One thing that makes me really annoyed is the constant price dumping of traditional magazines. For instance, Wired is now only $5 for a full year … getting both print and digital. In comparison, Baekdal Plus is $9 month … and my price is way too low … yes. Too low! https://t.co/ijZE2hVRY7

Roger on 03/01/2021

One thing that makes me really annoyed is the constant price dumping of traditional magazines. For instance, Wired is now only $5 for a full year … getting both print and digital.

In comparison, Baekdal Plus is $9 month … and my price is way too low … yes. Too low! https://t.co/ijZE2hVRY7

Building an audience online, and why it works: How understanding in developing social capital from over the last hundred years underpins contemporary ideas in building a successful presence on the internet.

Roger on 03/01/2021

The first rule of internet success is ‘build an audience’. Want to be known for something, have greater influence, sell a product? Build an audience of like-minded people, those who are interested in the same things you are.

The second rule of internet success is ‘give away your knowledge freely’. Demonstrate your knowledge and expertise, share your journey, be open about your wins and losses. This builds trust with your audience.

The third rule of internet success is ‘participate and reciprocate regularly’. Be part of the online community in your area of interest, engage with people, chat to them. And do it often to maintain the relationships.

Why? Because they all develop social capital, which is “the links, shared values and understandings in society that enable individuals and groups to trust each other and so work together.” https://oecd.org/insights/37966934.pdf

There are three types of social capital, bonding – ties between individuals within the same group, bridging – ties between individuals in different groups, & linking – ties across formal levels of authority https://socialcapitalresearch.com/explanation-types-social-capital/

Bridging social capital is most interesting as it applies to building an audience on the internet. “Bridging describes social relationships of exchange, often of associations between people with shared interests or goals but contrasting social identity” http://oro.open.ac.uk/74/

“Bridging social capital functions as social lubricant and leverage, to help one ‘get ahead’; it is comprised of weak ties, is mostly inclusive and consists of thin trust in light and ever-changing networks” https://socialcapitalresearch.com/what-is-bridging-social-capital/

Create connections in common with people because as “bridging traverses social boundaries it tends to increase acceptance of different people, values, & beliefs through contact with diverse others. http://faculty.washington.edu/matsueda/courses/529/Readings/Paxton%202002.pdf

Demonstrate trustworthiness, because bridging social capital is built on “earned trust” and removing “power relations that result in inequalities”. Unpacking Social Capital in Economic Development: How Social Relations Matter

Engage regularly with your audience because “the development of social capital requires the active and willing engagement of citizens within a participative community” Measuring Social Capital in Five Communities

That’s why Social Capital works. And this is how it works… the power of network connections. Bridging social capital can only work if we have a means of creating those bridges. Fortunately, the internet is the perfect tool for building social capital in this way.

Facebook research shows that, “Each person in the world (at least among the 1.59 billion people active on Facebook) is connected to every other person by an average of three and a half other people.” https://research.fb.com/blog/2016/02/three-and-a-half-degrees-of-separation/

Or to put it another way, as an audience grows, its potential growth grows at an exponential rate. If your audience of 44 people each brings 44 more, in six steps you’ve reached 7.26 billion people. https://youtube.com/watch?v=TcxZSmzPw8k

But just having the mechanisms to reach that many people isn’t enough, which is why developing social capital is so important for achieving whatever success you are looking for on the internet. Build an audience by sharing your value freely and regularly.

What Is Social Capital? A Comprehensive Review of the Concept

Roger on 03/01/2021

What Is Social Capital? A Comprehensive Review of the Concept

Social capital is an old concept but it entered into academic and policy debates only in 1990s. Its importance in explaining economic and social phenomena have been increasingly felt in recent years. Literature on theoretical and empirical aspects of social capital grew significantly during last decade. The whole notion of social capital is centred on social relationships and its major elements include social networks, civic engagement, norms of reciprocity, and generalised trust. Broadly speaking, it is defined as a collective asset in the form of shared norms, values, beliefs, trust, networks, social relations, and institutions that facilitate cooperation and collective action for mutual benefits. It is a complex multidimensional concept having different dimensions, types, and levels of measurement. Common types of social capital include: structure and cognitive; bonding, bridging, and linking; strong and weak; and horizontal and vertical. It can be measured and analysed at individual- and collective-levels in terms of social perspective and micro-, meso- and macro-levels in terms of geographic perspective. The properties of social capital, such as capacity to appear in as an explanatory variable in the production function, accumulation over time, capability of improving economic performance, investment with expected future returns, convertibility, and the need of maintenance, make it qualify as a form of capital, though there are some criticisms about the use of term ‘capital’ in social capital. Research on social capital remains in its initial stage and the concept is still elusive, prone to contextual definition, deficient in common measurement indicators, inability to explicitly quantify effects, and subject to various criticisms. Conceptual and measurement imprecision has led the concept prone to vague interpretation, less empirical application, and underestimation of its value. More empirical studies and testing of the concept on the ground is needed to develop a commonly accepted definition and measurement indicators that can explicitly disentangle and quantify its effects on overall development processes. Better conceptualisation and operationalisation of social capital theory is helpful to attract more investment on its development, design appropriate social policies, and promote sustainable development.

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/233546004_What_Is_Social_Capital_A_Comprehensive_Review_of_the_Concept