The State of Social Media Financial Advice

Social media has become a place for far more than just interacting with friends. Now, 90 percent of Americans use some form of social media, turning different apps into platforms for commerce, inspiration, and advice. From healthy meal inspiration on Pinterest to short advice videos on TikTok to relatable memes on Threads, consumers are looking for just about everything, including financial advice. 

Financial advice has started to circulate over different platforms, and “fin-fluencers” have started to rise in popularity by providing users with financial hacks and tricks. Unfortunately, a lot of this “advice” is not really advice at all and can be tiptoeing on illegal and fraudulent activity. Credible financial institutions have started to build a presence on a few key apps, making it possible for them to reach and engage with a new set of audiences and provide legitimate financial advice. 

TikTok

Around ⅓ of Gen Z Americans have started to turn to TikTok as their main source of financial advice. Many of the users in this generation watched their parents go through financial issues during the 2008 recession, which has led to the group becoming very eager to learn financial skills.

• Fifth Third Bank: Fifth Third Bank has developed a very strong presence on TikTok compared to other banks like Bank of America and Wells Fargo. Most of the bank’s content is shorter videos, usually including a trending sound or influencer partnership. For example, Sabrina Molu, who has over 200 thousand followers, paired with Fifth Third Bank to share financial advice she wished someone had told her sooner, resonating with the app’s younger audience.
• Step: Step is a new mobile banking service that is mostly targeting younger generations by advertising itself as “Banking for the Next Generation” and partnering with influencers like Charli D’Amelio. Since the partnership with D’Amelio began, Step has raised over $50 million and is adding 7,000-10,000 new accounts per day. Step believes that most of the business came from word of mouth on TikTok.
• Wealthfront: Wealthfront, an investment firm, has been pairing with a few different verified “fin-fluencers” on the app, such as @calltoleap and @yourrichbff. Additionally, the hashtag for the firm, #wealthfront, has accumulated over 3.2 million views. 

Pinterest

Pinterest has over 450 million monthly users, with millennial women being the most active users, and most content being centered around education and inspiration. A unique aspect of this platform is that the average post life span is significantly longer than that of posts on other platforms, with most posts lasting 6 months to a year after they were initially posted. This offers better opportunities for organic ROI for each post, and several financial institutions have jumped at this opportunity. 

• Bank of America: Bank of America launched a program called “Better Money Habits,” and used Pinterest to create boards for different major life obstacles, such as buying your first home or planning your first big vacation. These boards would be linked to the bank’s own webpage, where users could learn more. In the first 5 months, Bank of America had reached over 6 million people and reported having over 70,000 repins on Pinterest, which would make it one of the top-performing financial institutions currently on the app. 
• American Express: American Express has over 10,000 followers on Pinterest and some of its most viewed boards are “Travel Inspiration,” “Everyday Life Hacks,” and “Food and Cooking Inspiration.” One campaign AMEX did on Pinterest was to post a quiz for users that would show what activities they would most enjoy on their “perfect weekend,” with a final page explaining how an AMEX membership would enhance those experiences. 
• Learnvest: Learnvest uses similar tactics as AMEX by appealing to the everyday lifestyle of customers. To take it further, Learnvest focuses on money-saving tips, while also giving inspiration. Some of the most successful boards are things like “Healthy Foods on a Budget” and “Cheap and Yummy.” 

Snapchat  

Snapchat has over 306 million daily users, with the majority of users being Gen Z or younger millennials. Snapchat differs from other social media platforms, as content posted publicly is only visible for 24 hours after posting, but this does not mean it is less effective at reaching audiences. 

• Story Advertisements: There are a few different options for how to promote financial advice on Snapchat, but the first way would be to utilize the story advertising feature. These ads would come up as users are clicking through between different Snapchat stories in the format of a short video, usually lasting around ten seconds. This would allow your financial institution to quickly catch the user’s attention, and provide a link to direct them to your website for more information. 
• Discovery Page: The other option for using Snapchat would be to use the discovery page on the app. Robinhood partnered with Snapchat in 2021 for the release of Robinhood’s financial news stories, which were showcased on Snapchat’s discovery page twice weekly. The news stories were described as being “easily digestible” financial news and advice videos that averaged three minutes in length. Trading activity on Robinhood increased by 50% on the day of the launch. 

Aside from the apps mentioned above, there are a few more apps where financial institutions are starting to get involved. On the rise right now is a new app called Threads, which gained over 100 million users since its launch, making it the fastest-growing app in history. While the app is still growing and changing, many users so far have described it as a way for financial institutions to engage in more personal and casual conversations with clients. Altra Federal Credit Union, a Wisconsin-based Credit Union, got on Threads to try and catch customers’ attention with shorter, funnier, and wittier content like memes. 

The Financial Conduct Authority warned social media platforms that action would be taken if content promoting risky or fraudulent activities and investments continued to be promoted on the apps. With this warning, there is hope that qualified financial institutions can take over providing financial advice on social media. Whichever app works best for your financial institution, social media has a wide audience of users who are eager to learn about finances and best practices. 

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