Hello,
I’m wondering if anybody knows of any reputable web developers who specialise in building social networking sites; also what sort of costs ‘could’ be involved in a big website?
Thanks,
Zoe
You can try to post a job on craigslist. If you want to outsource, you can try odesk. But it’s important to read the reviews and ratings. Some programmers are very crappy. Good programmers are hard to find.
Hello Zoe.
I think that better to find programmer for the office work. That will be useful to control the process. But to get ahead with the project you will need to have a good idea sicked.
why not start with the most qualified people? search LinkedIn for employees that work at social media companies. An extreme example would be to search Facebook on LinkedIn and look for job titles such as “Developer”, “Architect”, or “Engineer”. I would start with small companies than FB and see what kind of interest you can get from the developers. Craigslist will always work but you never know who will respond! Good luck!
newbie83 - If you’re trying for a smaller project check the marketplace right here on Site Point to find a freelancer!
For something larger more formal recruiting via LinkedIn, techcunch or mashable classifieds may be in order.
you can go in sitepoint marketplace or in other forum such as digitalpoint or maybe go to freelancer sites.
It’s hard to find “good” programmers on odesk. Most of them handle multiple tasks and they can never be “serious” about your work. Yes you can find “good” data entry job on odesk. Communication will be hard because most of them are from foreign countries and there’s different time zone.
When you are looking for someone you should make sure they are passionate about what they do. Make sure you Google them to find out more about them and there associations. Make sure you ask a lot of questions and you get them answered so there will be no mis communication problems. Make sure you can trust them and you believe they know what they are doing. There are a million people who swear up and down that they know what they are doing but I find that 95% of them are 2-5 years behind on marketing strategies.
Why are they behind? They are using and recommending outdated strategies like Facebook “likes”, Tumblr Blogs and Google Adsense and using words they learned 2 yrs ago like “monetization” or “SEO”. Find someone who studies about the current trends. Who can quickly adapt to the changes of online marketing. Google changes and updates their algorithms (I’ve heard 500x a year) all the time. This year companies have been dropping out of top ten rankings like dead flies! Rookies talk about “social media” marketing. Chances are if they created a name for the strategy it it no good anymore…
Great suggestions on reviewing backgrounds although this post is about developers, not marketers or optimization experts. May want to modify your post a bit.
That said, I’d hardly say facebook likes or tumblr are outdated… Common place, yes, but that’s just fine.
When it comes to developing social networking sites I believe you should use someone who is well educated in web developing,web marketing, web designing and other talents… Why? It’s sorta how some entertainers are singers, songwriters, rappers,dancers, and actors. It all falls under being a Great entertainer not just an entertainer. Web developing, Web designing, marketing, even though they are highly technical skills, all fall under being a Great Communicator. Your end result is who can effectively communicate your message to an ever evolving audience. 
I actually think the post was fine as written. When you take the second paragraph out of context, it does change what themip was saying. Yet, when in context, for my money he is right on target.
Don’t hire a developer who promises you the moon on a string of keywords or other marketing gimmicks. The web is constantly changing and morphing into something different than what we knew last year, or sometimes even last month.
Further, anyone who builds a social networking site had better be prepared to market it. May as well start out with a designer or developer that has a basic handle on modern marketing trends.
Finally, since Zoe hasn’t been back here to respond to comments since January, my guess is that she has either given up on her idea or taken another avenue, so it really doesn’t matter how we discuss the question. Just all please keep the discussion directed towards Social Media Content.
Fair point… I got focused on the terms but did like the larger thought. Stand corrected.