Sydney, Australia – With the rise of social media influencers, there has been an evident rise as well of online influencers who teach more about finance or so-called ‘finfluencers’, and the number is steadily growing in Australia among female millenials, new insights from influencer marketing platform HypeAuditor shows.
According to the data, despite the fact that these ‘finfluencers’ only make up less than 1% of all influencers in the country, they have proven to be incredibly impactful, particularly for brands investing in sponsored content and wanting to engage with commercially minded millennials. On TikTok, the finance-related hashtag #moneytok has more than 3.8 million views, as well its accompanying hashtag #stocktok with more than 361 million times as of this writing.
Among ‘finfluencers’, 34% are female aged 25-34 years, while only 16% are male in the same age bracket. Meanwhile, the balance shifts when looking at ‘finfluencers’ aged 35-44, of which 25% are male and only 9% are female.
The audiences these ‘finfluencers’ reach have a similar skew, with 57% of their audiences being female, of which 44% are aged 25-34, and a further 19% are aged 35-44. The demographic highlights a trend among mostly female consumers wanting to be educated by influencers who look or seem ‘just like them’, who use layman terms and empower them to become financially empowered.
According to Alex Frolov, CEO and co-founder at HypeAuditor, there has been a steadfast growth of the finfluencer phenomenon in the country, and brands wanting to engage with commercially savvy influencers and communicate with money-conscious consumers are taking advantage of this evolving trend.
“It’s interesting to see this movement driven mostly by millennials, reflecting an ongoing trend of turning to, and trusting online information and sources when making significant life decisions or going through major milestones such as buying a first home, investing in shares for the first time, or re-assessing the best superannuation options. Finfluencers are stepping in where traditional financial institutions or more established enterprises have historically made this information challenging to navigate and [take] action,” Frolov said.
However, he cautioned about brands and consumers translating online content into actionable financial advice, stating that while many finfluencers in Australia have a strong finance background, not all are qualified to provide financial advice.
“For finfluencers with a strong and highly engaged audience, it could become challenging for their audience to know the difference between a finfluencer’s observation or piece of advice for a specific scenario, and their advice for the follower themselves. With more finfluencers joining the scene, brands will need to stay vigilant in determining the most relevant and reliable finfluencers to partner with, and consumers will need to exercise caution analyzing financial advice,” Frolov concluded.
