If a social media site wants to attract attention or encourage community participation, it may consider giving API licences to third parties. This way, passionate members can transform their ideas into reality and benefit the application.

This article focuses on Google+ and its popularity when compared to other social media sites, such as Twitter. It notes that Twitter has gone through losses in popularity by limiting and turning off their API access at times and suggests that Google+ should be one of the first of social media sites to offer an amazing API for users.

The article gives 10 suggestions for improving Google+ and concludes that many of the suggestions could be implemented by third party companies if they had the right kind of API access "and could spark a hundred new ways to engage with people on Google+." According to this article, the types of restrictions and policies imposed by Google+ are needlessly inhibiting use of the site. "It's not about Google increasing engagement on Google+. It just needs to get out of the way and let it happen."

Read the article here.

Takeaway:

• Offering an excellent API will let loyal users improve a social media website through their creativity. Restrictive policies can prevent the growth of third party development communities and diminish the success of the website.