Why Do You Need A Winning Social Media Strategy?

Social media plays an integral part in most people’s daily lives. Some use them to share stories, and others to fulfil business goals. 

In 2026, more than 5.6 billion people worldwide are active on social media, which now accounts for roughly 68.7 % of the global population online.

That’s a supermajority of humanity spending billions of hours across platforms like Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, and LinkedIn every day. 

This is a signal for businesses, creators, and aspiring app founders. A winning social media strategy today does more than increase likes or followers. It is a business growth engine, customer engagement channel, and discovery platform that can make or break product visibility.

And if you’re planning social media app development, this massive reach and engagement world is your market’s starting point.

In this article, we’ll explain why you need a winning social media strategy, from expanding reach to supporting growth for your social media app and business, and how strategic planning translates into measurable results.

So, let’s get started…

Suggested Read: Do’s And Don’ts: App Marketing in Social Media 

Different Types of Social Media Apps

You probably think of social media apps when you hear them. Therefore, let’s take a look at the most popular social media platforms that invite user engagement, and what problems they try to solve.

Understanding these categories is essential when building a winning social media strategy or planning social media app development for business growth.

1. Social networking apps

The first social network apps that come to mind are Facebook, Instagram, etc. These apps are designed to connect people and offer a platform for sharing thoughts and experiences. They have become marketing tools that can be used by both large and small businesses. Additionally, LinkedIn is also a social network app that nurtures business relationships.

From a social media strategy perspective, these platforms focus heavily on brand visibility, community building, and long-term user engagement.

2. Media sharing network

How do you create a social media application for sharing media? These social media networks allow active users to share all types of media, such as videos and photos. YouTube, Snapchat, TikTok, and other media-sharing channels allow users to create, upload, edit and curate their content and share it. These platforms allow all the potential users to create profiles and add information about themselves. They can also interact with other creators and comment on videos and photos. These platforms are now even more attractive to the public because users can now monetize their content via AdSense and special programs such as the YouTube Partner Program, sponsorships or donations, patronage, and other programs, like the YouTube Sponsor Program.

For businesses, media-sharing apps are powerful tools for content-driven social media marketing strategies and brand storytelling.

3. Social network review

These apps give social proof of products and services. They also allow people to search for information about companies without wasting their time. How do you create a social media platform for reviews? Yelp or TripAdvisor are great examples. These sites allow you to leave reviews and ratings about restaurants, hotels, and beauty salons.

If business owners read the reviews and use them to improve their businesses or enhance the user experience, these platforms can be a great resource. Companies can also use social media platforms to promote their brands and self-promotion. Review-based platforms play a key role in shaping trust, which directly supports business-focused social media strategies.

4. Discussion forums and community

Despite the fact that discussion forums are losing popularity due to social networks, they remain relevant to many communities. How do you create a social platform for discussion and community? Reddit allows people to share their experiences, connect and discuss small topics. Quora, another forum that allows people to ask questions about virtually any topic, and receive answers from other users. It can sometimes be difficult to find a community through large platforms such as Facebook. Discussion forums allow for the creation of smaller communities with people who share common interests. These platforms are especially valuable for niche targeting and organic engagement within a focused social media strategy.

5. Content curation and bookmarking

How to create a social bookmarking app with additional features and a clear monetization strategy. Bookmarking sites allow users to organize their websites and resources by categorizing and tagging them. Users can save the best parts and discover content from others. Pinterest is also used to market businesses, blogs, YouTube channels, and other creative works. Content curation apps support discovery-based social media platforms and help brands distribute visual and educational content effectively.

6. Blog and publishing platforms

These platforms are not to be confused with content management systems (CMS) such as Wix or WordPress. Publishing and blogging platforms let users create profiles, share posts, and discuss various topics without the need to build a website or pay hosting fees. How do you build a social media platform for blogging and self-publishing? Medium and Tumblr allow people to post their thoughts on large platforms at any time. As a result, businesses have a great opportunity to share information about their products and company with millions of people. These platforms are often used for thought leadership and long-form content within a broader social media marketing strategy.

7. Anonymous social networks

Anonymous social media sites allow users to share stories and ask questions without sharing their identities. These sites are particularly popular with teenagers, who often want to discuss controversial topics but don’t have the support of their families. How do you create an anonymous network app with a lucrative monetization strategy? Whisper is the most well-known app. It allows users to share their confessions with the public. The subscription model charges users a monthly fee. Such platforms require careful moderation and security when planning social media app development.

