Kevin Dang | ReversewebHow Branded App by Wix Allowed Me to Create a Small Social Network
What to expect from this article:
Read about how I created my own all-in-one social media mobile app with Branded App by Wix. Learn how this app has helped to grow my community rapidly and boost engagement. How it has become a place where my community members can interact with my fan page and each other easily on the go. Understand how I was able to create this app with ease by myself. Learn how it answered all the issues I was facing with my business previously. Most importantly, learn how you can also do the same for yourself no matter what type of business or community you have.
To best understand how I did all of this, let's start with how it all began...
How It All Began:
A little over a year ago, Apple TV+ released a first teaser to announce the upcoming release of the Foundation TV series. This series was written by Issac Asimov, a writer I love. Foundation is said to have inspired Star Wars and could potentially be the next (futuristic) Games of Thrones.
When the teaser was released I felt interested in starting a fan website and thought that because it was a new series there wouldn't be much competition. On the other hand, I felt that it was risky to start a fan website because it’s hard to predict if the series would be successful or not.
After 2 months of hesitation, I decided to bet on the series and started researching and building my business plan. My goal was to create the biggest news and fan site for the show. Ultimately, I succeeded by having a well-defined plan that I stuck to from the beginning.
Timeline:
Phase 1: Launch
Launching a website was the first thing I did. I did this as quickly as possible for SEO purposes. SEO takes time and I knew it would be best if the site was indexed and visible on Google ASAP.
While creating and launching my site, I made sure not to waste time with a lot of content and features. I first released a basic version of my site which included a few community tools. There was a blog, forum, cast list page, photo gallery, music video page, and a contact page. These features were simple to integrate through Wix. I also created accounts on different social media platforms to try and grow my community base (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter…).
Usually, when launching a website, one tends to think they want as many features as possible from the start, this is a mistake. You can always add more features as you see the need for it.
Phase 2: Grow (and face challenges)
My next phase was creating databases and dynamic pages of the characters, seasons, and episodes of the whole series. Over the months the SEO improved and my website started to rank well.
I also continued running and growing my social media platforms. My Facebook, Instagram and Twitter pages were growing day by day. This is when I faced the biggest flaw of my plan, one that I hadn't anticipated.
I couldn’t bring my different fan communities together. This is when I realized Social media platforms can be our best friends and our worst enemies. I also realized that many fans were getting their updates and information from social media apps that they could easily check on their phones. It is difficult with a simple website to fight Facebook groups, Reddit, Twitter, etc. I thought to myself, “why would people go to my website when all they have to do is open a mobile app”. I began to accept that my fan website would remain a simple information site about the series rather than a website where members would interact daily.
On July 14th, 2021 at the Wix Partners community roundtable, everything changed and there was an answer to the problems I was facing - Branded App by Wix. Wix was releasing a product that would allow me (and anyone else) to easily create a native and fully branded mobile app.
Phase 3: Create an app with Wix’s Branded App & promote it
This next phase was to create an app dedicated to Foundation before its official release (September 24, 2021). Thanks to the Branded App intuitive app builder, my website’s features and content were easily synced to the app from my website. The app I created looked great and was available in the App Store & Google Play Store in no time. Next, I posted a promotion video of the app to my different social media pages to get some hype.
I would like to share some of my thought process:
I launched the first version of my app as I did my website, with very basic features and content. My thought was to bring together different functionalities from different social media platforms to a single platform. My app currently has:
a home page with a welcome message and a look at the latest discussion topics, groups, and blog posts as well as a list of members. It also has
A forum with different discussion topics (similar to the platform Reddit)
A “groups” section which allows users to create groups related to the series. E.g. fans of Jared Harris have a group based on the character he plays in Foundation (similar to Facebook)
A shared gallery section where users can share and download photos from the series (similar to Instagram).
A member section that allows fans to connect with and follow other fans (Similar to the platform Twitter)
A blog with posts that users can comment on, like, and save
An “about section”
A “Videos” section which includes teasers and trailers.
Once I released my app I noticed that my users have been much more engaged than they were before when only my website was available. I see that they visit the community more often and for longer periods of time. They are more active and engage regularly. I also saw that since the launch of my app the community has grown at a faster pace.
Even with the app, I have continued to use Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. I also use those platforms to promote my website, and now my app.
To meet the costs of the site & app and to make this activity profitable, several things are or will be put in place:
Donation system
Adsense on the website
Affiliation for the sale of products derived from the series via an official Apple TV store (if there is one ...)
What the future holds:
My app will continue to evolve and provide the features needed for this community. I plan to add more features such as a store to sell merchandise and to sell membership plans. I also plan to use push notifications to keep users interacting with my app.
During Phase 1, I befriended some fan pages dedicated to specific actors from the show that have a much larger community than mine. I intend to invite these fan pages and communities to create a group on my application in order to have an additional discussion channel. This initiative is a win-win situation getting more users on my app and more into their fan groups.
The series is estimated to have about 80 episodes and last 8 years. I am aware that there may be a challenge with keeping my app thriving after fans finish with the Foundation series. This is a challenge I am excited and ready to take on. I have already started to come up with a plan to promote my app and make it profitable afterwards.
Conclusion:
There you go, you now know everything about my project. I hope this article will give you ideas for your own community or for you to create one (regardless of your sector of activity!)
And of course, if you like science fiction and later watch this series, don't hesitate to join the community and download the app:
For those of you who like science fiction and later watch this series, don't hesitate to join my community and download the app!
Create your own app here: https://www.wix.com/partners/app-builder