Social capital refers to a person’s access to resources and know-how through social ties on social networks. Weak ties (i.e. a casual acquaintance or friend of a friend) – not necessarily our friends – can be our greatest source of ideas and information.

This post discusses three obstacles to building social capital effectively. It also provides three rules for mastering these challenges intelligently, and finally, gives two practical tips for improving your social capital ROI (return on investment).

Article source: 3 golden rules for building social capital
First, we have to figure out what we want, to ensure we achieve our social networking objective(s) while building social capital.
In The Forms of Capital (1986), sociologist Pierre Bourdieu identifies three types of capital:

a) economic,
b) cultural, and/or
c) social.
He defines social capital as, “the aggregate of the actual or potential resources which are linked to possession of a durable network of more or less institutionalized relationships of mutual acquaintance and recognition.”

In short, social capital is about the value of social networks, so the goodwill others feel toward us is a great resource.

More specifically, social capital gained through work, professional groups and associations, as well as social networks makes information, influence, and solidarity available to the individual.

Networks change depending on someone’s interests and career path, meaning our weak ties, and therefore social capital, evolve and change accordingly.

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1. Weak ties are the cornerstone of social capital
Image - weak ties and strong ties - building social capital.Actors who have more ties to other actors may be in an advantageous position, and those that many others maintain ties with display high out-degree centrality. This means that if a connection to you is considered desirable by a majority, you are said to be influential.

For me personally, the benefits of cultivating weak ties or loose connections in social networks is being able to ask for their advice and providing input to solve a problem on their end (see Joanne Jacobs for a good blog post about this).

This also illustrates that just being a member of an internal network open to fellow employees is useful, but cannot replace the human capital that exists outside your company walls.

Tip: Join outside groups with members from other organizations and industries to draw on human capital outside your company, but no more than one or two.

2. Without setting objectives you cannot show ROI
Does everyone in a community have a common purpose? Likely not.

People may share an interest in your company or subject area, but often have very different reasons for it. Unless you set some objectives for building your social capital, it will be difficult to show benefits.

You will need to benchmark your social capital efforts at least twice a year. Assess whether you have reached your performance targets with your number one social media hub:

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And if your objective was to obtain intel, did participating in those groups provide access to papers you might not have come across otherwise?

Video (German): How board members and management are slowly learning what it takes to engage and build social capital using social media, one step at a time – Voestalpine AG.

Most importantly, did you do your part? Participating at least twice each week in every group you join is the one requirement most people fail, because they have joined too many groups and cannot find the time. But how can you build visibility, share and build social capital if you are never around?

Tip: You cannot build social capital without investing yourself so prune the garden. If you cannot actively engage, it is time to leave the group because out of sight (i.e. no participation) equals out of mind (i.e. others forget you), and that lowers your social capital.

3. Building social capital is not scalable
Helping your favorite charity means investing time and resources.

To build social capital with LinkedIn or Xing groups, you must first contribute value by actively engaging AND thoughtfully responding to others’ questions and discussion threads.