Social media app development for professional event photographers and their potential clients to create events that are truly special.
Short overview
Yura Pelekhatyi
Terry Sahaidak
Orest Pidfihurnyi
Time:
Jan 2020 - Sept 2020
Platform:
Mobile app
Industry:
Social media app
Country:
USA
Services:
mobile app development, QA testing, MVP development
Short overview
Team:
![Yura Pelekhatyi]()
Yura Pelekhatyi![Terry Sahaidak]()
Terry Sahaidak![Orest Pidfihurnyi]()
Orest PidfihurnyiTime:
Jan 2020 - Sept 2020
Platform:
Mobile app
Industry:
Social media app
Country:
USA
Services:
mobile app development, QA testing, MVP development
About the client
Events by BigDayMade is a mobile app for photographers that allows professionals to keep collections of photos from different events in one place and share them on popular social media platforms, where more clients can find and hire their services
Project idea
A portfolio app to help people organizing an event find professionals for their big day. The project idea was inspired by personal experience of Ian Cornwall, CEO and founder of BigDayMade, with a goal to make planning a special event as trouble-free as possible. With works and contacts of photographers, vendors, planners, florists and more, Events by BigDayMade can be a valuable resource for organizing every unique occasion.
Story
For exceptional events it is worth
hiring professionals to make them unforgettable.
Ian Cornwall
Founder
Story
We all want our events to be exceptional. While planning an occasion, the most important thing is hiring the professionals who can make the experience unforgettable with their talent. And what can better prove their skills than real photos of the work?
With this in mind, Ian Cornwall turned to Apiko to create a photo sharing mobile app from scratch that would allow vendors to showcase their talent and couples to make the best organizational decisions for their special day. He himself is a technological expert with the background of product and marketing at Google, Amazon, and smaller startups. This time he wanted to apply his technology skills to the event industry (especially weddings) and, thus, help the creative professionals gain more acknowledgement and recognition.
When our client came to Apiko, he already had the UI/UX design done, so our job lied in bringing these designs to life. Apiko team developed an MVP during such two phases:
1. Our skilled developers worked on the main functionality of the app. It included building such features as authorisation, events creation, adding photos, and viewing those pictures in gallery. After the first phase of development, we conducted closed beta testing to ensure the app’s flawless work and continued to extend its functionality.
2. Apiko team added the possibility to share the posts from Events by BigDayMade to the other popular social media platforms, such as Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. We also implemented a subscription monetization model with ApplePay integration.
The app is available only in the AppStore for now. However, we will continue working with Ian Cornwall for further improvements and extensions.
Challenges & solutions
See the challenges and solutions we’ve offered to our clients during social media app development
Build a react native app from scratch for reliable social media cooperation
Develop extensive features that allow creating new events, adding pictures and collections
Create sharing functionality to post photos of the events in popular social media apps
Monetize the app with a subscription model
Deploy the mobile app for photographers to the AppStore
Starting Point
The client initially had:
UI/UX design
Business idea
During the social media app development, we achieved the following milestones:
Custom app development with functionality to create events
Closed beta testing
Adding advanced features
Mobile app deployment to AppStore
Social media app development: Main features of the product
1
Deep linking
While creating an event and adding pictures of their work, photographers can invite collaborators to view the photos or share them on social networks. To do this, photographers can use a link generated in the app to send to their co-workers or potential clients. When people who don’t have the mobile app downloaded on their phones open that link, it redirects them to the AppStore. Apiko team used Branch.io integration to make deep linking possible.
2
Gallery
After signing up, each photographer gets access to the extensive functionality of the portfolio app. To showcase their talents, professionals can create events, add collections inside of that particular event, and then upload images from their phone or computer (via an email link) to those collections.
3
Going social
It’s time for other people to see the professionalism of photographers. Our developers added social media integration of the Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter accounts to make sharing smooth and effortless. Simply choose a photo or a collection of photos, add team members (such as florists or rental providers), and when this post is out, links of their social accounts will be automatically attached.
4
Social media scheduler
To enhance the user experience of photographers and help them share photos in a comfortable way, Apiko team also enabled a scheduling option. App users can select a date and time when they want their post to be displayed. The information is kept on the server and when the time is right, the post goes viral.
5
Push notifications
While with Facebook there are no problems in sharing a post from the server automatically, Instagram doesn’t allow this. That’s where push notifications come in handy. They remind the app users to share the post manually at a certain time. For Events by BigDayMade, we integrated Firebase Cloud Messaging to receive such alerts.
6
Subscription model
To monetize the app, Ian Cornwall decided on a subscription model. Photographers can set up only three events in a free plan. When the app users subscribe, there are no limits. They can add as many events as they want. A hashtag manager is a paid feature as well, which allows users to create and save different sets of hashtags, and later include them into the posts. To pay for the unlimited plan, Apiko team integrated Apple Pay for seamless financial transactions.
Integrations
During the custom app development, we’ve integrated the product with the following services
Technologies
Custom app development: The outcome
As a result of our cooperation with Ian Cornwall, we developed an MVP version of Events by BigDayMade. Our developers made sure this mobile app is smooth in use with robust functionality to help photographers share their amazing work on popular social media platforms.
This portfolio sharing app for photographers is the easiest and most efficient way to create consistent content, increase post engagement, and most importantly, reach potential customers.
