Social Currency And How To Manage Your "Budget"

Social currency may not be something you've heard of before but it is a critical part of building a community around your brand.

Social currency is how engaged your followers are with your brand, and how much they respect and value your opinion.

It's not something that is tangible which makes it very hard to measure, but as you begin to find the pulse of your community you'll begin to understand how to manage your "currency".

Many things will affect how much currency you have like:

• How often you email to your list.

• Your level of engagement on social media.

• The ratio of pure content to selling that you're putting out there.

All of these things create a perception around your brand, and set expectations with your followers. You must strike a balance that works for your community in order to sustain your brand.

For example, if you're emailing your list 4 times a week promoting different programs you're probably going to wear out your readers and they'll begin to ignore you.

On the other hand if you're only emailing your list once a week and only offering content your readers may stick around longer because they're getting free information - but you may end up with a list that aren't "buyers".

The balance is struck when you can provide useful information that engages your audience while promoting programs that establish you as the expert they should be working with.

This is why having a promotional partner send a "solo email" is so valuable. They are investing some of their social currency into your business. They are transferring some of that respect they've worked so hard to build, to you by promoting you to their followers.

Most promotional partners don't take this use of social currency lightly, which is why you typically pay a commission on any sales you make from referrals. Your partner is essentially exchanging some of their social currency for tangible commissions.

And this is also why you should be careful about what you're promoting to your list because if you promote something and someone has a bad experience they're going to look to you as the source.

The more social currency you build by engaging your audience with valuable content, promoting programs that establish you as a credible expert, and protecting your list from bad offers the more valuable your business will be as a whole.

In business we typically just focus on the financial investments we're making, but the social investments can have the same impact. So as you make your editorial and marketing calendar take your social currency into consideration and make sure you're spending it wisely.