Why social networking apps are good for your business

There is no denying that social networking is one of the most popular internet activities.

As of 2017 2,46 billions of internet users are social networks users. That accounts for 71% of all internet users worldwide. And, according to Statista, these figures are expected to grow.

Social networking is a significant instrumental in business and digital marketing. But there is still a considerable confusion between the notion of “social networking” and “social media”. It’s a common misconception that these notions are interchangeable. To develop strong and effective marketing strategy (particularly by using social networking apps which will be in our focus a little later) it’s important to know the difference.

Let’s look into a matter together with an expert in web and mobile app development, Umbrella.

SOCIAL NETWORKS VS SOCIAL MEDIA

Obviously social networking and social media are both all about communication. But to really understand the difference we should start with defining the notions.

Social networking is a creation and maintenance of business and personal contacts online. Social networking is a one-to-one communication model and it’s all about engagement: you’re making connections and keeping up with your audience and receiving feedback.

Social media is set of various forms of online communication (blogs, channels, podcasts, etc) through which users share information, ideas, personal messages, and photo or video content. It’s a one-to-many communication model. Other users can respond or comment on your posts and you are the one who own the content and produce media.

Note: There are often some overlaps. For example, LinkedIn is a pure social network. Youtube is a pure social media. Facebook is the combination of both social media (as it is dedicated to user’s content-sharing) and social network (as a platform for communication). Put them all together and you get an all-inclusive social media marketing strategy.

SOCIAL NETWORKING APPS VS SOCIAL MEDIA APPS

We have provided a demarcation between social networking and social media. But what about the mobile apps? Well, basically social networking apps and social media apps play by the same rules as their big desktop brothers:

• Communication style: on social media basically all you are doing is taking. Your posts are a way of interaction with your followers or potential clients. In networking this strategy doesn’t work. You should listen as much as talking or else you can miss some great opportunities.
• Goals: in a social media app your central goals are getting hype and attention. Social networking focuses more on building clientbase and interaction that could lead to the business relationships.
• Content: content is a crucial component of digital marketing for both social networking and social media. But the nature of it is completely different and social networking and social media content is hardly overlapped.
• Time and effort: Almost all the social networking apps have options to create and schedule new posts for many days to come. Social networking can’t be automated and requires concentration and stable engagement.
• ROI Measurement: it highly depends on the goals. Social networking’s ROI is easily measurable because there is almost always a direct response to your business efforts. But It’s not that clear with the rate of return you have on social media, because, as we already said, it’s more about getting attention rather than closing a deal.

But back to social networking apps.

Today growing popularity of mobile social networking is a force to be reckoned with: this year the global mobile internet traffic (excluded tablets) has exceeded total web traffic for the first time ever.

The graph also shows that in Asia and Africa mobile internet traffic has reached 65,71% and 63,55% respectively. That distribution explains why asian networking apps start to dominate.

As more people adopt networking apps in their everyday life networking apps become as big as social networks websites. But the most interesting thing is that the top networking apps don’t match with top networking websites.

See for yourself:

This visualization shows all the familiar faces, while the top mobile social networking looks more diverse:

TOP SOCIAL NETWORKING APPS

Facebook: a mobile app for the social media and social networking giant that needs no introduction. The only application on the list that wasn’t initially designed for a mobile platform.

Monthly active users: 1,860,000,000

Messenger: the app is just as straightforward as it’s called. Free instant messages and calls to the people on your contact list. It’s no coincidence that the app is integrated with Facebook as the owner is the company.

Monthly active users: 1,300,000,000

WhatsApp: another free instant messaging app that uses your phone’s internet connection to send and receive messages, calls, media files, and Voice Messages.

Monthly active users: 1,300,000,000

WeChat: chinese social media and social networking app that, besides essential messenger functions, provides hold-to-talk voice messaging, video broadcast and games.

Monthly active users: 938,000,000

QQ Chat: another option for chinese messenger admirers. The app postures itself as a language barrier breaker that is substantiated with a built-in translator for all your chats.

Monthly active users: 861,000,000

Instagram: a worldwide famous social media app with the growing social networking traits. The app focuses on the user’s visual content: photos, videos, stories. But with ever increasing frequency the photo descriptions turn into the full-fledged informational texts.

Monthly active users: 652,000,000

QZone: chinese social networking app owned by the holding Tencent (the same one the owns QQ Chat). It allows users to write blogs, keep diaries, send photos, listen to music and watch videos.

Monthly active users: 652,000,000

Viber: an instant messaging social networking application with support for photo and video sharing.

Monthly active users: 249,000,000

LINE: an instant messaging app with full functionality and social media features: you can subscribe to the official accounts of celebrities, brands and TV shows for exclusive news, promotions and more.

Monthly active users: 218,000,000

Snapchat: an app that shares with Instagram its visual focus but with one crucial difference: the principal concepts of Snapchat is that pictures and messages that you send are only available for a short time before they become inaccessible. Snapchat was the one who started the “Stories” craze.

Monthly active users: 200,000,000

The figures speak for themselves: mobile social networking is rapidly growing and it’s high user engagement level and mobile platforms’ tech possibilities provide the business opportunities that cannot be ignored.

MAKE YOUR OWN SOCIAL NETWORKING APP

It’s important for a successful business to have access to the right marketing tools and the best mobile apps. These are the factors that can really make the difference between a successful campaign and a mediocre one.

If you think that the apps referred to in this article are not enough for you, you can always create your own - just like our clients did. JellyChip is a mobile app that helps users connect and help people in need. Users collaborate on market research surveys and earn points. The points become a currency to spend on a social cause.

CONCLUSION

Social networking apps are essential for a modern business. Once you have designed your social network and social media strategies you can effectively present your brand, promote your projects, reach and stay in touch with the right people.

Building your own social networking app makes it possible to design a unique application with any customizable features you want that will be the perfect match just for you. And if you need a partner to turn your concept into reality, contact Umbrella.

Find more top mobile app development companies worldwide on AppFutura.