“The future of the web is social” said Benjamin Cohen, entrepreneur-turned-media mogul, turned technology correspondent for Channel4 News in the UK.
As well as Cohen, the panel included Google industry head Russ Cohn, Justin Reid of VisitBritain.com, new media consultant Tracy Playle, and digital media guru Antony Mayfield.
Google’s Russ Cohn said that business schools should focus on what they are good at, namely education, and make their academic content more available and more 'discoverable' on the web.
He pointed to the hit YouTube lecture series Khan Academy, which gets more than 35,000 views a day, and drew attention to YouTube EDU, a dedicated video channel for colleges and universities.
“Business Schools have fascinating and wonderful content and they should provide that content to users on the web... but you don't have to do it all yourself”.
Content can start a conversation between consumers and producers more generally. Tracy Playle, who runs Pickle Jar Communications, advised that: “In order to draw people in, your content needs to be interesting, useful, or relevant.” Also, “letting go is crucial, so your community can create your content for you.”
She also warned that today's students are sceptical of paid-for marketing, so business schools should avoid, for instance, paying students to tweet on their behalf.
An example of a firm using social media to improve its communications strategy is the official UK tourism site VisitBritain.com. Justin Reid, who runs digital and social media, said he is focusing less on getting hits to the website, and more on spreading content throughout the web: “we can take content to the user [via social media] as opposed to making the user come to us.”
Reid’s goal for VisitBritain.com is to “move away from one click stands and towards building a relationship with our consumers".
In deciding what content to put on the web, consultant Antony Mayfield said, “Instead of deciding what to give away, it should be flipped. You should decide what you don’t want to give away for free. The more that you’re sharing, the more likely it is that you’ll get lucky.”
The UK Business School Communications Conference was organised by BusinessBecause.com and Mana Communications, hosted by Cass Business School, and sponsored by Grenoble Ecole de Management and Google. Speakers included experts from media, technology and policy backgrounds and delegates attended from top UK and European business schools.
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