Building a Network: How to make your social network popular

One of the main concerns of a social network owner is how to make the site popular and successful through user activity. A social networking site will die if there are no members who will make use of the functionalities of the site and who will encourage visitors to join in on the activities.

So how does one turn a seemingly generic social networking site into a bustling community full of active participants? Here are some ways on just how to achieve that:

1. Offer something that other social networks don't have
Or at the very least, make an existing function better. We see a lot of social networking sites that have practically the same content; the only difference lies in the number of users and usually, their interface. Try to compare the different successful sites that you can find and determine whether they're lacking something that you, as a user, would like to see in those kinds of sites. If you can't find anything, try to see if there's anything that you can improve to make the users' browsing and activity better.

2. Judge your site the way a normal user would
Forget the lines of codes, the costs, the time it takes to develop and all those other technical stuff. Put yourself in the shoes of a normal, average user and criticize your layout, functions, interface and other add-ons to see if they would work well even for those who aren't computer-savvy. I'm guessing that this will be one of the hardest tasks that you have to do since you know your site like the back of your hand so if you get stuck on this one, ask a friend or a family member to do the judging for you....

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