Friday 27 January 2023
In the media, this week we marked 30 years of providing free and impartial debt advice. Our press release was covered by CCR Magazine and Politics.co.uk, and Richard Lane and Sue Anderson were interviewed on BBC Radio Leeds (1:15:00) and BBC Radio Norfolk (from 2:36:00) respectively.
Yesterday we published our latest Scottish quarterly client data for Q4 of 2022. The data and comment from Head of Scotland Sharon Bell were covered by The Herald (also in print), Third Force News, The Intermediary and CCR Magazine.
On social channels
In January so far, over 1,771 users have gone through social media to our site. Of those users, just over 200 of gone through to starting debt advice. We marked out 30th birthday and did a live tweet thread of the event, where you’ll be able to spot some colleague friendly faces! Our CEO, Phil Andrew, wrote a LinkedIn article reflecting on the work we have done which has been read over 100 times by LinkedIn users. This week in social media, Kimberley met up with the social media manager at Christians Against Poverty to look at how we can support each other online through content - a wonderful and promising meeting!
News
Friday 20 January 2023
In the media, it’s been a busy week for media - on Monday we collaborated with the BBC on a story about debt following Christmas, which included a headline piece, and several interviews on BBC Breakfast, BBC 5 Live, BBC Radio Leeds, BBC Wales, BBC Radio Merseyside and Sky News, as well as the story being mentioned on the BBC lunchtime news and every national and regional BBC radio station. On the same day, BBC Morning Live ran a film featuring StepChange, where they visited our Leeds office and interviewed CEO Phil Andrew and debt advisor Gareth Huggett about what clients are facing during the cost of living crisis. They also interviewed StepChange client Sarah in the film, who spoke about her experience of getting help from the charity, saying “I couldn’t have done it without StepChange”.
The following day The Martin Lewis Money Show featured a special episode on debt which we supported by keeping our phoneline open until 10pm. As part of the programme we heard about Rob’s story, who praised StepChange for helping him become debt-free after getting into debt from a gambling addiction. In the minutes after Rob’s story aired, over 2,200 people visited StepChange’s website.
On social channels, over 1,200 users have gone to the site from social media this month so far. Of which a huge 10% are going through to debt advice (we usually see an average of 5% as a target). There have been 65.7k impressions on Twitter from January, with our involvement with Martin Lewis gaining high engagement - see our tweets. Our TikTok video of our client Nikki has nearly reached 1k views, with 100 likes.
News
Friday 13 January 2023
In the media, earlier this week, Head of StepChange Scotland Sharon Bell was interviewed by The National Scotland about the soar in demand for advice that StepChange has seen since the new year.
Head of Media Sue Anderson spoke to BBC Spotlight’s evening news programme about the same topic, and where to get help if you’re struggling with debt in the new year.
Sue Anderson was quoted in Good Housekeeping discussing misleading lead generator adverts on social media which claim to offer debt help.
Social channels
So far in January, over 712 users have gone to our site through social media. Of those users, 87 have gone through to starting debt advice. We’ve been seeing lovely tweets from clients who have become debt free! Here’s Anthony’s tweet, and a tweet from a client called Hannah.
News
StepChange was mentioned as a source of advice on BBC Radio 2, LBC, BBC Radio Berkshire and in the following online articles:
Friday 6 January 2023
In the media, Head of StepChange Scotland Sharon Bell joined a panel on STV Scotland Tonight yesterday to discuss the cost of living crisis and what we’re seeing at StepChange. This week we published our latest client data for November. Director of External Affairs Richard Lane’s comment was covered by The Guardian, BBC News, The Telegraph, Yahoo News, CCR Magazine and in a widely syndicated article in the Independent, Evening Standard, and over 165 other regional outlets.
Social channels
335 people have gone to our site from socials over a 5 day period. This is an increase of over 20% on the previous year. Of those users, 29 started debt advice, an increase of 141% on the previous year (29 vs 12). Our most popular content was The Guardian piece, featuring comments from our lovely debt advisors Julie and Sally.
News
StepChange was mentioned as a source of advice in the following online articles: