Students from the University of Winchester’s Faculty of Business and Digital Technology have been helping ‘clients’ improve their online presence and social media strategies.
The newly formed Consultancy Club, which has student members from across the faculty, has been working with Abbots Ann Hall, near Andover, and author Tom Spencer.
The club was launched by Julia Osgerby, Associate Dean of the faculty and Dr Claire Ancient, Senior Lecturer in Computer Science.
Students who volunteered to take part were divided into two interdisciplinary team. Each group had students from a mix of courses including Accounting, Marketing and Business Management.
Julia Osgerby said: “We want to our students to get out of their silos and work on integrated projects.”
“The clients were very pleased with the recommendations and enjoyed liaising with the students throughout the process.”
Author Tom, who writes for children and adults, said he was very impressed with the way the students had gone about getting him noticed.
“I don’t have a big publisher behind me so marketing my books can be a struggle,” said Tom.
“The first things the students asked me was ‘Do you want to market your book or yourself?’. They persuaded me that If I could build an online presence, it could boost my reputation and my sales.”
The student team looked at Tom’s existing social media and produced a strategy to boost his profile with his target audience and the wider publishing world through Instagram, TikTok and LinkedIn.
Tom has also received coaching session from the students on how to create reels for Instagram and edit video for TikTok. As a result, he has seen his reach on social media increase by 246 per cent.
Matthew Davison, who is studying Accounting and Finance, said he welcomed the chance of collaborating with other students who are from different courses on a “practical and realistic” exercise.
“Our team immediately clicked with Tom and felt comfortable brainstorming ideas focused on increasing his social media reach. We then put together a presentation and pitched our ideas to Tom. Further to this I offered Tom one-on-one consulting specifically for video content creation social medias as this is an area of expertise for me.
“I really enjoyed the opportunity to share this knowledge and I'm excited to see what he can achieve with our recommendations and will be following his career as an author.”
Following its successful pilot the Consultancy Club will be continuing. Any organisations or individuals who would like to receive help can email Julia.Osgerby@winchester.ac.uk for more details.
Tom’s latest book, Kids Are Sad, a collection of linked stories concerning six teenagers at the fictional Logfawn Secondary School, is available from Amazon.+
Pictured: Author Tom Spencer (centre) with his team of advisers from the Consultancy Club (from left) Rhys Lee, Mathew Davison, Nikola Osterlade and Georgia Greatley. Not pictured, Leyth Al Badri.
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