How to start building a social network that links into Facebook/twitter like foursquare (but not location)?

[Tom]

I have an amazing idea for a social network and I want to know how to start. I have a limited knowledge of programming, but can learn (or at least want to know where I should start to hire the right people to build it). The idea (which I'm not sharing here) is meant to be a stand-alone site/network, but also interact with facebook and twitter. I'm thinking along the lines of a foursquare or gowalla (though the idea is not a location-based competitor -- I just want the same independent site feeding into and interacting with the big sites).

If anyone can tell me how something like foursquare was originally coded, envisioned, I can start researching from there. LIke I said, I don't really care about location, but just how these social networks are built initially.

And I don't mean something like Ning. I'm not intending this to be a niche network like a place for fly-fishermen. Rather, I want to learn about the undercarriage of a site that could create its own interaction independently -- for example, one member wanting to e-spank another member (though, my site has nothing to do with spanking or junk like that -- just how to create that interconnectedness from scratch?).

So, book ideas? Who should I talk to? What baseline coding language is used in something like Foursquare, Gowalla, Foodspotting, etc.

Thanks for any leads.

[Steve]

If your starting point for this is Yahoo Answers I can tell you that this is not going to work. There are a lot of people with what they think are great ideas that end up as complete failures on the web. For every Facebook or Twitter site that opens there are lots more that go nowhere.

[Baba]

I agree that social media and user-driven content is on the rise. However, you are still competing with some pretty big boys. The first thing I would do is work out a business plan. Hire a consultant to help you put it together for investors, because you will surely require financial assistance when the marketing aspect comes into play. At that point, you will have to go viral, create a real buzz via social media (Facebook & YouTube, maybe also Twitter & LinkedIn), and invest heavily in back-links to rise in search engines. This is known as the link-building process, the most critical (and more expensive) part of SEO (Search Engine Optimization) - getting your site ranked in search engines. Once you are in contact with other business consultants (i.e. to put together your business plan), create a NDA (Non-disclosure agreement) to protect your ideas.

Then, I would sit down with a business analyst to create all of the instructions for the programmers (programming language could vary - PHP, CSHARP, Perl, Java, Microsoft/.NET technologies...). *If your are looking for investors, most large corporations trust .NET technologies.

See the various resources I have included (below).
Also, some articles

[paughjj]

For initial ideas, I'd check here: http://howtostartasocialnetwork.com/

I just ran across it and it gets into a lot of different ideas, technology, marketing, business plans, book suggestions, etc. Give it a look. Hasn't been updated since early 2010, but seems mostly up to date.