Collider Loves: CoSchedule Social Scheduling App Review

If we told you content is king (or queen), you'd quaff with laughter at the use of such a cliche. But, what if we said we've found a pretty nifty content solution perfect for every day use for startups and small teams? Yep, that's peaked your interest.

We know some awesome social analytics programmes, referrals, user generated content and campaign solutions - I mean, check out our past five cohorts... but we wanted to test the market when it came to writing, planning and scheduling. That's where we found coschedule.

As you may know, we not only invest in early stage startups through our accelerator programme, but also have our Scaleup Network, which means we’re constantly on the lookout for companies of all ages.

That means we’re checking the market day-in-day-out, which is how we stumbled across CoSchedule, and realised it could really save a lot of time for our marketing team.

Creating

Coschedule combines your planning, writing and scheduling all in one place, meaning you can say goodbye to spreadsheets and old school flat plans, and hello to marketing ease.

Its ability to create and track campaigns is really what stood out for us – whether that’s email, social, video or even just notes, you can colour code your calendar and use specific set ups for any kind of marketing.

CoSchedule_Dashboard

Organising

Within its simple calendar interface, you can plan campaigns, track to-do lists, assign jobs to team members and view all of your up and coming content in one place. Integrating seamlessly with Wordpress, you'll also see all of your blog posts.

But really… that integration is awesome. It means you can access CoSchedule either by their website login, or through the back end of your site, keeping everything neat and tidy.

And it’s worth digging a little further into their solution for working with teams: the to-do lists are a dream for anyone who loves a good tick to get through the day, and with team names next to each requirement, there’s no way you’ll lose track of your busy marketing schedule.

CoSchedule_Calendar

Scheduling

Whilst Coschedule is no better than other social scheduling platforms in terms of integration and analytics, it's super handy for tracking social campaigns.

You can schedule social posts in advance to any main social network from the calendar interface, but also from each blog post itself, which makes it much easier to track the distribution of information.

This is especially brilliant for using recall – if you’re wanting to re-share your posts but still want it to look organic, this tool makes it look easy. Gone are the risks of re-sharing the same piece too often, sharing too many articles in one day, or maybe even not enough.

CoSchedule_Social-Campaign

Tracking

And you can see some analytics, so you can work out what's really working. This is especially great for re-sharing your previous articles, and testing which day and time works best. No need for more than one tab – it’s all in one place! What's more to love?

CoSchedule_Top-Content-Report

Want to know more? watch the video below:

https://vimeo.com/166544659

The EU Referendum and Innovation

With the most important vote of our generation within 24 hours, the Collider team would like to tackle the issue through the innovation lens aimed at startups. Whether that be in or out of the EU.

Bremain

The ‘Brexit’ anxiety has seen the FTSE 100 dropping daily. Similar trends have been mirrored in start-up investment, as many worry companies may struggle in a post-EU London. Many believe a connected Europe is important for investment in UK start-ups. London Mayor Sadiq Khan claims London has the opportunity to become “tech capital of the world” but worries tech development will struggle to maintain its exponential growth without initial investment.

Techcrunch writes a “closed-off Britain could threaten your very existence” as a start-up.

Start-ups must decide where to base their company and the answer is almost always London. But an EU exit may see this change. John Bradford’s poll on Twitter asking followers which city they would move to next had Dublin coming out on top. Also foreign entrepreneurs may look elsewhere as leaving would “stop young scientists from migrating freely within Europe”.

Also, EU funding will be lost if the UK public decide out is best. With the EU’s Horizon 2020 promising approximately 74.8 billion between 2014 and 2020. This will go directly to science, engineering and technology developers. If Thursday’s vote see’s us out, this research could cost 20 percent more. For start-ups and MadTech, this may not be significant in the short term.. But future technology may suffer, as this may be a deterrent seeing entrepreneurs less likely to take a chance.

Brexit

‘Brexit’ campaigners question EU regulation effects on innovation. Continued imposing of standards will affect the “most innovative economy in Europe”. Indirect taxation (“costs associated with the bloc’s endless regulations”) is an example of this. The effect is hard to measure, but it could be valid in terms of seeing a larger margin to reinvest back.

EU membership could affect start-ups through weekly payments from the UK. At £163m weekly, austerity measures could be lifted. But, this is speculation and we must confess austerity is made in Westminster, not in Brussels. So it’s a stretch to assume leaving the EU will result in a Keynesian approach to government spending.

A major element to the ‘Brexit’ debate is that the UK should follow the Norway model who gets access to Earth’s largest single market without sacrificing its sovereignty. Innovation in Norway has not been limited, despite being separated from the EU as they are leading growth in health innovation.

The EU debate is very current, but the future of remaining is often ignored; many assuming few changes. As in 2017 the EU aims to open the Unified Patent Court, which The Register have claimed “will make it much easier for patent trolls (a company that specialises in suing legitimate innovative businesses) and corporations in the US to reach into the UK and strangle your startup at birth”.

So…?

We encourage you to go to the polls today regardless of whether you’re for Bremain or Brexit. Still unsure? Collider portfolio company Miappi are curating some of the social debate. Check that out here

The Class of 2016 MadTech Applications

As Collider has become a stead-fast part of the London innovation industry, we've seen incredible growth in the numbers and quality of applications year on year. And this year topped them all to date. With 262 from 43 different countries for the next best of MadTech, it's fantastically rewarding to be at the epicentre of the MadTech revolution.

From these 262, 25 were shortlisted to prepare and present to the Collider Class of 2016 Investors - the people who would be making the decisions on who would be joining the programme. From there, we have chosen the lucky few to come to London for a four-month intensive programme, access to senior brand and agency executives and everything the London ecosystem has to offer.

We've highlighted some of the key takeaways from the applications in an interactive infographic below (roll your mouse over any of the graphs for numbers and additional info). Here you'll find our own MadTech categories, location of the companies who applied, and a few trends pulled from the data;

- We are seeing a turn away from content generation startups, as they slide into the third most popular category, to startups focussing on personalisation, advocacy and making content social (clickable, shareable etc).

- Marketplaces and the sharing economy still dominate in Europe with the largest number of application coming from there

- Israel & Western Europe had the most iBeacon applicants

Class of 2016 Insights Create your own infographics

3 MadTech Trends for 2016

** This article originally appeared in The Drum**

We're in the midst of a MadTech surplus. As applications for the next cohort come to a close, with over 250 applications from over 37 countries, we're sitting on a hot-bed of information relating to the future of the marketing and advertising industry.

This is the technology brands & agencies could be using today, so it doesn't take their business away tomorrow. They need to understand it, become comfortable using it, and see how working with it will increase revenues.Here are 3 MadTech trends and a few business models we think will be making it big in 2016.

Social marketplaces and curated content

We’ve seen a rise in the number of social marketplaces in this year’s applications. These startups are focusing on fashion and home goods, bringing together content from a number of existing websites and platforms (where eBay and Amazon began, startups have shaped this model). Here, the consumer has a more personalised shopping experience, as the platforms provide targeted recommendations based on their preferences. One of the most interesting factors though is that the consumer is redirected to the original retailer’s site to make the payments. On mobile, this can be as seamless as staying inside the original marketplace for the consumer, but means the startups don’t have to allocate extra resources to managing an e-commerce site.

OOH advertising meets online buying

Next gen retail tech can mean a whole host of things. One area we’re seeing a lot of activity in is optimising old tech with new features. And that means making billboards and display advertising ‘smart’ – optimising the media buying experience and providing more targeted advertising to consumers. Startups are adding software features onto old communications forms to target the content as consumers pass by, creating online bidding platforms mimicking that of Google and Facebook Ads, and much more. Real Life Analytics does just this. This takes hardware out of the equation, making the products pliable and easy to add and take features away from on an ad-hoc basis.

AI as a service

Artificial Intelligence reminds us of robots. Cultural references, TV shows such as Humans, show us house helpers and driverless cars, taking the work out of everyday activities we do. But it’s so much more than just that. Everything from the recommendation engines on our websites, to programmatic advertising (AppNexus is a big player here) which helps us buy better space for our content, to tracking the multi-channel consumer journey (taking it one step further from optimising content for mobile devices). Subscription models for AI are becoming commonplace in MadTech. It’s all about keeping the attention of the consumer from the beginning of their journey to the end.

How to Survive the Selection Phase of an Accelerator

Founders, it's crunch time. Applications across London for accelerator programmes are closing, and the selection phase is getting under way. Generally, this involves a written component going over the business, product, and plans for the future, followed by a selection of interviews with mentors, core accelerator team members and/or investors. If you've made it through the written application - congratulations! This usually means you're competing against hundreds or thousands of entries - you should be proud! But, you're just getting into the fun stuff. For any first time-entrepreneur the interview phase can be a terrifying, and thrilling opportunity. The prospects are high, the questions are tough, and the adrenaline is pumping. Going into our fourth round of applications at Collider, we've seen a lot of different ways founders can catch our attention. You'd be surprised how basic some of these tricks are. Here are a few of our favourites.

Content is still King

Being prepared is of the utmost necessity. Come knowing your product backwards and forwards. Doing Biz Dev? Be comfortable explaining your technology. Techie? Have a working knowledge of the sales cycle. Be ready to expand on the answers from your written application. Know your numbers, your competitors, your timeline inside out. Yes you’re a startup, but you’re still a professional.

We reckon you can cover everything off in 7 slides. Don’t make them text heavy, they should be presentation enhancers. Your confidence in your idea lies in the  Live demos are a no-no. Your tech will fall over. The internet will break. Do sneak in a screenshot or two.

Tough Questions await

Yes, we're going to challenge you. We're going to ask you questions meant to make you nervous - be prepared for that. We will ask you how your product will help big brands and agencies better find, understand, engage and sell to consumers. We will ask you how you think we can best add value to your business. We will ask you where your one year plan takes you. And there may even be some special guests - tech specialists, product masterminds, adtech mavericks. We're here to help you get from A to B quicker, and that starts with being able to ask the right questions. This is the first step.

Style: Bring your Flair

When you’re presenting, keep it clear and concise. Only one person from your team should present, but make sure everyone present is briefed for the Q&A. If you’re presenting, make sure you’ve rehearsed. A lot. Keeping it natural does not mean winging it the day of. Record yourself, practice in front of a mirror, or transcribe it.

Let your personality shine through. The beauty of interviews is the uninhibited communication – be confident and be yourself. Remember non-verbal communication plays a large role in your presentations, and we want to work with exciting and passionate people, not robots. Keep it real!

It's all about the Team

Yes, at the early stage it's all about the people. We know that products and business models can change over the course of the programme, but the team is the glue that will hold it together. So we're investing in you - the people behind the genius. Bring your personality, the spark that makes you you. We want to understand how you take feedback, where your strengths lie and how you like to share work. We're looking forward to meeting you.