Social Currency: The Raconteur’s Investment Portfolio

Abstract

“What is the most resilient parasite? Is it bacteria, a virus, an intestinal worm? It’s an idea…resilient, and highly contagious. Once an idea has taken hold of the brain, it's almost impossible to eradicate.” (Inception, 2010) Social media, with its free-flowing current of “ideas”, has become the virtual playground for marketers determined to build communities around organizations, brands, or new products. Value is best created when firms engage customers in ways that nurture community. Experts agree that the ideal strategy for inviting customers to community is to tell a provocative story…the more compelling the story, the greater will be the odds for “inception” of the idea. Event analysis for twenty, strategic corporations in the healthcare/ wellness and fashion sectors shows a systematic relationship between key story-telling metrics, and significant increases in Twitter followers (new members of the community. A powerful observational result is that returns on social media investment are greatest when tweets focus on live or digital events, particularly those which appeal to a wide-ranging collection of communities sharing common interests, values, and aspirations.