Phil Wright is the Director of creative comms agency WrightObara.

By definition the term ‘social currency’ suggests it has an implicit value. But as with everything in life, to realise this value takes effort. But how can a business start to create - and benefit from - social currency?

It’s my experience that businesses know that they should be engaging in social media, but most aren’t sure why or how to go about it. Up until recently most social engagement has been an extension of a brand’s above the line campaign, a drive to collect ‘likes’ or an attempt to go ‘viral’ with a humorous but ultimately juvenile stunt. This isn’t social currency.

Pass it on

Social currency is the extent to which people share their knowledge, passion or affiliation to a brand in their everyday lives. And the key part of this definition is that “people share”. It’s not about a brand shouting into the wind hoping someone will notice them. It’s about creating seeds that people can latch onto and then share with their networks, online or offline.

Think of it as the Pay it Forward system. In the 2001 Warner Bros film a young boy explains how an idea can quickly spread if each person passes it on to just three people - very soon it grows exponentially. In terms of PR and marketing agencies it’s about getting your brand ingrained in someone’s psyche so that they want to share it.

Creating stories is a great place to start. Good storytelling engages the audience. You can create strong characters that are easy to remember, edge of the seat dramas that need to be resolved or emotional roller coasters that can trigger deep-rooted feelings.

Whatever you do, the idea is to plant a seed that gets people talking. “The only thing worse than being talked about, is not being talked about.” Oscar Wilde

Hmm...interesting

What aspects of you, or your brand, are interesting? In order to get someone to talk about you, there has to be interest. As Seth Godin would put it: you need to be “remarkable" – that is something that people will want to remark-upon. Each of us has a story to tell; how you got to where you are, how your company came to be, or how you and your team fulfil a need in a unique way.

There are countless ways to be of interest, encouraging engagement and giving your audience something to talk about. You could post “how-to” educational content, or a dramatic what-would-happen-if scenario. You could ask your audience for help or their opinions, share compelling insights or some fun facts.

Jonah Berger in his best-selling book, Contagious: Why Things Catch On describes word of mouth marketing as more than 10 times as effective as traditional advertising, for two reasons: it is trusted and it is targeted. “We are more likely to trust our friends. And when we share, we select people who we think would find that given piece of information most relevant. So, word of mouth tends to reach people who are actually interested in the thing being discussed.”

Brand Building

Creating social currency is great way to help build a brand as it gives a tremendous opportunity to convey your brand’s personality. Rather than focussing solely on a product or service, you can share your passions and give an insight into your brand's character.

Social currency building can be highly targeted, perhaps an in-depth interview with the product designer, to an audience interested in why your product ended up like it did. This information is like gold dust.

They’ll delight in recounting to their friends about “the thinking that went into getting that detail just right” - they’ll become an ambassador - a brand fan. And who wouldn’t want to cultivate those?

What are some of the best examples you’ve seen of brands building their social currency?