plans to vary the degrees of access of your members to the social network. Raklet’s secure and fast payment integration with Shopify helps to handle online payments easily.
3- Increased customizations
You will have the flexibility to pick and choose exactly the right features for your community’s needs! With the power of customizations, you will target your needs and goals much better compared to mainstream social network platforms. Raklet also helps with your customization needs by offering options on several of its features!
How can I create my own social networking site?
Now, you can analyze the different services to create your own social networking site after having learned about the benefits and features. The methods differ from using open-source services to getting help from an all-in-one platform. Let’s explore the pros, cons, and differences of these methods:
1- Outsourcing
You can outsource to an external website and mobile application development agency, which will deliver you a fully customized social network. However, as your idea gets more and more unique, the existing services will have a hard time covering your needs. Eventually, this option leads to very high capital and time investment.
2- Open-source services
Another option is to make use of open-source software such as WordPress and use the existing services to their extent. For additional needs such as security, maintenance, and customizations; you will need external help from a development team.
3- In-house development
To have in-house development for your own social network, you need to hire and build a technical team to work for your specific needs. The downside of this option is the duration of the development process, and the amount of investment required.
4- Raklet: Community Management Software
Our recommendation is to use community management software that comes with various features and integrations to cover all your needs! An important advantage of such software is the convenience it brings by having an all-in-one platform. Moreover, community management software usually results in lower costs and higher customization.
Raklet is an all-in-one membership management software where you can create your own social network like LinkedIn. As mentioned previously, Raklet includes all the key features that such social network platforms should contain from creating custom membership profiles and sending notifications to generating reports and analytics tools. All the features allow for customizations as well as monetization options. Since all the features are integrated together, managing the social network with Raklet is convenient and cost-efficient.
Now, it’s your turn!
Now that you have an idea of the cost, diverse features, benefits, and services to create your own social network like LinkedIn, it is time for you to take action! If you would like to have an all-in-one solution during the process, Raklet comes in handy with various features. Check all these out, choose the ones that fit your needs, and build your own social network! If you would like to learn more, you can book a free demo with us to have one-to-one calls!
If you would like to read more on similar topics, check out other related articles from our blog:
