A GUIDE ON CREATING AN APP LIKE NEXTDOOR FOR NEIGHBORS

By Prometteur solutions 18 Min Read

Do you want to create an app like Nextdoor for Neighbors? Would you like to find a suitable mobile app development company to help you achieve this? so here we are develop nextdoor app with us

Then you should keep reading!

Community apps like GoNeighbor, Nextdoor, Hoodi, etc. are rising in popularity every day. Even the tech giant, Google, once tried to develop an app like Nextdoor for Neighbors.

The reason behind the increasing popularity of these community mobile app development is that nowadays, people are becoming aware of the distance created by the issues of life. That is why they are trying to reconnect with each other via a unified media platform.

According to the Pew Research Center, up to 29 percent of Americans knew very little about their neighbors. About 28 percent of Americans did not even know the names of their neighbors! This was what inspired the founders of Nextdoor, and there has been a significant change.

Now, Nextdoor consists of over 260,000 neighborhoods who share the remarkable media platform for local news feeds, community events, services, conversations, relevant notifications for merchandizes, service providers, stores, etc.

It is like a virtual coffee shop or town hall where people get to meet and engage in discussions. Up to 67 percent of the members of the platform share business recommendations with their neighbors and more businesses would like to build an app like Nextdoor.

What is Nextdoor?

Nextdoor is “The neighborhood hub for trusted connections and the exchange of helpful information, goods, and services.” Users can seamlessly engage or interact with their local community.

Nextdoor has made it mandatory for new users to authenticate where they live whenever they sign up in order to promote trust. And this action is carried out by postcard or phone.

As stated earlier, Nextdoor – which is a private social networking app solution – has over 260,000 neighborhoods in 11 countries around the world including the United States where at least one in five households is very active on the mobile application. Other countries that are also active on Nextdoor include the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Australia, and France.

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Apart from everyday folk who are having the time of their lives on the Nextdoor for Neighbors app, thousands of public agency departments also utilize the mobile app. And businesses on the platform have earned more than 40 million recommendations.

The core strength of the Nextdoor for Neighbors media platform relies heavily on the power of proximity. Other platforms that try to mimic the Nextdoor social network, usually start by targeting a worldwide audience before employing targeting tools to helps businesses or organizations to find their local audience.

Nextdoor for Neighbors starts and stays local, even right down to the postal code of the neighborhood.

If you want to provide value to society while building a start-up business simultaneously, you should develop an app like Nextdoor for Neighbors. By exploring the community app, you may enjoy the same level of success that Nextdoor has enjoyed these since it was launched in 2011.

The Nextdoor app has become a reliable resort for many users as they get to know everything about their neighborhood community, happenings, and their neighbors as well.

So, how can you build an app like Nextdoor for Neighbors? This is what you will find out by the time you read this article to the end.

Features to Focus on as You Build an App like Nextdoor

To develop an app like Nextdoor for Neighbors, focus on these features:

  • Local Mobile App for NeighborsNextdoor is a private social network platform that informs users of all the happenings in their neighborhood via the local news. Users can utilize this application to get recommendations for the best maintenance man.They can also use the mobile app to buy or sell items by posting on the page designated “For Sale or Free” of the community app.
  • Home Services and DealsThis remarkable community app helps to recommend nannies or baby sitters, etc. Pet owners can quickly go through the classified ads section within the app to locate the nearest catering company or pet sitter.
  • EventsYou will receive notifications on community events and local activities at your location around the corner. The mobile app helps to find yard sales, estate sales, and even garage sales as well as to host and organize events and parties.
  • RecommendationsYou can read unbiased reviews of businesses near you like restaurants, coffee shops, etc. This will help you to make informed decisions about visiting such places or not.
  • Safety Tips and Crime AlertsThe Nextdoor app for Neighbors shares quality information during a natural disaster. It helps in organizing a neighborhood watch in order to get a word on safety and crime. The mobile app also keeps maps and crime reports in order to secure your neighborhood.
  • Help Maps and GroupsThe latest feature that was recently introduced by the creators of the community app is Help Maps and Groups. This feature has been used extensively to provide support during the outbreak of the novel coronavirus. The ‘Help Maps’ provides a way via which help is coordinated between people in need and those who are willing to render assistance by running errands, dropping errands, etc. ‘Groups’ is an umbrella for smaller groups to network outside the main feed. These new features may not be visible if you have the Nextdoor app installed on your phone before now. However, by updating the community app, the new features become visible.
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Significant Factors to Bear in Mind

Since your goal is to create an app like Nextdoor for Neighbors, keep the following essential factors in mind:

Investment

Nextdoor announced in 2019 that it has successfully secured funding of up to $170 million. About $123 million was obtained from Riverwood Capital, a new investor, as well as Benchmark, Tiger Global, and Kleiner Perkins. The remaining funds were secured from Bond.

The value of Nextdoor for Neighbors is now over $2.1 billion, and the private social media platform generates most of its revenue from posts, sponsored ads, and real estate.

Infrastructure

Nextdoor for Neighbors use AWS (Amazon Web Services) to support its innovative platform. Amazon Web Services provides a robust positive experience in spinning up new capacity while configuring machines. They employ Amazon EC2 to spread the site traffic across the EC2 instances.

AWS Cloud Formation templates are utilized for elasticity and flexibility when servers are deployed. The Nextdoor for Neighbors makes use of Amazon VPC to create a secure private network that includes several IT functions as well as a user-facing services development environment.

