You may think of memes as childish and trivial images found on the Internet, but memes are smarter than you think. The word “meme” was first created by Richard Dawkins in his 1976 book “The Selfish Gene”. Dawkin coined meme to explain how our cultural information spreads genetically. However, the concept of the Internet meme as you know it today was initiated by Mike Godwin in the June 1993 issue of Wired Magazine. Then, in 2013, Dawkins legitimized the Internet meme as a meme that’s deliberately altered by human creativity, validating but distinguishing it from biological genes and his own pre-Internet concept.
Regardless of how you feel about memes, they are powerful conveyors of ideas, feelings, culture and, of course, humor. If a picture is worth a thousand words, then a meme is worth at least ten thousand (unofficial estimate). You can find memes just about everywhere. From news broadcasts to marketing campaigns of Fortune 500 companies, memes are taking over our social media feeds and our lives. You can even find them used as a campaign tactic for Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang. That’s right, memes have gone presidential.
Over on Financial Twitter (aka FinTwit), there is no shortage of financial professionals creating and sharing memes with one another, or FinMemes as they are called for short. It’s pretty much commonplace to find some of the smartest and most respected investors, allocators and analysts using them to communicate with one another. Jim O’Shaughnessy, Chairman and Co-Chief Investment Officer of O’Shaughnessy Asset Management, is revered for his use of GIFs on the platform. Here’s what Jim had to say about his use of the format:
“I use GIFs for several reasons. First, a lot of people in finance are in pretty high stress situations and I’m a firm believer in how much a good laugh helps mitigate stress and worry. I also use GIFs experimentally to see what types of things people respond to and enjoy. I also am doing a study of mimetic behavior and I find that GIFs break through visually much quicker than words. So, mostly as humor to help relieve a bit of the stress inherent in our industry and a dash of experimentation to help me better understand behavior.”
Meanwhile, on Instagram, there are accounts dedicated to creating and sharing FinMemes. One of the largest accounts is @litquidity, an anonymous but seasoned banking professional with more than 154,000 IG followers. I figured there would be no one better to speak more on this topic than *him*, so I slid into *his* DMs and setup an interview to learn more about FinMemes and how they can be used to help financial professionals step up both their marketing and social media efforts.
I’ve never interviewed an anonymous social media account before. To the extent you can get into specifics, tell us about yourself?
I’ll keep it pretty vague for obvious reasons. I’m currently a finance professional based in NYC with somewhere between 5-10 years of experience across investment banking advisory and private equity investing. I went to a so-called “target school” and was able to break into the industry that way.
Clearly your firm hired the right person. What inspired you to launch your Instagram account?
I’ve always been a bit of a jokester, a fan of dark humor, and a creator (I used to write / produce music when I was younger). I was a big fan of TotalFratMove in college and was inspired to make something similar after interning at an investment bank in NYC and realizing the parallels to the fraternity pledging process. Fast forward a few years post-graduation, I was at a bar drinking with friends one night and the topic of that finance humor site was brought up. I decided at that point to create the IG account and made my first meme incredibly hungover (it’s a picture of a dog with a “For Sale” sign attached to it with the caption being “Lower Middle Market M&A”. Go toss the OG post a like!
We all have to start somewhere. However, you now have 150,000+ followers, which is insane considering we’re talking about finance. How did you build your audience?
At first, the growth strategy was to follow my friends and colleagues that work in the industry, knowing they would appreciate the humor. From there, I targeted other finance groups on IG and got them to stick around with relevant content. Then word of mouth took over as people started sharing my content with their coworkers. My content speaks to my finance experience, personalities in the office, the dreadful work, the lifestyle of living in NYC as a young professional. Others turn to gimmicks such as IG pods, going private, buying fake followers, paying large meme accounts to shout them out, but I have largely relied on word of mouth / organic growth and let the content speak for itself.
What is it about memes that work so well with finance?
