Explaining Social Capital

Date: 28 April 2012, Time: 1400hrs
” I am on my way to the Delhi Metro Station on a shared auto. Just when I am about to reach, realisation dawns that the most essential thing had been left behind at home. Without my wallet, I have only one of two options – Either scoot away as soon as I get down from the auto or reason with the brawny autowala. Huh! Slim chances with the second so I make up my mind to go with the first, when the auto guy surprisingly asks for the fare even before getting down. So I explain my plight to the guy sitting next to me who happens to be a student in the school where I studied. With a Frontline magazine in my hand, I look every bit genuine in my pitch. He agrees to pay my share as well. Getting to the metro station : Price-less.

Now I have a bigger problem. Where do I go from here? With no money, a metro ride is not on the cards. So the only option is to walk back home. But then, it occurs to me that a friend stayed nearby and he could lend me some money. So I call him and he agrees to pick me up, takes me to his place, lends me 500 bucks and drops me back to the Metro station. All this while, we talk about the newly released Avengers which we plan on watching the next day. ”

Okay, so it wasn’t so dramatic but the narrative shows how social capital created between members of a society pays off in the long run. I had known the friend who lent me the money for 10 years and had been in constant touch with him. Had it not been for those many light weight and seemingly inconsequential interactions over the years, he wouldn’t have so readily lent me the money. Yet, when I am having those interactions it is not with the sole objective that it will pay me back in the long run. And I think, this is the way marketers have to approach the social web as well. They need to stop thinking in terms of heavy advertising and promotion with a tactical short term objective and start having small conversations with their audience on common topics of interest which gradually snowball into increasing the brand’s social capital. And then there will come a day, when the consumer would happily part with his money for your brand.

Eddie Murphy- Delirious

I wasn’t a big Eddie Murphy fan till I chanced upon this video today. The guy knows how to hold an audience..BY THEIR BALLS. I not only noticed how he draws his influences from his predecessors like Richard Pryor but also how two particular jokes have an uncanny resemblance to Russell Peters’ “Somebody gotta get a hurt real bad” act and incident in another Peters’ show where he takes the case of a guy who got his kid to the show. Watch and spot the similarity.