Revenue

In 2016, Nextdoor for Neighbors obtained funds from venture capital investors and soon started generating revenue via the following:

  • Advertisement SponsorshipsThe Nextdoor for Neighbors mobile app displays sponsored content from various businesses that have highly valuable services and products to share with the community.
  • Local DealsBusinesses in a particular neighborhood can buy local deals which grant advertising offers to the Nextdoor community within the area.
  • Neighborhood SponsorshipsNextdoor enables the purchase of Neighborhood sponsorship for real estate agents and local home services that want to promote their listing in order to advertise their skillfulness in their coding system.
  • Discussions and RecommendationsRecommendations are the most popular topic on the social community platform, and that is why Nextdoor has introduced a new recommendations product. This new recommendations product has already garnered more than 17 million recommendation popup across the country.
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The private social media network app also works as a digital space for informal or everyday discussion like what is happening in the neighboring region, etc. It is believed that the future is indeed bright for Nextdoor for Neighbors as its use may soon exceed that of Facebook, Twitter, and even Instagram.

Infrastructure

Nextdoor for Neighbors use AWS (Amazon Web Services) to support its innovative platform. Amazon Web Services provides a robust positive experience in spinning up new capacity while configuring machines. They employ Amazon EC2 to spread the site traffic across the EC2 instances.

AWS Cloud Formation templates are utilized for elasticity and flexibility when servers are deployed. The Nextdoor for Neighbors makes use of Amazon VPC to create a secure private network that includes several IT functions as well as a user-facing services development environment.

KPIs (Key Performance Indicators)

The key performance indicators for Nextdoor for Neighbors mobile app generally falls under 4 distinct categories:

  • RecommendationsYou will have more social proofs as the number of recommendations increases.
  • NeighborsNeighbors are those users of Nextdoor who can also see the page. The higher the number of Neighbors on the platform, the easier you can connect.
  • NeighborhoodsThis category serves as the contact of a user in terms of neighborhoods and communities. As the number of contacts increase, the networks to your business also significantly increase.
  • CommentsComments are posted by users who are active on the private social media platform. The users leave comments, address concerns, provide feedback, etc. when they engage with their neighborhood community.

These key performance indicators will help you to not only track but also optimize your presence on the Nextdoor for Neighbors mobile application.

What Makes Nextdoor to Neighbors a Phenomenal Success?

Nextdoor for Neighbors is an extraordinary success, but it did not happen overnight. In your quest to develop an app like Nextdoor for Neighbors, you need to do the following if you want to enjoy the kind of success and popularity that Nextdoor is enjoying today:

Get Intimate and Be Involved with the Community

When you know your community thoroughly, you can become an informed resource to your prospects. You can also join local groups and clubs to know more about what the community is interested in while associating your business with the neighborhood as well.

Provide Relevant Services and Information to the Community

The most profound benefit that Nextdoor for Neighbors has over other community apps is that it is hyper-local. Therefore, you need to ensure that the content you share from time to time is applicable and relevant to the local community.

Quick Response is Key

Quick responses and follow-ups foster client trust as well as your reputation. Do your best to reach out to any client that transacts with your business within 2 hours via email or SMS.

You should also take the time to make follow-up phone calls to enquire if they still need any assistance.

Be Transparent and Honest

Transparency and honesty are the hallmarks of businesses that will thrive and prosper for a long time. The members of the community depend primarily on Nextdoor for Neighbors for important news, updates, and so on. They want the mobile app to give value to all their requests.

This is why you should always be as honest and transparent as possible with any updates or information that you provide.

Be Up-to-date and Relentless

Staying relentless and up-to-date is key to the success of any business and helps to build your reputation as well. Therefore, add new neighbors or members by sending free invitation letters to them. Take part in healthy conversations regularly so that your prospects will get to know you better.

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How to Deploy Mobile App Marketing

If no one knows that your community app exists, you will have zero users, i.e. no one will use your app. This is why you need to carry out app marketing to let people know that your community app exists and can offer the same features or services that the Nextdoor for Neighbors offers, or even more.

To let people know about your community app, follow these steps:

Find Your Target Audience

The first step you must take is to find your target audience, i.e. the class of people you want to use your mobile app before reaching out to the iOS and Android app development company. Since it is a community app, users must be people who live in a close-knit community and should share the same interests and thoughts.

Word-of-Mouth

There is no better advertising than word-of-mouth advertising. Before the advent of the internet, most people usually bought stuff based on a neighbor’s or friend’s experience and recommendation. And this is because it is more natural to believe the information from a trusted source than from a total stranger.

The community app is the perfect way to take the old way word-of-mouth works online, thereby allowing neighbors to provide unbiased reviews and feedbacks to members of the community. Sharing such information will help other users make informed decisions about doing business with you.

Having a strong word-of-mouth strategy will help make up for the cost to develop Nextdoor app or the like.

Campaigns

You can run campaigns to let people be aware of the existence of your community app. You can also provide press club and campaign meetings in order to explain the features of the community app, just like the creators of the Nextdoor for Neighbors did.

Nextdoor for Neighbors mobile application is a private social networking platform for neighborhoods, communities, and businesses. The mobile application simplifies your network to a small group of users for any suggestions or recommendations.

To build an app like Nextdoor, you need the services of a reputable iOS and Android app development company with innovative resources. You should also take the cost, methods, and timeframe to develop Nextdoor app into account as these will help you to determine how much it may cost to develop Nextdoor app or develop a similar community app.

Investing a significant part of the cost of developing the community app in pre-launch and post-launch marketing efforts will go a long way in helping your app gain an excellent foothold in the community app industry.

The mobile app development company you work with should be able to provide maintenance services and fix any bugs that users of your community app may encounter as they interact or engage with the mobile app.

Going ahead to create an app like Nextdoor for Neighbors will definitely be worth your investment.

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