Social Currency + Being Nice

The other day, we had a conversation with an early stage founder. He’s a super interesting guy with an undeniably interesting story and background. Best part? What he’s building is something that can have a massive impact on its users. The conversation itself was rather happenstance — spurred by a LinkedIn message, the nearly hour-long chat had various twists and turns. It started with a brief unpacking of this notion of social currency, which we’ll focus this post largely on. From there, we spoke about fundraising, his day job, the challenges of being an early stage founder, and we even set him up with one of our clients for a discovery call.

But we digress…

Social Currency — What is it?

Wikipedia defines social currency as “the actual and potential resources from presence in social networks and communities, including both digital and offline.” From a company-perspective, it’s about an action or stance that, in turn causes consumers to feel a sense of value in associating with your brand.

But how can we apply this as individuals? Let’s go back to the definition for a moment, which makes a special note about a “presence in social networks and communities” — you have to show up.

The notion of social currency is derived from Pierre Bourdieu’s social capital theory, which “relates to increasing one’s sense of community, granting access to information and knowledge, helping to form one’s identity, and providing status and recognition.”

Social capital theory contends that social relationships are resources that can lead to the development and accumulation of human capital.

A Simplistic View + Why

We’re going to prefer to take a much more simplistic (and non-academic view) of this all.

Be nice.

This is the easiest way to build social currency. Being nice costs absolutely nothing and it plays to the very core of what makes us, well, us. Humans are social mammals; we (largely) enjoy being around others and being likeable is a short circuit way to build that sense of community, belonging, and subsequently get folks to take actions on your behalf.

A lot of the work that we do with our clients is rooted in the science behind selling. But at the foundation of sales — and business in general — is relationships with others.

There’s a long (over)used saying in sales that states, “People buy from people.” To us, this saying is incomplete.

Our belief: People buy from people that they like.

In applying this “be nice” methodology to the previously mentioned social capital theory, think of it this way:

Being nice is ultimately the path of least resistance when it comes to being accepted into networks, communities, and even one-to-one conversations. In opening that door, you more effectively have the ability to develop the sense of belonging + trust that more productively allows you to develop the sense of community, which in turn grants you access to information, knowledge, and guess what — sales.