Finfluencers on TikTok: A Longitudinal Analysis of Content, Engagement, and Disclaimer Practices

Abstract

The rise of social media financial influencers (finfluencers) has transformed how financial information is disseminated to broad and often inexperienced audiences. While these creators may contribute to financial literacy, concerns remain regarding the reliability of their content and the adequacy of risk disclosures. Using data collected through TikTok's Research API, we analyze UK finfluencer content, engagement dynamics, disclaimer practices, audience sentiment, and network structure. The primary dataset comprises 13,215 videos and 104,097 comments posted by 71 UK-based finfluencers between April and September 2024, while a follow-up dataset covering October 2025 to March 2026 enables longitudinal analysis of disclaimer practices, engagement trends, and hashtag usage. Using topic modeling, we identify four dominant themes: Entrepreneurship \& Side Hustles, Property Investing, Active Trading, and Saving \& Budgeting. Sentiment analysis of audience comments reveals predominantly neutral-to-positive responses, while engagement analysis shows only a negligible association between video duration and engagement rate. Social network analysis indicates a collaborative ecosystem in which mid-tier finfluencers frequently act as bridges between creator groups. Explicit disclaimers and risk-related language remain relatively uncommon overall and are concentrated primarily in trading-related content. The findings highlight challenges related to financial transparency and disclosure practices within short-form financial content ecosystems. We discuss implications for consumer protection and the design of clearer and more standardized financial risk disclosures on social media platforms.