There is no doubt that you can use WordPress to create any type of website imaginable. From large corporate sites to small personal blogs, online stores, and even company wikis, WordPress makes it all possible.

One such example is the ability to create a social media website similar to Facebook with the help of WordPress and a free plugin, PeepSo. In this post, I’ll go over the plugin’s features, discuss its pros and cons, and show you how to use the plugin to create your own social media website.

What Does PeepSo Plugin Offer

The PeepSo plugin is a social networking and community plugin for WordPress. It allows you to create a feature-rich social media website where users can share their status updates, manage their profile, chat with other users, and more.

The plugin is very lightweight and turns your website into a social media website that’s similar to Facebook. Let’s take a look at the most important features below.

Foundation

The PeepSo plugin offers basic functionality straight out of the box. Once you download and install the plugin, you can transform your website into a social media site and allow users to register and create their own profiles, share their activity, and like other users’ profiles.

They can also customize their profile with a custom cover image and profile avatar as well as create blogs, use hashtags, comment on other users’ posts, and more. They can choose to get notified of new activity on your site as well as opt for email notifications to ensure they don’t miss anything. This also allows them to come back to the site and engage with others on a regular basis.

The basic functionality above is more than enough to get you started with a social media website so you can try it out risk-free before deciding if you’re ready to really commit yourself to building and managing a full-fledged social network.

Core

If you want more advanced functionality, then be sure to check out the core set of plugins that will take your social media site to the next level. The Core set includes the following features:

• The ability to create groups which can be public, private or secret
• Photos and videos plugin that makes it possible to share photos and videos in groups
• The ability to create polls in groups and in the main activity stream
• Real-time chat and private messages
• The ability to create friend connections so your users can send and accept friend requests

Extras

While the core set of plugins will make it easy to create a feature-rich social network, it’s worth mentioning that you can extend that functionality even more. With plugins included in the extra bundle, you can assign custom badges to your users, limit user actions, send email digests, filter out bad language, and automatically create friend connections.

The extra plugins are a nice touch if you want to have even more control over your social network.

Integrations

On top of all of the features mentioned above, the PeepSo plugin integrates with a few third-party tools and plugins.

• GIPHY – your users and you can send GIPHY gifs in comments and chat
• myCRED Integration – allow users to get points for actions performed on your website. This is a great way to encourage users to interact with one another and with your website
• BadgeOS – similarly to myCRED, the BadgeOS integration allows you to award users with badges for actions performed on your social media site.

Monetization

The PeepSo plugin makes it easy to monetize your social media website. For starters, you can easily integrate an online store with WooCommerce and sell products that your users would be interested in. If you have a social media website geared towards gamers, then selling games or gaming gear is a great way to earn extra money.

You can also sell courses and allow users to display which courses they have enrolled in and get instant notifications about their courses thanks to the LearnDash integration.

Another way that you can monetize your social media website is by displaying ads from third-party advertisers. You can also turn your social media site into a classifieds site and allow users to post their ads for a fee. The PeepSo plugin integrates with WPAdverts and Advanced Ads plugins.

Finally, you can make your social media website a paid community with exclusive access or create various member groups with different perks based on the membership level. This is made possible thanks to the integration with Paid Memberships Pro plugin.

For example, you can create a free membership level where users have access to basic functionality and a paid membership level with access to advanced functionality such as groups, audio and video posts, and the ability to post ads or earn VIP badges and points.

PeepSo Theme

The PeepSo plugin will work with any theme but it’s worth mentioning that it does have its own theme, Gecko, so you can make the most of PeepSo as a social networking platform. The theme offers additional features that you can get with third party themes. These include:

• Highly customizable user profiles
• Easy customization options
• Custom landing page where visitors can login and register for your social media site
• Integration with WooCommerce, LearnDash, and Easy Digital Downloads
• Support for Beaver Builder and Elementor page builder
• And more

The theme also works as a standalone theme and is fully responsive so you can even use it without the PeepSo plugin. The theme is available for $99 for one-site license and includes a year of support and updates.

Pricing

The PeepSo plugin is free to download and includes basic functionality such as registration, activity stream, and onsite notifications. The addons that give you extra functionality such as the ability to monetize your social media site, create groups, and more start at $29 for individual addon. This makes it easy to buy only the addons you need so you can get the exact functionality that you want for your social media website.

You can also purchase a bundle of all the current and future addons as well as yearly support and updates. The bundle plan is available as a yearly subscription for $249.

Video: How to Use the PeepSo Plugin to Create a Social Media Website

Now that we’ve covered everything the PeepSo plugin has to offer, let’s take a look at how you can use it to make a social media website that’s similar to Facebook and has all the bells and whistles you will need. In the tutorial below, I’ll show you the exact steps to not only create the site but also which extras to get so you can monetize your social media website and create an engaging experience for your members.