I like to think of the dynamic being similar to Caddyshack, where the IG accounts are Al Czervik and the industry at large is Judge Smails. If you haven’t watched the movie and don’t get the reference, you’re missing out on an absolute classic. I’ll also note that finance is such a broad industry and can be further segmented into IBD, PE, HF, VC, S&T, etc. so the content potential is vast.
Never heard of that particular movie. What’s the best and worst thing about memes in the context of finance?
Best part is the number of layers it takes to understand the humor. You have to “get” memes, know the templates, know financial concepts, and know the lifestyle. That’s why over 60% of my followers are over the age of 25 (per Instagram’s business analytics tool). A quality FinMeme will blend all of the above and be true to how things work in the industry. My platform serves as comedic relief to those working stressful jobs and long hours and it’s what brings me a sense of accomplishment. We’re all in it together.
Worst part is some people will take some of the jokes too seriously and inform their decisions off of memes. I urge you all to do your research and take some jokes with a grain of salt. Furthermore, there are pages run by admins that don’t even work (or have never worked) in finance and will portray an inaccurate picture of how things operate. I occasionally field questions on my story to provide more info on myself and legitimacy to the platform. Another thing, to a lesser degree, is certain users ripping off jokes and attributing to themselves or other accounts. Hard to control and I am sure it’s an issue on any creative medium.
So how do you think professionals (i.e. financial advisors) can use memes to benefit their marketing?
I think, at the bare minimum, it can help establish a common connection between financial advisors and prospective clients. This has historically been achieved by companies creating funny commercials to reach their target audience on linear TV. The trend has shifted to higher content consumption via social media than traditional linear so financial advisors would be wise to brush up on their meme game.
Agreed. Should professionals be concerned with coming off as unprofessional when using memes? How can they avoid doing so? Give us some best practices.
I do think professionals (especially those who are posting with their public identity) should exercise judgement in the types of jokes made online. If posting publicly, it should be treated as it would be in the office, not getting overly offensive or posting about controversial topics. I think the most effective way to meme in this scenario is to craft a witty dad joke.
The veil of anonymity grants a lot more leeway to posting raunchier content and pushing the envelope, but again I think you should exercise judgement, otherwise you’ll be faced with a savage twitter ratio or backlash / unfollows on IG. As a litmus test, I like to ask myself, “if I were to show Grandma Lit this post, would she smile and say ‘that’s nice, dear’ or croak on the spot?”. If it’s the former, then the meme is too safe. If it’s the latter, then you may have gone too far.. I like to play somewhere in the middle, with a tilt towards the latter end of this spectrum.
Other than making people laugh and having fun, what are your goals with your account? Are you monetizing it?
First and foremost, I really enjoy creating and curating content and always think about other mediums that I could utilize to create content using my voice (video, music, podcast, etc.). I would love to keep growing the account and form relationships with the right people that appreciate the content and share the vision of diversifying into different content types (more comedy or even professional advice / tips / best practices, as I answer these types of questions in the DMs daily).
I have been able to monetize the account via partnerships and ads with various brands (primarily D2C brands) at a small scale, as I am very meticulous and want to ensure partnerships resonate with the audience and are brands I truly stand behind (also because this is not my primary source of income). I have turned down promotion requests for brands that simply do not align with mine. No one is looking for dog toothbrushes, gym supplements, or tanning oils on my page.
If any brands are looking for social marketing tips or want to partner, hit me up. Not all FinMeme pages are created equal. Just like financial valuation metrics, effectiveness of marketing campaigns will come down to impressions, reach, engagement and other metrics. I can have my intern spread some comps and put together a preliminary deck.
Solid use of the intern, BTW. Now I see you’re trying to expand your reach to Twitter. Why not just double down on Insta?
