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It is “incredibly important” for advisers to make the space for social media tools such as Tiktok to help educate young people and reduce the misleading hold of finfluencers, according to the Health & Protection panel in association with Scottish Widows.
In the concluding part of the debate series, the panel also recommend some of the key subjects to bring up to generate authentic conversations with this population.
Julie Thompson, propositions manager at Scottish Widows, highlighted that social media can be a “fantastic” way to engage young people due to the popularity of apps such as Tiktok and Instagram.
Around 70% of younger people are believed to use Tiktok as a search engine, “so it’s clearly something they gravitate towards to and use it as a day-to-day tool,” Thompson added.
However, she warned that there was much inaccurate information on it so urged advisers and the protection industry to show their quality and invest time in the platform.
“You cannot lose sight that there is a darker side to it,” Thompson said.
“Recent research suggested that 87% of finfluencers on Tiktok were misleading in some way.
“That’s where you guys [as advisers] and we as an industry, not just advisers, we need to step it up, we need to up our game and fill that void.
“The reason these finfluencers are having so much hold over younger people is because not enough of us are getting the air time and making the space for it, so that’s incredibly important as well,” she added.
Matt Chapman, the protection coach, echoed Thompson’s concerns about the financial content often found on social media platforms.
Chapman highlighted that a lot of content from finfluencers was driven to be attractive and appealing with bold promises and seen as exciting and sexy.
However he emphasised that the messages that resonate the most and which advisers should focus on, were either logic or numerical.
Isabella Streames, financial adviser at Velvet Mortgage and Insurer Services, added that from her experiences that on Tiktok and Instagram there was a three-second window to grab the person in and that advisers have to sell the story.
The Health & Protection IP Panel discussions in association with Scottish Widows can be found here.