8. Microblogging

Plurk and Twitter are the most well-known microblogging platforms. Users can post short entries of up to 280 characters. You are encouraged to comment, retweet, and join in the discussions. This feature is attractive to business owners who can use it to promote their products and/or services in a fun and engaging way. Users also love this method of blogging, as not everyone has the time or desire to maintain a blog website. It is much easier to post small entries, news, messages, and comments about current events on microblogging platforms. Microblogging platforms are highly effective for real-time updates and fast-moving social media strategies focused on audience interaction.

Key Benefits of Creating a Social Media Network

You can create your own social network and reap many benefits. Reaching your community on your terms is only one of the many benefits.

These are six more:

1. Apps for social media that are customized allow for more personal relationships and interaction

It is a great idea to cut out the middleman. There are no restrictions or rules when you own the digital platform you use to interact with your community. You want to ensure that everyone who follows you sees what your thoughts are. You can reach your community quickly with your own social media app. A customized social media application also helps improve user engagement by offering features designed specifically for your target audience.

2. Gain a deeper understanding of your community

You are the one responsible for creating a social media platform. Because you are the one hosting the party, you should have all the information about your guests. You have the freedom to interact with your community at your own pace. Additionally, you can access all data regarding the people most interested in you and your activities. This is great news for social media marketing. These insights help refine your winning social media strategy and support smarter business decisions.

3. You can be more creative and innovative by creating your own safe space

Traditional social media platforms can make it difficult for creatives to connect with a wide range of followers, fans, and subscribers. However, your creative vision does not have to be compromised if you have the ability to create and manage a social media platform.

You have complete control over your social media app. You don’t have to condense important sentiments into a limit of 280 characters. There is no standard, universal approach to design or functionality. You will have more control over the look and feel of your community space. This freedom allows brands to experiment with features during social media app development without depending on third-party platforms.

4. Monetization is easy with custom social networks

Many social media platforms do not allow you to sell products or services to your community. Digital marketplace options can be integrated into your social media platform by creating your own customized social media app. You can now do things like express and one-click purchasing. This makes monetization a direct outcome of your social media strategy rather than an external dependency.

5. Say goodbye to the end of your life

There are many creators and businesses that use social media networks. This means everyone is competing for attention and space. The algorithms used by social networks to determine which content should be shown are complex.

There are no complicated algorithms or news feed spaces to manage when you create your social media app. You and your audience are all that matters. You’ll reach everyone every time you post. This ensures consistent visibility and predictable reach for your business-focused social media strategy.

6. Get rid of all distractions

You can create your own successful product to keep you and your followers from the distractions of busy social media platforms. No ads, no ranting people about the latest news headlines or cat memes distracting your audience from your content. You and your app users will be free from all distractions by creating your own social network.

7. Stronger brand loyalty and community ownership

Owning your social media platform allows you to build long-term relationships instead of temporary followers. Communities built on custom networks tend to be more loyal and invested in the brand’s mission and values.

8. Better data ownership and privacy control

Unlike third-party platforms, your own social media app allows you to manage data ownership, privacy policies, and compliance standards directly. This builds user trust and strengthens your brand reputation.

9. Scalability for future growth

A well-planned social media app development strategy allows your platform to scale with new features, monetization models, and audience segments as your business grows.

10. Competitive differentiation

Creating your own social network helps your business stand out in crowded digital markets by offering a unique user experience instead of competing only on existing platforms.

Social Media App Development Stages

Let’s take a look at how to create your online presence via social media like Instagram, step by step. A well-planned development process is essential to support a winning social media strategy and long-term business success.

There are seven main stages.

• Research & Analysis
• Tech Requirements Specific Document
• Prototyping
• Design
• Development
• Testing
• Launch
• Tech Support

If you want to achieve the desired results, each step must be taken seriously. If you leave one step out, it can cause a break in the sequence and lead to inefficiency in subsequent actions. 

For example, without proper research and analysis, it is impossible to write the tech requirements specification document.

The chances of obtaining a high-quality product are reduced if you don’t have information about your target market, competitors, and the markets. This stage helps align your social media app development goals with real user needs and business objectives.

Next comes prototyping, and then design. Specialists work on the visual aspect of a social media app and consider the interactions between them. Prototyping is a stage that helps to identify and eliminate inconsistencies prior to the development process. A strong UI/UX design directly supports user engagement, which is a core pillar of any effective social media strategy.

