Definition

Social currency is a common term that can be understood as the entirety of actual and potential resources which arise from the presence in social networks and communities, may they be digital or offline. It derives from Pierre Bourdieu

Pierre Bourdieu

Pierre Bourdieu was a French sociologist, anthropologist, and philosopher.Starting from the role of economic capital for social positioning, Bourdieu pioneered investigative frameworks and terminologies such as cultural, social, and symbolic capital, and the concepts of habitus, field or location,...

’s social capital theory and is about increasing one’s sense of community, granting access to information and knowledge, helping to form one’s identity, and providing status and recognition.

Social currency in Marketing and Management

In their study on social currency, the consulting company Vivaldi Partners defined social currency as the extent to which people share the brand or information about the brand as part of their everyday social lives at work or at home. This sharing helps companies to create unique brand identities and earn permission to interact with consumers or customers. In today’s age, building social currency is probably the most important investment companies can make to create value for themselves. Consumers and customers will benefit as well as they increasingly participate in social platforms, and use social technologies.

Social currency can be divided into six dimensions or levers:

It is about creating a sense of community and by that a strong affiliation between customers, consumers and users of a brand. Having social currency increases a brand’s engagement with consumers and interaction with customers, and by that adding to the customer conversation around the brand, it grants access to information and knowledge, which is being shared within the customer base. Belonging to a group also helps users of a brand to grow personally by accessing new utility and also developing their own identity in the respective peer group. A strong attachment to a brand will also be a core driver for an active advocacy recommending or even defending the brand.

Further examples of social currency

Social currency is information shared which encourages further social encounters. It can be a factor in establishing fans

Fan (person)

A Fan, sometimes also called aficionado or supporter, is a person with a liking and enthusiasm for something, such as a band or a sports team. Fans of a particular thing or person constitute its fanbase or fandom...

 of sports or television programmes. As well as talking about sports, attendance at sports events themselves is a form of social currency. Young men in particular feel the need to learn about sporting current events in order to facilitate social interaction. However these types of fan can easily move to a new sport, team, or programme in the future if the new one offers more social currency. Women may use jewellery and clothes as part of their social currency, providing a way into communication. Sharing a meal can be social currency.

What is completely new or unique has no, or unknown, social currency, hence all news programmes or other broadcasts are to an extent similar and the content of the news is not entirely new, but depends on subjects already deemed worth discussion. The media has to try to strike the balance between routine (low risk) and novelty, to try and create programmes people will use as social currency.

In morality

Morality

Morality is the differentiation among intentions, decisions, and actions between those that are good and bad . A moral code is a system of morality and a moral is any one practice or teaching within a moral code...

, choosing an action based on its social currency alone, its social acceptability; reliance on duty

Duty

Duty is a term that conveys a sense of moral commitment to someone or something. The moral commitment is the sort that results in action and it is not a matter of passive feeling or mere recognition...

, is now less fashionable and the protagonist is praised if he considered the action's intrinsic worth.

Earlier uses of the term social currency referred to people's value within society, such as in feminist treatises, the problem of a woman's being able to achieve economic stability on the basis of her physical attractiveness. Sexuality is seen as part of an individual's social currency in this sense, as is negative HIV

HIV

Human immunodeficiency virus is a lentivirus that causes acquired immunodeficiency syndrome , a condition in humans in which progressive failure of the immune system allows life-threatening opportunistic infections and cancers to thrive...

status. Fame provided the individual with social currency, where a poor reputation deprived them of it.