Hands Up to Making a Difference

Posted by Heather

Making a difference is something that we here at ThoughtShift, being an ethical digital marketing agency, pride ourselves on. We understand the positive impact that companies/businesses such as ourselves can have in the local community through giving back initiatives and it’s this understanding that forms an integral part of our values as a business. Our team play a significant role in making this happen. Working within such a diverse and complex city as Brighton, the opportunities to give back to the community are endless and at ThoughtShift we love to run charity fundraising events, get involved with local schools and colleges, and help make a difference to those who need it, where we can.

Photograph of hands
Photo credit: https://pixabay.com/en/users/niekverlaan-80788/

Education

Our Managing Director and Co-Founder AJ Coutts, has always been passionate about young people’s education and often visits schools to talk about Digital Marketing, how it works and the career opportunities available, as well as teaching them how to be safe online. ThoughtShift have enjoyed working closely with Varndean School, Varndean College, and BHASVIC taking part in their Digital Programme at BACA (Brighton Aldridge Community Academy) and PACA (Portslade Aldridge Community Academy).

As part of ThoughtShift’s Digital Marketing Academy we onboard interns into our continuous learning programme, designed to nurture fresh talent and develop future Digital Marketers. Interns are welcomed here with open arms and are given a real 360 experience on all our digital marketing services. They are taken through our Essential Training Programme and work closely with our team of experts across different departments.

Alongside our internships we also welcome work experience students into our awesome team from local schools and colleges. Giving them hands-on experience inside a busy agency, as well as a better understanding of Digital Marketing and a taste of agency life.

Photograph of woman at laptop working
Photo credit: PublicDomainPictures

Industry Events

As well as educating interns and work experience students, it’s also important that we keep our own team’s knowledge up to date. One key way that we do this is via industry events which play a vital part of working within the Digital Community, providing great opportunities on keeping abreast of the challenges our industry faces in an ever-changing market. Our team love attending events such as Turing Festival’s Full Stack Marketing event, Meaning Conference Brighton, TEDx Brighton, Brighton Digital Women regular meets ups, Talent Fest and BrightonSEO. It is also a great opportunity to share our own knowledge and experience with our peers and collaborate with likeminded people. Our Head of Digital, Alex Coutts, attended the eTailing Summit as a speaker and talked about Integrating eCommerce SEO & PPC for Record-Breaking Revenue.

Photograph of college lecture
Photo credit: Photo Credit robinsonk26

The Good Stuff

We enjoy having fantastic relationships with local charities in the area; The Clock Tower Sanctuary, Rockinghorse, Starr Trust, St Mungo’s, Whitehawk Food Bank, St Cuthman’s Church and St John’s School and College are just a few of the charities that we support and have worked closely with.

We regularly run training sessions for local charities on topics such as Social Media and how to build their profile and grow their followers, making sure their message get to the right people.

We are always looking for different ways to raise money for these worthwhile causes and our team enjoy being active participants within the community both inside and outside of the office. Our team love to get stuck in and involved. Whether that’s volunteering at weekends for the local The British Red Cross charity shop; Host and driver for Contact for the Elderly or mentoring for the fantastic for The Girls’ Network.

We have a charity ambassador who put together a schedule of charity events across the year that ThoughtShifter’s and our peers can get involved with whether its food collections or charity football events we love to get stuck in and help those in need locally.

Photograph of - food bank, football match and collecting our award

What’s in Store

We are really looking forward to the many ways that we can get stuck in and be part of our local community for the rest of 2018 and beyond. We do have some great events that the team are looking forward to coming up, such as a new project for the local 6th form college, our annual charity food bank collection and an action-packed football tournament to organise for next year. Whatever it may be we can’t wait to continue to play a positive role in such a wonderful community.

Thanks for reading. Follow my contributions to the blog to find out more about Digital Marketing careers or apply for a role with our awesome, award-winning agency.