The process of finding bugs in an app is called testing. This includes the Stabilization substage, which deals with bug fixing. Thorough testing ensures performance, security, and scalability for your social media platform before launch.

Professional tech support is required to ensure the app’s optimal performance once it has been launched. When the project evolves and new features are added, post-release support will be necessary. Continuous updates and feature enhancements help maintain user interest and keep your social media application competitive in the market.

Also Read: Techugo & Josh: Revolutionizing the Face of Social Media App Development

Why You Should Have a Social Media Strategy

This is the perfect time to answer the most common question: Why do we need a social media strategy? Social media marketing strategies are a plan that outlines how you will create and share content on social media platforms. It also enables you to engage with your audience. This strategy covers all aspects of the process from market research to creating content and evaluating your results.

You’ll struggle to achieve results without a strategy. It is unlikely that you will attract your audience to your website by simply posting links to blog posts. You won’t be able to tell if your social media efforts are paying off if you don’t have clear goals.

Let’s now look at some of the key benefits social media can bring to your engagement with your followers.

1. Expand Your Reach

You likely already know the popularity of social media. Social media is used by 62% of the world’s population. This is approximately 5.07 billion people, and it keeps growing.

Additionally, the average user spends around 2 hours and 23 minutes per day on social media platforms.

These statistics are even more encouraging when you pay for ads on social media. Advertisements on Instagram and YouTube have a potential reach of 2.4 and 2.5 billion users, respectively.

Social media is a great way to promote your business and get your content seen by new people. It’s up to you to select the right platform for your blog.

2. Increase Brand Awareness

Brand awareness simply refers to how familiar people are both with your brand and with your products or services. This is a step beyond just brand recognition as it measures how well the public can remember specific information about your company.

To retain customers and gain new leads, you need to increase your brand awareness. People will choose your company over other competitors if your products and services are the first to come up when they search for what they need.

Twitter offers many opportunities to build your brand and increase awareness. However, it is best to post across multiple networks. This will allow you to reach different demographics and increase your audience faster.

3. Online Authority

Consumers have so many options for information online, making it crucial to be an authority in your field. In addition, shoppers want to be confident they are buying quality products. Therefore, you can show your customers that you are knowledgeable and that you will provide the best value for money.

Your target audience will determine the best way to achieve this. LinkedIn, for example, commands a certain level of authority because it is a network of professionals that can be connected.

4. Boost Engagement

Engagement, loosely defined as any interaction between customers and your brand, can boost your business’s success in many ways. For example, engagement can increase brand awareness and loyalty as well as improve your online visibility.

Engaging with your brand through social media is a great way to get involved. It allows users to interact with your brand in a number of different ways, including:

• Follow your accounts
• Commenting on your posts
• Re-post your content
• “Liking” and “reacting” to your content
• Use branded hashtags

5. Provide Customer Support

Your customers will have a positive experience using your products or services if you provide customer support. It is essential to build brand loyalty. Customer complaints and problems can be addressed quickly and efficiently to show that you value their business, and they will likely return to you for more.

There are many ways to offer customer service. However, social media allows people to quickly get in touch with you. For some, messaging or simply tagging the brand in a blog post may be easier than navigating your knowledge base, talking with a bot or tracking down your contact details and waiting for a reply.

Social media support can be a way to enhance your image in a number of ways. Customers can see your responsiveness and prompt service by publicly responding.

Amazon is well-known for its Twitter support account. It can quickly answer users’ questions by dedicating a whole profile to customers.

Also Read: How To Attain Success On Social Media Platform For Your Mobile App

Essential Features for Successful Social Media App Development

After we have discussed the various options available for building your social media app you might be curious about what features to consider when creating an interest-based network.

These are the key points to remember:

