The streets may be empty, but LinkedIn is teeming with home workers who have shifted online for networking opportunities, so there’s a logic in Big Issue vendors following their customers into the world of profile-raising and contact-making.
FCB Inferno has brokered a deal between the Big Issue and LinkedIn to set up vendors with profiles on the platform, positioning them as small businesses and helping them to reconnect with old customers and find new ones.
You can take out a Big Issue subscription online too, and vendors are being trained in how to use LinkedIn using tablets donated by Carphone Warehouse.
Paul Cheal, group chief executive of the Big Issue Group, said: “Covid-19 has changed everything for everyone, but its impact has been keenly felt at The Big Issue. All earning potential was stripped from our 1,700 regular vendors and the partnership with LinkedIn will not only help the vendors sell their magazine again, it will ease the feeling of social isolation experienced over the past year, allowing them to reconnect with their customers and community.”
