Social Capital

Two weeks ago I spoke with Justin Kozuch about the importance of community and authenticity in building social capital. It was early, and sadly we never got around to answering the main question Justin posed: whether or not there is a process for building social capital, and why community and authenticity are a key component of that process.

The inspiration for our discussion came from a tweet by Judy Gombita – who later took issue with my definition of social capital: “Your access to the information and skill sets of others”. In retrospect – I think Judy is right to take issue with this definition. It’s probably more accurate to define social capital as an assessment of ones value or worth.

That being said, someone’s social capital does in my opinion result in increased access to information and the skill sets of others and can be used as a qualitative means of measurement when assessing your reputation. But I digress, I see the process of building social capital as a cyclical one - the benefits you as an individual may gleam from your worth/skill can in turn help you build your worth/skill even further thus increasing your social capital even further.

So why are authenticity and community important? If you’re starting from scratch you need to prove your worth within appropriate communities. You’ll have a hard time doing so if you aren’t authentic – people tend to have a pretty sophisticated bullshit detector and are much more open to doing business or talking to people they like.

So how is this relevant to this blog? It’s tough to be an aspiring musician these days. While the cost of producing a record has come down, I don’t think anyone needs a reminder about the state of the music business and the low returns one can expect from trying to sell singles or albums. Building social capital by putting yourself out there in the right communities and being authentic will ultimately help you make more contacts and be more productive – hopfully giving you access to the resources you need to keep doing what you’re doing.

That being said, I’m totally in need of an alto sax player to record on my next EP. Who wants to earn a little social capital and help a brother out? :)