There’s a shift happening in our society in the way information is shared and skills are learned. Topics that are often omitted in traditional schooling are now being taught via social media by influencers. Over the past few years (propelled by the pandemic) there has been an overwhelming increase in conversations around financial literacy and personal finance happening online.

Platforms like TikTok are giving finfluencers a place to share tips, tricks, and secrets about all things finance. From investing, to saving, to budgeting and even cryptocurrency, this information is circulating quickly and being consumed more than ever before. With 34% of Gen Z learning personal finance from TikTok and YouTube, brands are starting to see the importance of influencer marketing in this vertical.

Today we’ll look at why this shift is occurring, what brands and influencers are doing in the space, and why we think there is even more untapped potential in this category.

What’s Propelling This Shift?

Personal finance and financial literacy are not taught in our school system, for many their first foray into finance happens when they graduate high school or college and are thrust into the “real world” for the first time. This comes with a lot of trial and error, money mistakes, and a steep learning curve in terms of how to manage money. A recent survey by PYMNTS and LendingClub learned that 70% of millennials are living paycheck to paycheck, more than any other previous generation. 

This combined with social media’s ability to disseminate information quickly has led us here, to financial education being taught and learned on social media. We’ve seen over the past few years that finance trends regularly go viral, cryptocurrency Dogecoin saw its value rise 40% after it went viral on TikTok. With the younger generations taking an interest in building and maintaining personal wealth, the path has been paved for finfluencers and finance brands to take the stage.

How Brands and Influencers are Participating

We’re all accustomed to the way that influencers promote products and services, but what finfluencers are sharing with their audience isn’t a cute clothing haul or a meal delivery service, but rather, a much-needed life-long skill. Targeting Generation Z and Generation Y specifically these finfluencers are working to simplify an otherwise complicated topic. And brands are taking notice as well, many of them creating TikTok accounts and launching their first influencer marketing campaigns. Below we share a few noteworthy brands and finfluencers doing awesome things on social media.

Brands:

Mint App was one of the first finance service brands to join TikTok, and have since generated 31.7k followers, and 891k likes. The #1 most downloaded personal finance app shares content around how best to use the app, budgeting tips and tricks, and saving advice.

Step, a mobile banking service aimed at teens, launched in 2020 with a massive partnership with TikTok star, Charli D’Amelio. She promoted the product and talked about financial literacy across her TikTok and Instagram accounts, which have 125.2 million and 44 million followers, bringing the brand an initial following. Charli was also an early investor in the start-up.

Finfluencers

@humphreyyang is one of the most popular finfluencers on TikTok with over 2.3 million followers, and over 36.2 million likes. His content tackles complex topics like book value, credit cards, mortgages, taxes and managing money. 

@marktilbury a “self-made millionaire” has grown a massive following of 6.7 million followers whose content covers everything from how to get rich to the basics of bitcoin. The CEO and YouTuber uses conversational and often comedic skits to share his knowledge and effectively target Gen Z. 

@pricelesstay is a well known Gen Z investor whose mission is to “democratize” finance. With 1.1 million followers, she creates content that teaches other young people how to invest, save their money and start a side hustle in terms that they can relate to and understand.

@herfirst100k or Tori, quit her corporate job in marketing after having saved $100,000 at the age of 25 and now runs a financial educator business named Her First 100k, which is dedicated to fighting financial inequality for women. She shares content to her 1.7 million followers on TikTok about how to run a company, budgeting and saving, and career advice.

@johnefinance is the cohost of The Simple Money Guys podcast and uses TikTok to “help you achieve financial independence.” Providing insights on subjects from credit cards and taxes to real estate and buying a car, he discloses hacks to save you money and breaks down industry jargon to his 1.2 million followers on TikTok.

Why This is Important

There is an important takeaway here, and this is that finance topics are often complicated and confusing, taking some people years to fully understand and master. Taking the conversation to social media has allowed more people to participate in the conversation, brought financial information and education to a larger audience, and opened up opportunities for the younger generation to be better informed on finance topics than previous ones.

Because of this, brands are seeing an opportunity to lend their products, services, and expertise to those who are interested, and there’s no better way to do so than in partnership with influencers. 

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