Personal finance influencers are becoming increasingly popular on social media as people seek out straightforward, practical financial advice. While many influencers cater to a consumer-facing audience, some offer tips and strategies that are directed toward financial services professionals. Getting to know some of the most impactful personal finance influencers can be a terrific way to pick up tips on how to scale your business or glean valuable information for your clients.
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Personal Finance Influencers Advisors Should Know
What defines someone as an influencer? It isn’t necessarily a specific number of followers, though the top influencers in the finance space have followings in the millions.
Broadly speaking, an influencer is someone who’s built a solid reputation for sharing their knowledge and expertise in a particular area. They may be active on several social media platforms or just one, but regardless, they can sway opinions or influence decision-making.
With that in mind, here are seven personal finance influencers that advisors follow:
Humphrey Yang is a former financial advisor who’s grown a TikTok following that’s 3.3 million strong. Yang’s content is largely educational and informative, touching on everything from how to build wealth to how psychological bias can affect buying decisions. However, he also discusses entrepreneurship, including the story of how he built a $1 million business at the age of 29.
Advisors may appreciate those kinds of insights, as well as Yang’s storytelling skills, which serve as a fitting example of how to distill sometimes complex concepts into an easily digestible format.
Kevin O’Leary is a Canadian businessperson, investor and author who’s built up a dedicated following of millions across several social media platforms, including LinkedIn, Twitter and Instagram. O’Leary, also known as Mr. Wonderful, regularly discusses investing, economics and entrepreneurship, which may be of interest to advisors who are looking for ideas on how to grow their businesses or tips to stay motivated throughout the journey.
O’Leary doesn’t shy away from being bold and outspoken with his content and he encourages entrepreneurs to take a similar approach when growing their businesses.
Michael Kitces is a certified financial planner and established voice in the blogging space. Nerd’s Eye View is where Kitces shares his insights into what it takes to grow a thriving practice as a financial professional. The site has consistently been ranked among the top 10 best blogs for financial advisors and the advisor industry.
On social media, Kitces is primarily active on Twitter where he has approximately 85,000 followers. Here, you’ll find posts sharing updates on the latest industry regulations along with tips on how to build client trust and facilitate conversations that can help you approach planning more effectively.
Josh Brown is a New York City-based financial advisor at Ritholtz Wealth Management, LLC and CNBC commentator. Michael Batnick is a chartered financial analyst and director of research at Ritholtz Wealth Management and founder of The Irrelevant Investor blog. Together, they host The Compound & Friends, a podcast focusing on the latest economic trends and what’s happening in the markets.
The podcast, which is available on iTunes, Google Podcasts and Spotify, is also streamed on YouTube, where it’s amassed more than 141,000 followers. It’s worth tuning in for advisors who want to keep a finger on the pulse of the market.
Tiffany Aliche, better known as The Budgetnista, is a personal finance influencer and financial educator who specializes in speaking to the needs of women. Collectively, her social media channels have more than 2.5 million followers. Aliche’s content encourages her followers to get smart with money by learning how to budget, save and invest wisely.
In addition to posting on Instagram, Aliche regularly hosts live streams on YouTube featuring special guests in the finance space, including special Ask an Advisor episodes. That may be of interest to advisors who are looking for opportunities to collaborate with influencers and tap into a broader audience.
6. Ramit Sethi
Ramit Sethi is a blogger, podcaster, entrepreneur and author of “I Will Teach You To Be Reach”, a New York Times bestseller. Sethi doesn’t have a professional background in finance, but he’s become one of the most prominent influencers in the financial space over the last decade and a half.
Sethi’s approach to building a richer life emphasizes proven strategies that encourage people to take control of their financial destinies, whether it’s through launching their own business or negotiating a pay raise at work. You might appreciate Sethi’s views on entrepreneurship if you’re interested in striking out on your own as an advisor.
Graham Stephan became a millionaire by age 26 through real estate investing. Now he shares his best tips and advice on building wealth with his YouTube audience, which has more than 4.6 million subscribers. His advice is geared toward 18 to 30-year-olds who are looking for ideas and inspiration on how to get on the path to wealth from an early age.
Stephan’s content may prove valuable to advisors who are interested in tapping into this niche demographic. Much of his content revolves around the challenges that younger people are facing regarding earning, spending and saving in the current economic market.
Frequently Asked Questions
What Is an Influencer?
An influencer is someone who has cultivated a sizable following on social media platforms and is viewed as a reliable, trusted expert in their niche. They create content that speaks to the pain points their followers are most likely to have. For example, personal finance influencers may create content around topics like budgeting, debt, investing or retirement planning.
Is Collaborating With Influencers a Good Marketing Strategy?
Collaborating with personal finance influencers can be an effective way to bring attention to your advisory business. The key is choosing an influencer whose following reflects your ideal client base. For example, if you primarily work with women in their 40s it wouldn’t make sense to collab with an influencer whose following is mostly young men in their 20s.
There are several ways to collaborate with financial influencers, including:
- Appearing as a guest on their podcast
- Sponsoring a video on their YouTube channel
- Co-hosting a giveaway or contest
- Writing a guest post for their blog or guest content for their email newsletter
The upside of collaborating with personal finance influencers is that they already have an audience in place that you can leverage to market your advisory business. It’s important to remember, however, that federal regulations require you to make certain disclosures when entering into sponsorship or affiliate marketing agreements.
How Can a Financial Advisor Become an Influencer?
There’s no specific roadmap to becoming an influencer. Some of the most noteworthy personal finance influencers started with zero followers and took years to build up their brands while others went viral seemingly overnight. If you’re interested in becoming an influencer as an advisor, here are a few tips that can help:
- Decide who you want to influence with your content, which may be other advisors or investors who are looking for financial advice.
- Identify the social media channels where your target audience is likely to spend the most time online.
- Tailor your content format to the channels you plan to build a following on (i.e., short videos for TikTok or Instagram, longer videos for YouTube, etc.).
- Create a content calendar so that you’re posting consistently, which encourages your followers to show up for you regularly.
- Be authentic in everything that you do, which can help make you more relatable to the people who come into contact with your content.
Bottom Line
Personal finance influencers can have a lot of impact on their followers’ decision-making. The ones we’ve shared here are all in the finance space, but they don’t all cover the same ground with their content. Checking out different influencers can help you decide which ones belong on your follow list.
Tips for Growing Your Advisory Business
- If you’re ready to start attracting new clients, an online lead generation service can help. SmartAsset AMP (Advisor Marketing Platform) is our holistic marketing service financial advisors can use for client lead generation and automated marketing. Sign up for a free demo to explore how SmartAsset AMP can help you expand your practice’s marketing operation. Get started today.
- While social media can be an excellent way to market your business, it’s unwise to put all of your eggs in one basket. Diversifying your marketing plan to include email marketing, a professional website that’s optimized for local searches and direct mail marketing can also help you gain new clients. And perhaps the best marketing tool may be referrals from current clients, which you can encourage by providing superior service.
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