Doing the Socials

Creating Social Value and Social Capital

I have no idea what many young people are talking about when they mention, ’the socials’ though I believe it has something to do with promoting an organisation or yourself through things like, You tube, Instagram, Facebook and the like. It is a science all to itself. It is not something our consultancy are expert in, but there are many great exponents of the art.

We are interested though in two other types of social activity. Creating Social Value and Social Capital. The former relates to what every organisation today sets out to deliver over and above generating income and profit. The latter related metric, to the value that resides in well-functioning communities. This can refer to the positive impact your organisation makes on its local community, supply chain or even the wider world. It also has an internal meaning, related to the strength and quality of an organisation’s own working community and culture. People tend to like to work for organisations with healthy levels of internal social capital and investors, to invest in them, assuming they are also growing and turning a profit, or look likely to. Accumulating social capital takes investment over time and requires a strategy.

Social impact is the S in ESG. Most organisations are quite good at understanding what drives their environmental footprint and taking actions to measure and track it. CO2 emissions can be measured and tracked. Social impact footprints are harder to measure, and it is harder to understand scientifically the actions required to improve the footprint. However, there are ways to do it, and we could help if you have a mind to do it.