As a web developer, I have noted the increasing rise in popularity and demand of the social networking site. The idea of a website that is, for all intents and purposes, entirely self sustaining is a tempting prospect to anyone seeking to start a site. However, along with the demand has come an inordinate amount of questions regarding the most successful ways to build a site and drive traffic. I have noted that in many cases, the author of the question gets the cart before the horse, as it were.

Successful websites do not typically just come to be on a wing and a prayer (with a few notable exceptions). Instead, they are the bi-product of hours, weeks, and in some cases months or years of dedicated time and planning. A successful social network is no different. The planning and preparation involved before the development actually begins is paramount to seeing your brain child through to fruition.

This is the premise from which I write this article. I will not be delving into the technologies and details of the development process itself (perhaps this will come at a later date), but rather, I will be primarily focusing on the planning and types of questions that should be answered and solidified in one’s mind before he ever begins the development process. In fact, answering these questions may even help answer some of the more technical questions regarding appropriate software packages, server configurations or other features when you reach that point in the process.

The first point, and quite possibly the most important, to keep in mind when planning your Social Network is simple in theory but can prove difficult to successfully achieve: Have a clear goal in mind. No, goals like, “I want the biggest, baddest networking site ever!” don’t count in this case. I mean, what is your ultimate goal for the site? For most, having some hard numbers as goals, no matter how far fetched they seem, is quite useful. If you don’t set clear goals for your site, you will never be able to determine whether you have achieved them, and therefore, the level of success obtained. One of my favorite quotes applicable to this topic states, “If you aim at nothing, you are sure to hit it every time.”

You need to determine who your target audience is. Generic social networking sites are so common that unless you have a very poignant way of drawing members, you will be hard pressed to compete. The target audience will in turn help you drive the content of your site with a much more accurate direction. For instance, a broad and difficult audience to target would be “pet owners”, but on the other hand, if you were to target something more specific like “reptile lovers” or “equestrian competitors”, the chance of finding a more dedicated group of members skyrockets.

Once you have determined your audience and what your ultimate goal is for your site, you need to break down development and growth goals into realistic milestones over the next weeks, months and even years. If you have bite sized pieces by which to gauge your progress, it is much easier to keep from becoming discouraged if things do not take off immediately. Remember that anything worth doing takes time and effort and developing a networking site is no different!

With the initial concepts out of the way, your goal in mind, audience chosen and a passion to succeed, you are ready to tackle the second step in preparation: Target your audience appropriately. This may seem so simplistic that it doesn’t even bear mentioning, but you would be amazed at the number of sites that do not focus content to specifically target their audience. When some serious attention is given to this point, it is relatively easy to accomplish, but it is nonetheless extremely important to the success of your site. Some basic questions to keep in mind when tackling this are: What are specific interests to your audience? What are the hot topics among them?

Many people have the incorrect supposition that all content in a social networking site comes from the members themselves. While a vast majority does, you as the creator have a responsibility for priming that content and discussion if you really expect input to be given. You need to provide topics, groups and other organizational forms by which a user’s interest is piqued. In addition to stimulating user driven content, a decision must also be reached concerning the form of ad campaign, if any, may best suit your audience. Even if your ads are strictly internal, they still need to cater to the masses to be worth anything.

Up to this point in our discussion, we have really covered planning techniques that should be incorporated into the site design before development ever takes place. Now, I am going to shift gears slightly and discuss some ways to follow up on your goals as the site grows and have the ability to weigh your level of success. These ideas and techniques, while not a guarantee for success, will really give you a great jump on understanding your chosen audience and their needs.

First of all – and this is a question I have answered on numerous occasions – there needs to be a set of non-imposing tracking techniques implemented into your site. By “non-imposing,” I mean those techniques which do not compromise the privacy of your members or go against any federal regulations but can provide you with some extremely useful insight into the behavior of your members.

One method of tracking is simply logging member activities for statistical purposes. I do not condone or recommend in any way individual logging of members, but statistically logging the average number of PMs (Private Messages) sent by your users, the groups which have the most membership and activity, the average length of a visit, the frequency of recurring visits and other information can aid you in understanding the collective mind of your audience. Obviously, it is easy to overstep the bounds of privacy when dealing with member statistics, so again I encourage you to tread lightly and generally when planning your mode of attack here.

Perhaps one of the most useful, most inexpensive and yet most underused methods of tracking and improving the efficiency and success of your networking site is member feedback. People who are willing to spend time on a site are usually more than happy to give you suggestions, feedback and recommendations which they feel will make their experience more profitable and enjoyable. Giving ear to this feedback and incorporating the best of them into your site will give you some additional oomph that you may otherwise never devise on your own. In addition to drawing new traffic with these modifications, it gives your existing members a real feeling of belonging and importance knowing that their voice is being heard. Users who actually see their input being considered and implemented will be that much more faithful to the site and become the keystones to building a solid community.

Finally, the last area I want to touch on is one that dips just slightly into the technical realm, but not so much so as to discourage the average person from at least a rudimentary understanding. Depending upon what networking software you decide, there is typically a decent selection of statistics software available to you internally. These may range from a simple hit counter to an actual mapping of traffic through your site so you can follow the flow of the average user as well. Keep in mind that these statistics are raw data tracking and have nothing to do with the individual users for the most part. Many applications will simply refer to built in tracking like this as Webmaster Tools or something similar. Focusing specifically on the traffic, unique hits, browser spread and other technical attributes of the visits to your site, you may find that not all of the tools will really help you reach your goals, but having a firm understanding of the tools available to you is indispensable.

What happens if you opt for having an entirely custom system built from the ground up? Most likely, by default, a developer is not going to build in tracking tools for you unless you request and pay for their development and implementation, so you should familiarize yourself with other site tracking options as well. One of the most helpful resources I have ever used is the Google Analytics application. By adding a very small bit of JavaScript code to every page you wish to track, Google will generate reports based on unique visitors and even click through tracking that can be viewed in very intuitive graphical charts. Couple amazing tools like this with site mapping and other options major search engines offer, and you will be well on your way to being prepared to track and modify the flow of your site to reach your long term goals.

We have covered a lot of ground in this article, so let’s just recap the basics. Be sure to have a clear goal in mind when first designing your site. Remember to aim at something, or as was quoted, you’ll hit nothing every time. Be aware of who your target audience is and target them appropriately with content, ads, navigation and any other features of your site. Implementing non-imposing tracking techniques is often your most useful way of tracking your personal, short term site goals. Remember that your users are your most valuable source of insight and advice when it comes to features of a networking site. And finally, use web tracking and statistics software to your advantage.

Knowing your options can sometimes prove to be the most challenging part of the design and development process, so read, study and get feedback from those who have had good success in their own sites. You may be surprised at how ready some people will be to share their insight if you will just take the time to ask!