Raising Profiles with The Big Issue and LinkedIn

Agency: LinkedIn and The Big Issue

In January 2021, The Big Issue and LinkedIn launched a pilot scheme to support the magazine's vendors who lost their livelihoods and their sense of community as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The Big Issue and LinkedIn helped nine vendors, who are based all around the UK and run their own micro-businesses selling the magazines, to join LinkedIn to find a new lifeline for their work and connect with new and old customers.

The vendors received specialist and bespoke training from LinkedIn volunteers to help them build their digital confidence to reach an online customer base, find new opportunities, and engage with a new community to support them.

Since the launch of Raising Profiles, the vendors have amassed a huge +2500 connections between them, increased sales by 325% and several of their posts have garnered over 300,000 views.

The vendors with the most activity on LinkedIn have seen the largest increase in subscription sales and all vendors have successfully built connections within their local community, demonstrating the effectiveness of the programme as a tool to build digital confidence and connect with potential customers.

The campaign was launched with extensive PR and social media activity to drive awareness of the pilot scheme, and encourage people working from home to connect with the vendors and purchase a digital copy of the magazine.

The earned and social media activity resulted in 112m impressions, and the content was shared by high profile personalities, from Craig David to Sadiq Khan.