I like challenging myself, so I set the goal of expanding on another platform to reach a broader audience that may not be on IG. I also want to have another way of expressing more serious thoughts in written text form and sharing things I find interesting. Twitter’s platform makes this very simple through tweets / retweets. In my opinion, IG would be a lot wilder (in a good way) if GIF comments were allowed (cc: @zuck pls fix). Lastly, on the off chance something were to happen to my IG account, I would still have twitter as a platform for my voice. I’m tweeting under @litcapital since some rando has been squatting on the litquidity handle since 2015. @ThisGuyFuchz and @KarlSmithCFA are also part of the LitCapital team.
Tight squad. What are your favorite financial social media accounts across all platforms?
Instagram: I’m a fan of many of the other “FinMeme” accounts but have come to like @Arbitrage.Andy, @notyourfathersbroker, @hoeingforyield, and @bankingpledge the most. Also, RIP to @EBITDAD who was also an inspiration to start the account. Lastly, I can’t forget to shamelessly plug my affiliate accounts (@wallstreetintern, @thisguyfuchz, @linkedinflex, @venturekaepital)
Twitter: Having spent the past couple of months immersing myself into Twitter, I’ve come to better understand and appreciate the “FinTwit” community, its key players, content style, etc. I enjoy following yourself (@dougboneparth), @RampCapitalLLC, @Wu_Tang_Finance, @StockTwits, @ReformedBroker, @GSElevator, among others.
No one likes a suck up, but thanks. Other than me and Dennis Gartman, who’s on your Mount Rushmore of finance?
Warren Buffett (self-explanatory), Mike Milken (the junk bond king), Henry Kravis (a pioneer of the LBO #LeverUp), and Bart P. Fuchs IV (the greatest MD of our generation). Would love a photoshop of this Mount Rushmore. Could we get someone staffed on this? Thx.
I will get my intern right on that. Are you more of a stonks, bonks or bitcorn guy?
Whatever I can get approved through compliance at the moment. Getting past that, I’m largely invested in stocks (stonks for my yolo trades), ETFs, and illiquid private investments. I have some throwaway money in crypto just so I don’t get serious FOMO if it rips for whatever reason.
Is there anything else you want us to know?
All jokes aside, I am constantly answering DMs providing advice to people interested in breaking into the industry, giving interview tips, quickly screening resumes, etc. (depending on my limited bandwidth). Feel free to send a message via IG, Twitter (@LitCapital), or email (litquidity@gmail.com). Always happy to help!
I have also been meaning to kick off my blog / newsletter to provide tips, recommendations, advice and hopefully will get around to it soon. If anyone is interested in potentially helping out or doing guest posts / AMAs, shoot me a note.
Thanks for the questions, hope these are insightful!
What I liked most about my interview with @litquidity, other than getting some really smart answers to my questions, was his breakdown of how memes can be used practically in one’s own profession (not just in finance) for marketing, branding and prospecting. He highlights how communication has evolved in both form and function, and that businesses need to keep up with the *lingo* if they want to reach new audiences. For what it’s worth, I’ve personally found great success is using memes to build my own audience on Twitter, which makes a lot of sense given my brand and the demographics of my clientele.
But, like @litquidity, what I enjoy the most about memes is the ability to be creative, because I know that creativity is one of those magical powers in business that lead to above average results in whatever it is you’re doing. At the very least, memes are just fun. They help people and professionals relate and communicate with one another through both humor and wit. At the very most, however, memes allow us to spread our cultural information from our biological selves out into the world and across the web.
A very big thanks to @litquidity for taking the time to answer my questions about the world of FinMemes. Please go give him a follow and like/share his content on Twitter and Instagram. Also, a h/t to Jim O’Shaughnessy for his insights and filling the Internet with more GIFs than it can handle. Lastly, if you’re a financial professional interested in learning more about social media, online marketing and memes, come check out Wealth/Stack in Arizona this September. I will be moderating the social media panel with some of the profession’s most talented.
Come make some memes over on the meme delivery service know as Twitter.
2017 bitcoin traders talking to 2019 bitcoin traders like… pic.twitter.com/QRa2EMVoqA
— Douglas A. Boneparth (@dougboneparth) May 14, 2019