WHITE HAT MEDIA - online search enhanced with university support

Jeremy Spiller set up search engine optimisation and on-line marketing company White Hat Media in 2003. He first heard about Profitnet through his existing network of business contacts and joined a group for businesses in the creative services sector.

“It was only after I had been to a few meetings that I appreciated the benefits were very different from what most people think of as ‘networking’” said Jeremy. ”It’s really all about knowledge sharing – and very tangible knowledge from the coalface. I would always leave the meeting with lots of inspiration and ideas.”

Jeremy feels that the single most important benefit of Profitnet was becoming aware of the many other opportunities available from the university.

“The really big one was the connection with the university – that can’t be under played.” He says. “I discovered a wealth of things after the university came onto my radar. It’s a bit like peeling an onion – every layer reveals more.”

One of the first ideas sparked by Profitnet was to investigate working with one of the university’s students. Jeremy got in touch with the University of Brighton Business School and arranged for a final year MBA student to investigate aspects of social media for his thesis. This resulted in a white paper which has helped to position the business proactively in its sector. He also uses the university’s services to advertise jobs to students and graduates, and is planning a Knowledge Transfer Partnership whereby a graduate will work in the company for two years, on a specific project, to asses the longer-term scalability of the business.

Jeremy feels it is important to be addressing these issues now, even though the current economic climate means that greater demands are being put on the business from every angle as clients want greater value and transparency.

“Everything requires more effort as existing clients are more demanding, and winning new business is a longer and more competitive process” says Jeremy who recently attended an ideas workshop, run as part of a Profitnet session. “It was brilliant! A really interesting session which was fascinating and really useful at the same time.”