WordPress is the new future of website development and creation. With countless themes and plugins, one can create any kind of website. The platform offers great features through which you can create a website according to your niche. But do you know how to create a social network website using WordPress? A social network website is just like any other social media platform that allows people to create their profiles and communicate via the internet. You can now build your social community website and can get traffic with minimal SEO.
What Is A Social Community Website?
It is a platform that enables members to create profiles and connect to people over the same network. People can share photos and videos in the form of posts. You might have used other social platforms like Facebook or Instagram, and you can create the same with just a few steps.
With WordPress, you can build a social community website for free. It does not demand any coding skills, and you can build it on your own. However, you can also hire a website development expert for a professional touch.
Let’s Get Started
1. Domain Name And Hosting
Irrespective of your niche, you will always need a domain and hosting for any website. You can buy it from any famous platform as per your budget and requirement. A domain name is your address (URL) and hosting in the cloud where you can save all your files and data.
2. Install WordPress
After getting a domain name and hosting, the next step is to install WordPress, a platform that will create your website. It is quite easy to download and install WordPress.
3. Install And Configure BuddyPress
For your social network website, we recommend you install BuddyPress, though you can choose other WordPress plugins. After installing WordPress, login to Admin Dashboard. Then click on Add New and select BuddyPress. You will get the BuddyPress plugin, and you need to install and activate it.
After the process, you will get a welcome screen. Now you need to configure BuddyPress and customize settings accordingly.
4. Set Up Your Social Community Website
Now let’s dive into the setup of your website. For setup you need to go to Dashboard>>>Settings>>>BuddyPress>>>Pages.
You will find three sections on the setting page, Components - Pages - Options. First, you need to activate and deactivate components accordingly. Secondly, on the Pages tab, you need to choose pages, and lastly, on the options tab, you may on/off options as per your choice.
All these options are important, as members will get to see their activities, details of their connections, and groups to which they belong.
Moreover, you can customize settings such as setting up the toolbar, allowing users to manage their profiles and options they will see while uploading photos and posts.
5. Select A Theme For Your Social Community Website
Apart from free themes, WordPress also offers premium themes to its users. You can buy some of the best themes for your social community website. Go to Add Theme from the Appearance and choose the Themes menu.
Further, you need to create and customize your menu bar and add your pages to it. By doing so, your users can easily find the pages that you have created.
6. Add Widgets
The BuddyPress theme has inbuilt widgets that you can use for your social community website. In the starting, you will get some default widgets, and you need to change them.
Just drag the selected widgets and drop them to the Main Sidebar. You can also preview those widgets and go through their descriptions.
Also Read: BEST WORDPRESS CONSULTING THEMES FOR PROFESSIONAL FINANCE & BUSINESS
7. User Registration To Your Social Community Website
For user registration, you need to change the default setting. Go to Dashboard>>>Settings>>>General and select anyone. By this, any user can come and register him/herself on your social network website. Make sure to click on Save Changes as skipping it can create trouble for you.
8. Your Homepage
It’s the page on which you need to pay a little attention. After successfully creating your social website, you must customize your homepage. Navigate on Setting>>>Reading and select a static page from the dropdown. Make it a bit user-friendly, so you get engagement from your users.
9. Create And Manage Groups
Groups are frequent and trending in the case of a social community website. Through BuddyPress, you can offer your members to create and manage groups. Anyone can create a group, invite someone, add someone, post messages, etc.
Go to Groups and click on Add New. Give a name to your group and then click on Create group and continue. Next, select the privacy settings and click on Next.
Enable other group settings and customize the options that you want to offer and click on Save Changes.
10. Email Notifications
Through email notifications, you can alert your users with new updates. To gain engagement and get users’ participation, you need to enable email notifications. Navigate to the Email page and replace the default setting. You need to fill in the email title and situations when an email is sent. Click on Add New, create a new notification or edit the default one.
You can even navigate the email customizer to change the header-footer and color of the email.
Over to You
Now you have successfully created a social community website with WordPress. The guide was for BuddyPress, but you can choose other WordPress themes for your convenience. All the WordPress themes will require small-time and little technical skills, and you will come up with a user-friendly website for your people.
Contact WBCOM DESIGN to get the best social community website with tons of themes and plugins.
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