Isle businesses invited to join the Thanet Virtual High Street

Virtual High Street

Hundreds of isle businesses have joined a Thanet Virtual High Street venture.

The facebook group, promoting everything from art galleries to bakers and IT to beauty, was set up by resident Karen Brinkman while she was on furlough from her charity sector role.

In less than two months the group has had more than 400 business listings while the facebook group has some 1,000 members.

Karen, from Westbrook, said: “I was furloughed for 5 months and I tried to keep myself busy.  I was very aware of how many of my friends and family had been massively affected this year, so I decided to create a new group.

“I thought it could give businesses a platform to shout about all the amazing, fantastic things they do and members to see what was on offer locally. I know a lot of people already dabble in promoting on social media but I thought by joining like-minded local businesses together, who could appreciate each other even if they do the same thing, it would create a new culture of complimenting each other, using each other and thanking each other.

“ It might sound cliché but I really do think we can help each other to “Bounce Back!”.

“We have encouraged businesses to post about what they do, do shout outs for one another, we’ve run open mic posts where you get to know about the owner as well as the business and then that business passes the mic to another business,  to name a few things.

“I recently asked what members felt they’d got out of the group and the overwhelming response was support and a sense of community.”

Businesses can sign up to the virtual High Street website for £22 per year. They can then feature in two category listings and buy a listing for a second business for £11.

Listings include a description, photos, and links.

Find Thanet’s Virtual High Street online here 

Find the facebook page here

2 Comments

  1. I recommend this organisation to go and have a look at Deal High Street.
    I visited there Friday last week…. it was thronging with people and almost every shop was open & busy.
    Shame about Margate and Ramsgate.
    I blame the TDC, because they get the blame for everything else !!!

    • I agree that Deal High Street is a great place, though (unlike Margate/Ramsgate) Deal isn’t near a huge out of town shopping centre.

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