When talking about social media sites, famous companies in the field of social media will immediately come to mind, such as Facebook, Twitter, and others. However, it is not necessary to build a social media platform of this size.
You may need to create a social networking site that you use in order to provide a social networking platform among your company employees, for example, or even at the level of friends and family, so that it is separate, independent, and not linked to Facebook or other communication platforms.
In this article, you will learn how to create a social networking site, publish updates among members, interact and internal chat, and many options that you can provide within the social networking platform, which, as we mentioned, will be independent of itself from the rest of the other social networking platforms, which gives it complete privacy and gives you freedom of action. In it and manage it the way you want.
Benefits of creating an independent social networking site
When you want to create a social networking site that is completely independent of any social networking platform around the world, you will get many benefits, including:
- The site will be a social media platform that can be fully managed and controlled away from the policies of social media companies.
- The site is useful in creating a communication platform between company employees or a group of individuals, safely and without harassment from anyone outside the group.
- When creating your own social networking site, you can limit yourself to adding specific members and deregistering any new members.
- Members can chat among themselves without fear of their data or information being leaked within the chat, and this certainly depends on the degree of security of the site.
- Social media groups can be created within the site to divide members within the site into different groups according to their interests.
- Members can create personal profiles to display their data within their account within the site.
- Freedom to publish within the site, as there are no policies that prevent you from publishing any type of content as long as you adhere to the ownership rights in the published content.
Steps to create a social networking site with WordPress
The steps for creating a stand-alone social networking site in WordPress are not complicated, and you can do it if you possess some simple technical skills and have a background in dealing with WordPress as a content management system specialized in designing and launching websites over the Internet.
Here are the four basic steps to launching a social media site with WordPress:
1- Book hosting and buy a domain
The first and essential step in the process of launching the website, where you purchase and prepare the website hosting , which is the online space in which the website’s data and files are stored.
Whatever type of hosting you purchase from any of the well-known hosting companies, always try to choose a hosting that has sufficient space and provides the required security options. There is a company that provides specialized WordPress hosting for WordPress sites, as it provides a free WordPress installation tool and many tools to help in setting up and preparing the site.
You must also purchase the domain , which is the introductory link that is used to access the content of the website, and it is in the form www.wppr.net .
Try to choose a domain name that is short and easy to recognize, and after purchasing the domain, make sure to link the domain to the hosting to prepare the site for the step of uploading WordPress to it.
2- Install WordPress
After preparing the hosting and domain and ensuring that they are connected properly, the next step comes, which is the first practical step in launching the site, where WordPress is installed on the hosting that was prepared before.
WordPress is used as a content management system specialized in launching websites in various specializations and fields, as it provides many website management tools with high professionalism.
3- Install the template
After installing WordPress on the hosting, in the next step we install the template , and the template is a complete framework for the site that facilitates the design and development phase for us, as once the template is installed on WordPress, the site appears in a consistent and organized manner, and the appearance of the site in this case depends on the type of template installed on it.
Here is a list of various WordPress templates that you can choose from that suit the overall look and feel of the site you want to launch.
During our explanation in this article, we will install the Avada template for its ease of use and good appearance, which is appropriate for the specialty of the site that we are creating.
Use Buddypress plugin
WordPress relies on plugins that add new functionality or expand existing functionality on your site, and they are used like ready-made programs that perform many actions on your behalf, allowing you to create almost any type of website.
We will use the famous Buddypress plugin , which specializes in installing a social networking system within our WordPress site.
This addition helps us launch an integrated social networking site as it provides us with many tools such as (creating member accounts, activating private chat between site members, creating a feed or publications page, as well as creating public or private groups, and many other options that you can implement within the site. your social media)
Install the Buddypress plugin and configure its settings
The first practical step to launching a social networking site is to install the Buddypress plugin. You can see an explanation of installing WordPress plugins to do this easily.
After successfully installing and activating the add-on, you can go to the Settings tab within the control panel, then the Buddypress tab, to open the general settings page for the add-on , in which you will find many options as shown in the following image:
You will find that there are many options that you can choose or deselect depending on your desire to customize the way the site works, and the benefits of these options can be summarized as follows:
- Extended Profiles: When this option is selected, members will be allowed to create profiles such as a Facebook profile page containing a photo and personal information.
- Account Settings: When this option is activated, members will be able to control their account and make all modifications to it, and they will also be able to delete the account.
- Friend connections: When this option is activated, members will be able to send contact requests or friend requests to other members.
- Private messaging: When activated, members within the site will be given the opportunity to open a private chat box between themselves.
- Activity streams: When you activate this option, the feed page or activity page will be activated, such as the Facebook home page, which displays all the updates that members post throughout the day.