• Profile. Users can create a personal profile to include information such as name, address, photo, etc.
• Posts. Users have the ability to post messages. In addition, users should be able to share information and news with others, as well as discuss topics with other members of the community.
• Notifications. This is a way to notify people of any updates or items they’ve been “tagged in” for. Push Notifications are also available that allow people to update their phones on the go without needing to log into the app. Push notifications are an excellent way to keep your users engaged on social media or in your mobile app. You can use them to notify users about new content, updates or special offers. It’s important not to overdo it. Too many notifications can quickly become irritating and cause users to turn off the app. You should find a balance for your app, and then stick with it.
• Search bar. This makes searching easier for groups, topics, and people.
• Friending options. Users need to be able to send friend requests or follow others to view updates in their news feeds.
• News Feed. It is the central area where users can view what’s going on in the lives and friends of people, groups, and individuals they follow. This feature is undoubtedly the most important of any social media platform. Therefore, it is essential that your app has a well-designed news feed. In addition, you should ensure that your content is relevant and timely, and that users can customize it to their preferences.
• File uploads. Users can upload media, such as photos or videos.
• Resource Library. This is a central area where you, as the platform owner, can store relevant content assets like videos and PDFs. You can then share them in the appropriate spaces.
• Subgroups and groups. You can set up a group, but also subgroups. For example, if your network or community is focused on people who are passionate about photography, then you might want sub-groups that specialize in wildlife photography or event photography.
• Moderation tools. The best thing about your own social media network is that you don’t have to worry about strangers trolling your Group, or trying to defame it. Moderation tools like shadow banning or editing comments on your social network are a great way of removing any harmful activity.
• Livestreaming. People are more used to live streaming. A live streaming option is a must. Therefore, it is a great way for people to instantly connect and even do demos of products or exercise, such as product demonstrations.
• Customization. You can customize the look and feel of your social media network to match your brand. Your domain name can be customized and changed to reflect your brand.
• Security. Data Ownership and Management.
• Analytics. You need access and analysis to track your users’ location, device type, engagement levels, and other data to ensure that you provide the best possible user experience.
• Administration Access. This feature allows you, along with those you have assigned roles, to manage your site, block unreliable visitors, and perform other administrative functions.
• Monetization. Are you looking to monetize your community or social network? When creating your social network, it is important to have options for monetizing this.

Need further assistance? 

Connect with us at Techugo, a leading mobile app development company, for more info.

Latest Social Media App Trends Shaping Business and User Engagement

Every business owner has a responsibility to keep up with the latest trends. You must be aware of technology if your business relies on it. Popular social networks release new features every year that attract and engage more people.

Let’s take a look at the most recent developments in social media and see if they are affordable. These trends are closely linked with innovations in mobile app development, AI-powered applications, and ecommerce app development.

• Video – Short videos, such as YouTube Shorts, have been especially popular these days. Videos that are less than one minute long are more likely to get viewed in their entirety. You can also stream live. Short-form video content now plays a major role in user engagement and is widely adopted in social media marketing strategies and video-based mobile apps.
• Ecommerce – Social media is a good option for sales. In the past few years, users have been actively using e-commerce apps to make purchases. This has led to the rise of social commerce platforms, where in-app shopping, live product demos, and influencer-driven sales are becoming core features of modern social media applications.
• Virtual Reality – Metaverses are worth your attention. This is a direction that media giants are trying to take and allows users to create new, amazing worlds. Metaverse-based platforms are closely connected with advancements in AR/VR app development and immersive digital experiences.
• Artificial Intelligence – These technologies include chatbots and in-app recommendations. They also improve searches, forecast marketing, better searches, and other data-centric services. AI is increasingly used in chatbot app development, recommendation engines, content moderation, and fraud detection within social media platforms.
• Voice and audio-based social networking – Audio rooms, voice notes, and podcast-style social platforms are expanding as part of new audio streaming app development and community engagement models.
• AI-generated content and moderation – Generative AI is being used to assist with captions, images, videos, and automated moderation. This connects directly with generative AI development services and intelligent content management systems.
• Super apps and feature convergence – Social media apps are growing into multi-functional platforms by integrating payments, messaging, shopping, and content creation into one ecosystem. This trend supports the rise of super app development and all-in-one digital platforms.

How to Market a Ready-to-Use Solution

You can get various services free of charge in well-known app stores. Through monetization, developers get paid for their solutions.

There are many ways to make your product more profitable. Consider all the possibilities, but keep in mind that each one may not be right for you.

We can take a shortcut when it comes to social media apps and think about monetizing similar solutions like the following:

• Paid subscriptions
• Physical/virtual product sales;
• Sponsorship paid or advertising
• Notifications;
• Events & activities that are paid

Conclusion

The market for social media apps is highly competitive but still very profitable and attractive to businesses. 

With the right winning social media strategy and a well-planned social media app development process, companies can build platforms that drive long-term user engagement and business growth.

You will need to have a team of professionals in order to realize your social app ideas. Techugo, a leading social media app development company, knows how to create a social media application that looks great, works well, and gains traction in the app store. 

By combining technical expertise with strategic planning, businesses can launch social media platforms that meet modern user expectations and market demands.

Contact us to discuss your idea and begin working together on your project.