Regardless
of their social ability, everyone has a certain level of social capital.
Whether considered the biggest jerk on the face of the planet or the most
caring person in your office, both of these individuals have a level of social
capital regardless of who they are and what they represent. One could easily
argue that the number of people in your contact list is meaningless unless
there’s something to gain from knowing them.
When
economists look at social capital, they
immediately look at the cost/benefit scenario. After all, maintaining social
capital is an expensive task, especially if you have many strong ties (consider
all the time you spend maintaining a relationship). So from the economist’s
perspective, turning social capital into social income is the key to
successfully leveraging our relationships for something meaningful. Not too
romantic, but it demonstrates the potential utility of our connections (i.e.,
emotional and financial support, contacts, information, knowledge).
The
key to successful networking is developing mutually beneficial relationships so
that the social capital doesn’t dry up. Just like a bank account, if you
continue to make withdrawals and don’t deposit more funds, you’ll eventually
end up with a zero balance. It’s important to realize that when we refer to
leveraging contacts, the need to approach networking that is mutually
beneficial is crucial....I take something from the network and I give something
back.
So how
do we look to our network and identify what social resources exist within it?
To catalogue all the embedded resources would seem like an impossible task;
where would we start?
To
make this process more simple, the first step is to be clear about what you
want to accomplish before you even consider going to the network. This means
setting clear and concise goals that can easily be communicated to contacts. By
setting goals, we’re able to determine if there are social resources in our
network that can help. By doing this, it makes the task of cataloguing resources
more manageable and will motivate us to continue to network. If you require a
plumber to fix a leaky toilet that is causing damage to your bathroom, who in
your network can either fix the problem or is most likely to know someone who
can? When you go to the network with that specific goal, the contact can easily
determine if they can help you or if they know someone that might be able to.
It’s as simple as that. Be clear on what you want to accomplish and make sure
that you’re able to communicate it to the network in a concise way. If this can
be accomplished there is no telling what can be achieved.
Turning
social capital into social income can only be accomplished if we’re clear on
what goals we want to achieve. When we set goals, the social explorer is no
longer setting goals for themselves but the network itself. This means that
goals need to be clear, concise and to the point. After all, if we have to make
our contacts figure out what we actually need, the likelihood of them helping
dramatically reduces.
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