# Building Social Capital for Social Good [[collections/Livestreams Collection|Livestreams Collection]] | [[collections/Livestream Lessons|Livestream Lessons]] | [[collections/Simple Reminders|Simple Reminders]] *From the livestream broadcast recorded March 10, 2016, in Austin, Texas.* ## Livestream Key Points & Simple Reminders - {{Building social capital for social good means converting recognition, trust, access, and attention into greater capability for other people. An established voice can use its reach to lift emerging voices into view. Influence becomes generous when it is deliberately shared.}} - {{A following can be the cause of success as much as its result. Audiences are often assumed to follow accomplishment, while many careers are built the other way around: a patiently built audience made the accomplishments possible. Understanding that order helps emerging creators invest in community early.}} - {{Attention is transferable. When a trusted, verified account replies to, likes, or reposts an emerging voice, observers notice someone they might have missed. A single response from a respected account can lower the discovery cost for a deserving person.}} - {{Influence-scoring services of the era, such as Klout, measured how others engaged with an account. Interactions from high-scoring accounts lifted the scores of the people they touched, which in turn signaled credibility to anyone evaluating an emerging brand. Treating such scores as one signal among many keeps them in proportion.}} - {{Give the amplifier a reason to share. A message that pairs appreciation with an idea useful to strangers gives a busy account holder justification to repost it to a wide audience. Praise alone flatters; praise plus value travels.}} - {{Write for the third reader. A good public reply speaks to the person addressed and also to the onlookers who will see it later. Adding a clear, useful statement turns a private compliment into a public contribution.}} - {{Conversation outranks broadcast. A three-part exchange, in which one person posts, another responds, and the first replies again, signals deeper engagement than a one-way message. Platforms and people alike read back-and-forth dialogue as real relationship.}} - {{Social proof is compressed relational information. Observers read who answers whom and who is welcomed as evidence about standing and trust. Coalition-reading is an ancient social skill, and public interactions are how modern networks perform it.}} [[reminders/Social Capital/Social Proof Is Compressed Relational Information by Bryant McGill|∴]] - {{Every visible endorsement lowers someone's price of entry. Being seen in friendly exchange with a respected figure makes a newcomer costlier to dismiss and easier to trust. Deliberately extending that signal to deserving people is one of the most useful forms of generosity.}} - {{Engagement at scale needs support. A creator with a large audience cannot personally respond to everyone, so bringing in assistants or systems to keep interactions flowing protects the relationship with the community. Responsiveness is a commitment worth resourcing.}} [[reminders/Leadership/Responsiveness Is Worth Resourcing by Bryant McGill|∴]] - {{Early adoption of a rising platform is an investment. New platforms reward the people who learn them while they are still uncrowded, even when the interface feels confusing at first. Asking younger users for help is a perfectly good way to learn.}} - {{Prime the pump. A new account grows fastest when a loyal community follows and engages at the start, much as a motorcycle needs a kick to start its engine. Once momentum builds, the same reach can be turned back toward lifting everyone who helped.}} - {{Experience compounds across platforms. A team that has grown large audiences on one network understands how to grow on the next. Cross-platform presence also keeps social capital from becoming captive to a single interface.}} [[reminders/Social Capital/Cross-Platform Experience Compounds by Bryant McGill|∴]] - {{Syndication extends a community's reach. Feeding members' strongest posters and quotes into an RSS-based distribution system, and out to connected blogs and accounts, carries their work far beyond their own followers. Infrastructure built once can lift many voices.}} - {{Quality earns a place in the pipeline. As members' posters and writing improve, they become eligible for broader syndication and sharing on larger accounts. Craft and access grow together.}} - {{Simple tools lower the cost of amplification. Reposting apps and built-in sharing features let community members pass along each other's work in seconds. Teaching these small mechanics multiplies how often good work gets shared.}} - {{Live streaming invites new formats. Multiple phones, guests calling in from different places, and real-time comments create an interactive show that feels unscripted and alive. Experimenting with the format is how a medium discovers what it can do.}} - {{Learning in public is part of the charm. Discovering a new feature mid-broadcast, or admitting confusion about an app, makes a teacher relatable and invites the audience to learn alongside. Expertise can be shown through curiosity as well as polish.}} - {{Levity keeps people engaged during serious work. Humor about social media overload or everyday life gives an audience a breather and shows the human side of a public figure. Balance between serious and light sustains a community over time.}} - {{Focus can mean declining invitations. Turning down high-profile events to stay home and create protects the work that made the invitations possible. Knowing where one's energy belongs is part of success.}} - {{Get an opportunity, share an opportunity. Each advance can create a new path for someone else, keeping a network from reproducing scarcity at every level. Open-sourcing what works multiplies its impact.}} - {{Hoarded social capital becomes brittle. Influence kept only for oneself gives the network little reason to protect or renew it, while shared influence produces allies, goodwill, and a more resilient platform. Generosity is a durable strategy.}} [[reminders/Social Capital/Hoarded Social Capital Becomes Brittle by Bryant McGill|∴]] - {{The purpose of social capital is to increase what the network can accomplish. Recognition becomes consequential when it moves knowledge, opportunity, and visibility toward people who can use them well. Social capital for social good is attention put to work for others.}} > [!info]- > ![[resources/livestreams/orig/livestream-building-social-capital-for-social-good--ls-8271c68c4e2a.jpg]] > > ![[shared/parts/About Livestreams|About Livestreams]]