- Notifications: When activated, it will be possible to send notifications related to the content that members post and interact with.
- Member Groups: When activated, members will be able to create their own groups within the site.
Activate the options that you deem appropriate for the social networking site you want to launch, then go to the ( Options ) tab to get more site control options:
As you saw in the image above, in this tab there are many options to control how the site works, such as the ability to show or hide the WordPress toolbar for members registered on the site.
There are also many control options that can be made available to members, such as the ability to delete the account, the ability to upload profile pictures and cover photos, and the ability to send an invitation to join the site by current members.
Also, within the ( Options ) tab, you will find more options for controlling groups, where you can allow members to create private groups within the social network, and control the group’s cover photo and other options that you can customize in the way that suits you, and do not forget to click on the ( Save ) button Changes ) After completing all required modifications:
After that, you will find the ( Pages ) tab within the general settings page of the extension, through which you can control the basic pages of the site:
As you noticed, the Pages tab is where you can change the default pages of the site. By default, the plugin creates a group of pages within WordPress that are necessary to create a social media network, such as the Members page that displays the data of the site’s members.
As well as the Activity Streams page , which displays the latest posts and updates that members publish, and other pages that can be left as is or changed with other pages that you create yourself.
Experiment with social networking site pages and customize internal pages
You can now access the Activities or Updates page, which is a page similar to the Facebook home page that displays the latest posts and updates. To access the Activities page, you can write the website link followed by the word Activity as follows: www.mysite.com/activity , and the main feed page for the site will open in front of you:
As you may have noticed, the feed page is divided into two main boxes, the first contains an input box that the member can use to post their own update or post.
The second box contains all the posts that other members have published on the site.
You will notice below each post there are control options shown in the following image:
You can use the controls at the bottom of each post to completely delete it from the site, add it to your favorite posts list, or even write a comment below the post.
Note that the controls disappear for non-registered visitors:
You can also set the Activities and Updates page as the home page of the site, so that when a visitor enters the home page directly, he can see the updates and publications of other members, as well as publish his own updates.
To activate the Activities page as the home page, you can go to the ( Settings ) tab, then ( Reading ), then choose the Activity page as the home page:
Create private groups and add members within them
One of the most important options that is also available on the site is the option to create communication groups within the site and add specific members to them. You can access the groups page by adding the word groups to the site link in the following form: ww.mysite.com/groups to open the current groups page for you as well. (Create a group) link that a member can click on to create his own group:
When you click on the Create Group button, the Create a New Group page opens for you, where you begin adding the group details such as title and description:
Then in the (Settings) tab you can choose whether you want the group to be public, private, or hidden:
After completing the complete group information, you can go to the ( Invitation ) tab. You invite members to join the group, where you can add the people you have added as friends, or you can add any other member of the site to join the group:
You can also add any member of the site as your friend when you access his personal profile, where you will find the option to add a friend, as well as the options for sending private or public messages to the member:
You can also view all registered members on the site by accessing the members page by writing members at the end of the site link as follows: www.mysite.com/members .
Thus, you can enter any member’s page and send a friend request or start creating a private chat or public chat with him.
New visitors can also register on the site and create a personal profile to begin posting updates, create a group, and add other members as friends, by entering the registration page by adding Register to the site link as follows: www.mysite.com/register :
Customize menus and widgets within the site
The Buddypress add-on provides many ready-made pages that you can add to the site’s main menu to make it easy for members to navigate between the site’s pages, such as (profile page, notification page, messages page, and other pages…)
You can access the (Lists) tab from within the control panel and create a new list:
After creating the list, open the Buddypress Pages tab and choose all the pages or pages you want to show and press the ( Add to List ) button:
After adding the pages to the main list, click on the Save List button
Now, browse the site in your browser and you will notice that a main menu appears containing all the important pages that help you navigate between the pages and sections of the site with ease:
The Buddypress add-on also provides many widgets that help manage and browse the site easier. You can add a login widget to the sidebar of the site to facilitate the login process for members.
To add the appropriate widget, you can go to the ( Widgets ) tab from within the control panel, open the search box for widgets, and write the name of the Buddypress add-on to show you all the widgets provided by the add-on, including the widget to show the login box:
In the same way, you can browse all the other widgets provided by the add-on and add them to your favorite place on the site.
Conclusion
In the end, creating a social networking site is no longer difficult thanks to WordPress add-ons such as the Buddypress add-on, which saves you a lot of time and effort. As you noticed, through a few simple steps, we have created a social network through which members can be registered and communicate with each other with ease.
You certainly cannot rely on the Buddypress add-on if you are looking to create a huge social networking site. You may find that the add-on options are limited and you will not be able to provide all the tools that enable you to compete with the major companies specialized in this field.
