Why digital agency Think Work Media came back to Brooklyn

Digital agency Think Work Media was cofounded in Bushwick four years ago as a social media agency. Things changed.

Founder Shayne Spencer quickly evolved into a website development firm, primarily serving small businesses and, shortly after starting the company, met someone with a similar, more established business who told him he had to get a Manhattan address or no one would take him seriously.

So, he joined Sunshine Suites and was in Manhattan ever since, until this past winter when moved his nearly dozen-person team to Dumbo and took up a space in Green Desk, just off the Pearl Street Triangle.

“I feel like there are so many great minds here. I’d like to meet up and sit down with them and talk about their work,” Spencer told us. “I’m looking to collaborate.”

He said he could already feel the willingness of people to work together in Brooklyn, and he wanted to be part of it.

Spencer said that there is something to working with a local firm for local businesses. They like a company that’s in their own backyard. That’s why Spencer’s vision is to develop his model further and once he has it fully sustainable, he wants to franchise it out to cities like Detroit and Atlanta, places where he believes that there are lots of small but growing businesses that could use digital strategy.

His big insight for these firms is that too few have a marketing strategy that’s focused on results, mixing traditional advertising for branding with digital strategy for engagement.

“You’ve got to have a plan,” Spencer said. He’s even helped businesses that advertise with street flyers get some sense of metrics by incorporating a social media element.

See companies that Think Work Media has worked with here.

Spencer spent over two years at Manhattan-based global branding agency Momentum Worldwide before cofounding Think Work Media. The agency is a team of 10, supported by two part-timers and contractors beyond that. Spencer estimated that their work is close to 80 percent web development, 15 percent training and consulting on social media and 5 percent handling social media for clients.