What is social capital? How do you invest in your online social capital? To what extent does your company facilitate social networking with (existing or potential) clients and business partners? What’s the value of this social capital to your company (i.e. the connections within and between social networks as well as connections among individuals)? How does it influence your marketing strategy, online conversion rates, search engine rankings and ultimately, ROI? And the bottom line, how do you measure it?
Social Capital Defined
Social capital is the value of your relationships. Creating online communities and social networks allow you to build and invest in your social capital. The more targeted your social media plan is, the better your results and more visible the ROI. You need to understand how to measure your social capital and grow it for organizational viability for the long term. Creating and cultivating your community builds relati
What is social capital? How do you invest in your online social capital? To what extent does your company facilitate social networking with (existing or potential) clients and business partners? What’s the value of this social capital to your company (i.e. the connections within and between social networks as well as connections among individuals)? How does it influence your marketing strategy, online conversion rates, search engine rankings and ultimately, ROI? And the bottom line, how do you measure it?
Social Capital Defined
Social capital is the value of your relationships. Creating online communities and social networks allow you to build and invest in your social capital. The more targeted your social media plan is, the better your results and more visible the ROI. You need to understand how to measure your social capital and grow it for organizational viability for the long term. Creating and cultivating your community builds relationships between you and your customers and constituents and it has all sorts of benefits.
Some of these benefits include:
- brand advocacy
- product conversion
- engagement
- trust
- transparency
How is it Measured?
Measuring your social capital comes down to quantifying activity metrics, survey metrics, ROI measurements (marketing/sales, customer support, product development, HR, etc.), individual metrics for your community members, and independent internet tracking measurements.
Here at Terametric, we’ve developed an algorithm that uses a proprietary blend of over 50 variables, including website structure, social media presence, search engine data, site metrics, and conversational measurement, and coupled it with human engagement analysis as a way to measure your community’s effectiveness and profitability. Contact us directly for more information about how you can receive a social capital measurement score and learn where your social capital potential lies.
The Role of Web 2.0
How does that translate into your online systems platform? That’s where Web 2.0 comes in. Supporting social networking in the organization means more than simply bringing in-house functionality from (public) social networking tools like Facebook and Twitter. Instead, social networking functionality should be integrated not only with existing information systems, but also with the particular needs of the organization to enable people to grow informal networks which exist alongside formal structures, and fully exploit the wealth of information and expertise circulating in and around the organization. The foundation of this infrastructure is called a “Hub” Web site which integrates social networking components to allow the flow of information in and out of your larger community.
The Criticality of An Integrated Web Platform
Web 2.0 is based on the concept of using the Web as a platform and therefore benefits from the collective intelligence of the technology community to further its development. Using a Web 2.0 platform such as Drupal or Joomla, can eliminate the need for organizations to continually invest in their systems platforms like they have in the past. Since this is the trend that will ultimately become the norm, it also opens the door to integrate APIs and widgets from other Web 2.0 applications (Salesforce.com, Facebook, Wordpress, etc.) so that you are focusing more time on retrofitting the solution to your specific needs and less time on actual development. In the end, an investment now will position your organization for rapid development, lower development costs, and ultimately greater ability to build community, relationships and your social capital.
The Cycle of Building Social Capital
I’m including our product illustration (see below) to demonstrate the cycle of building social capital. When the flow of financial and human capital in the form of a social marketing strategy is infused into a core, centralized Web platform (or “Hub”) with social networking integration, you begin to build relationships with your community and the rate of return produces loyalty, engagement, trust, etc. which in turns increases your visibility in the search engines and online social networks, which increases your desired online business objectives – and the cycle continues…
The End Result
If you invest in Web 2.0 technology and enable your ability to rapidly integrate open tools to fit your social media strategy, your community will become more active, which will drive more contributions towards your goals (brand advocacy, product conversion, etc.), which will in turn build stronger relationships, which will result in higher social capital — the best investment you can make for long term business viability!
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