Attractive website for the MBA

What is an attractive website for the business school? Since August this year I have begun work as Global MBA Website Director for my part-time job at Doshisha Business School (DBS), which I graduated from. The Dean requested that I create an attractive website which is better than any others. When he asked me to do this, I had several ideas.

Last year I created another website for traditional craftsman in Kyoto for the class called “Kakushin Juku” at DBS. I visited around ten working places of craftsmen and craftswomen in order to carry out in-depth interviews and see the process of their traditional handmade crafts. The purpose of my visit was also to take videos and photos of their facial expressions, their work in action, their beautiful products and their working environment. In spite of the hot and humid Kyoto summer which is famous in Japan, the internship students and I were so impressed by their work that we forgot all about the heat.

After the visit, I introduced them using a weblog in English and posted the videos on a video site with English subtitles called YouTube. After six months, I was very surprised to know that these videos had around 1,000 to 2,000 views by visitors from all over the world, which was much more than I had expected. Although theirs is a niche market of Kyoto traditional culture, to their sites many people throughout the world were interested in watching their videos and wanted to create links and some people left comments and gave feedback. I had links on our YouTube videos to the main Kakushin Juku website. I could check how many visitors there had been by the data from the website on Google Analytics everyday.

Using those methods which I have already used on the “Kakushin Juku” website, I have begun to create the website for the Global MBA at DBS with some team members. At first, we started the “Video Project” taking videos of current students and exchange students from overseas who are studying at DBS now, as well as alumni who graduated from DBS. In addition, we took videos of recommendation messages from faculties at well-known overseas Universities related to DBS for research programs and internship programs, such as UC Berkeley, Cambridge University, Xi’an JiaoTong University, the University of Edinburgh, etc. These messages might be attractive for students who are going to come to or who are interested in coming to study at DBS. 

After I started the “Video Project” which gives welcome messages in English to International students, I realized that so many people were willing to cooperate and participate by giving messages in English about their unforgettable experiences at DBS for the new course called the “Global MBA Course”. 

At the same time, we are preparing a colorful website to introduce things “About Kyoto”, such as global firms located in Kyoto, and Kyoto culture, including traditional festivals, temples and shrines, local culture, nature, and the four seasons. This information will help you to imagine your student life after entering DBS. 

I think that the website should answer the following important questions “Why Japan? Why Kyoto?, Why Doshisha? For people who are thinking about coming to Japan, our website should tell you what you could get from classes and classmates, and what kind of lifestyle is available for international students. Kyoto, in Japan has many facets. Some maybe curious about the high technology in the many world famous Kyoto firms and some may like Japanese Subculture such as anime, video games, comics, fashion, or traditional culture, including arts and crafts. Also, some people are interested in Japanese food such as Sushi, Sashimi, and healthy traditional Japanese dishes. Some want to know about how Japan has developed its economy so rapidly after World War II. Some, besides their study, want to enjoy the nature of the four seasons “ Spring, Summer, Autumn, and Winter” including the cherry blossoms, changing leaves, and snow, etc. 

We have just started to create an attractive website, but we have already had some ideas, including how to get visitors from all over the world to look at our website and how to get many visitors to visit often. We should use the important new functions of the Internet, such as video, weblogs, virtual communities, and analytics on the Internet. This is the so-called “web2.0” method. I want to use those methods for our new website for the “Global MBA”.