The Impact of Social Media Financial Influencers on the Investment Decisions of Retail Investors: An Empirical Study

Social media has changed how retail investors find, interpret, and share financial information. Financial influencers — "finfluencers" — use YouTube, Instagram, LinkedIn, X, and similar platforms to share investment opinions, education, and market commentary. This study looks at how these influencers affect retail investors' decisions, focusing on perceived credibility, financial knowledge, information quality, trust, social influence, and how useful investors find influencer content. The approach is quantitative: primary data collected from retail investors through a structured questionnaire, analysed with descriptive statistics and appropriate inferential tests. The aim is to see how much retail investors actually lean on finfluencers when picking investment products, reading market signals, or deciding to buy, hold, or sell. The results should be useful to investors, financial educators, regulators, and the content creators themselves in encouraging more informed, responsible investing.