How strong is your social networking social capital?

Many have heard the phrase "social capital", while it has been attributed to Robert Putnam's 2000 bestseller, Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community, the phrase may have actually first appeared in 1916 in a book by Lyda Hanifan, who discussed how neighbors could work together to oversee schools. In either case, social capital in part has to do with the collective strengths of a group of people to work together for a common cause/issue.

So, how does "social capital" relate to your social networking efforts? A form of social capital has taken hold in a WEB 2.0 world. By your network of followers and fans re-tweeting, passing along of links and sharing RSS feeds, your social network is putting their resources to work for you. While they may not be providing a direct service to you, there is great benefit to this type of ‘word of mouth’ advertising.

In simple terms, the number of people following you on Twitter and the number of fans you have on your Facebook fan page is of little consequence if those people don't support your cause or are not potential consumers for your product.

The size of your network is much larger than you are perhaps aware of and holds great potential. For example, I have 240 LinkedIn connections, in total they are linked to more than 1.9 million people. 230 of my connections fall into one of four categories: media, clients, business partners, business partners of clients or professionals whom I respect and like to keep tabs on. The folks I am linked to, all have the potential to provide me with some social capital.

If you’re a small business owner selling widgets geared to men 45 and older, your Twitter page will be of minimal help if all you have following you are 19 year old girls listening to Taylor Swift. If you are a non-profit looking to get media coverage for a series of events, it would be beneficial to make sure you are "friends" with or follow television and newspaper reporters.

Size doesn't necessarily mean results.

On Twitter and Facebook, take time to research users who talk about or are likely to "re-tweet" topics related to your product or organization. Check out www.nearbytweets.com. From here you can search within a geographical area for active tweeters and see what they are tweeting about.

Of course there are scenarios where the sheer size of your network does matter. If you own a sandwich shop and have daily specials, Tweeting that daily special to your allegiance of fans is a great, cost effective way to get the word out. However, if your "followers" are not within a reasonable distance of your restaurant, reaching out and finding more local followers should be a priority.

So in short, in many cases the quality of your fans, friends and followers is as important as the sheer number of each. Look at your marketing and business plan, is your target audience part of your social networking groups? Do they provide you with social capital? If yes, well done, keep up the good work! If not, take a step back and evaluate your social marketing efforts.