In late March of this year, the Australian Securities & Investments Commission (ASIC) made an announcement regarding social media influencers. As part of their announcement, ASIC detailed some clarifications for ‘social media influencers who discuss financial products and services online'.

Based on questions we’ve received from our community, we’ve collected some thoughts to help you figure out how or if this applies to you at all. Whilst we reference a few items from ASIC, we are only doing this to see how their guidance might help everyday people improve how they discuss money with others.

As with all blogs, this isn’t specific to you and won’t cover everything, but we hope it’s still helpful.

Who is this article for?

Whether you’re a social media influencer (no-one has defined that term) or not, it’s worth thinking about how we can be safe, thoughtful, and respectful when discussing personal finance online.

That’s where Pearler wants to be as helpful as possible - enabling everyday people to benefit from an open discussion about money. Talking about money should be general and safe, and we should remember that it’s personal. In other words, what’s right for you may not be right for someone else.

As such, this article is for everyday people who are on a lifelong journey to build wealth alongside friends, family, colleagues, online communities, even that gym buddy you chat to but have forgotten their name and you met them so long ago you can’t now ask.

But what about social media influencers?

We celebrate social media and the creators that have done (and will continue to do) amazing things for transparency, financial literacy, and the calling out of dodgy finance companies and conflicting advertising.

Money - like health, diet, relationships, family matters, and politics - are all personal topics. However, sharing with friends, colleagues, or family for some of these topics has become more normalised than others. And together we (you, us, and our favourite creators), we hope we can make the topic of finance as commonly discussed as the weather or memes.

If you are a social media influencer, this article isn’t meant to provide any guidance. If you do fall into this camp, though, we want to do our best to support this part of the community. That's why you can always get in touch with us via community@pearler.com.

So what about my invite code?

OK, so you are not a social media influencer. That’s alright - neither are we. If you’re sure you’re not a social media influencer, but still feeling unsure, a great question to ask yourself is: “if I shared my code with [person I chat money with], would they view me as a friend or a social media influencer?”

Still not a social media influencer? Great, let’s move on.

"Enough words. How can I think about this?"

Do you know a person that breaks things down very simply? They seem to figure it out in their head, blurt out an answer without much context, and move on? This can be helpful, and you might like this approach. Well, here’s a short version, done in a simple Yes/No series of questions.

You can do this yourself here, but we scanned the guidelines for keywords. See if this helps:

1. Influencers

Source: ASIC INFO 269

Are you an influencer? No? Well, this doesn’t seem to relate to you.

There’s much more to the guidance, but if you’re that person who is happy to glance and move on, this might be enough for you.

For everyone who needs to read and think about this more…

So you’re not an influencer but you want to learn more about this. Maybe ask yourself the following and if any of the answers are yes, you should reconsider if you are an influencer or not.

So you’re not an influencer but you want to learn more about this. Maybe ask yourself the following, and if any of the answers are yes, you should reconsider if you are an influencer or not.

2. Business

Source: ASIC INFO 269

Are you carrying on a financial services business? No? Well, this doesn’t seem to relate to you.

Not sure? Let’s search ‘business’ and then ask ourselves: Can I possibly make a business out of the few brokerage credits I get from inviting friends? If anyone figures out how to do this for a profit, let us know!

“I’m actually a professional investor or adviser (that has IRL friends). Does that change things for me?”

OK, this is where we are going to draw the line on this article, because this sounds like one of those cases you’d see on Today-Tonight (is that show still running?) where a friend sues another friend for something they mentioned over beers. If you are a professional, let’s just assume you shouldn’t be getting advice from a blog.

Still No? Let’s keep scanning.

3. Balanced

Source: ASIC INFO 269

"Is what I’d share with a friend accurate and balanced?" When chatting with friends, ‘accurate and balanced’ might seem to not fit. Perhaps ask yourself: am I being honest?

Some examples of being honest when it comes to money include:

• Being clear that this is what you did/do and why it worked for you
• Being clear if you earn a credit (or anything else) whenever you refer a friend
• Being clear that there are other options that weren't right for you, but might be OK for them; and
• Without getting too philosophical, treating people the way you’d want to be treated

Let's summarise

This is hopefully covered above, but here’s a quick list of True or False questions to ask yourself to see if you could be doing something wrong. If you want to share your invite code, first answer “True” to each of these:

"OK, I’m feeling fine about invite codes, but keen to learn more about sharing other topics safely"

There’s still a wide margin to talk about investing. The short summary is: focus on facts and features and share links to the source. More specific examples include:

• Factually summarising the key features of an investing platform
• Talking about your own personal experience - provided you don’t make a recommendation (e.g. avoid saying things like: “I invested in XYZ and made a fortune, so you should too.”)
• Comparing the pros and cons of different types of investments (e.g. “with ETFs you get easy diversification, but you have to pay an ongoing management fee.”)

Still have questions? Ask us at the Pearler Exchange, where we can have an open conversation that helps everyone.

Happy investing,

Nick