You’ve heard all about how everything is going digital, and how social networking is enabling unprecedented disruption in many industries. In the midst of such a rapid change, it’s more important than ever to retain key ideas and values, like the importance of cultivating trust and reputation as you build and boost relationships with your community. The amazing transformative power they hold is enough to compel anyone to find out more, and when you do, you may just be positively surprised to learn this isn’t just the flavour of the month.
Isn’t it all just a fad? In our time, dominant discourse has it that everything is going digital. We’re told that even things as trivial as sliced bread can and should be disrupted, a process which can be enabled by the internet and the use of social networking sites. Yet, with the increasingly easy access to such platforms where we can write or talk to our heart’s content, crucial ideas might be getting lost. First and foremost, the idea that truly effective contact takes doing, instead of just writing and talking.
How would you like your new tools to work?
While social networking sites may allow us to tell the stories we think matter, they alone cannot represent the main building blocks of our stories. We’ve reached a stage where merely adding someone to our contact lists isn’t enough. If we already know how easy it can be to make a first contact, we should want our next generation of social tools to help us earn the right to talk to our new connections again, starting and maintaining positive and enriching conversations. This is to say that the focus of our new social tools should be on helping us recover some of the more tangible aspects that would naturally characterise social relationships, upcycling them to fit more current lifestyles.
Naturally, one of the most positive ways to gain trust is through reputation
We shouldn’t want our new tools to merely take us from one kind of social networking bureaucracy to the next, but rather to help us break down digitally imposed barriers, allowing us to seize the value of our networks.
Value in reputation
Like in more conventional settings, trust must still be an important anchor for social relationships. Naturally, one of the most positive ways to gain trust is through reputation. Hence, a new generation of social tools should facilitate the process of recording and tracking our own reputation and that of people around us. Linking a positive approach to reputation with the potentialities of social networking should mean trust will start gaining value outside its initial environment, turning into an asset we can use to gain cooperation from others, even people we’ve never met.
The beauty of the concept of the currency of trust, is that it is intrinsically decentralised
What is implied here, is that we’re at the right moment to start perceiving trust as a hard currency that can make the difference between success and frustration. The beauty of the concept of the currency of trust, is that it is intrinsically decentralised – through networking technologies, anyone can become a centre of trust in any given field. Anyone can now generate a flow of reputation capital, which eventually materialises as power or influence. (Reputation capital, is essentially the value of an individual’s intentions, capabilities and values across communities and marketplaces). We might now have just enough evidence to believe it will become the most powerful form of capital in the 21st century, rendering obsolete some 20th century staples such as credit scores, resumes and headhunting services.
Not just the flavour of the month
Sceptics might argue the new emphasis on trust won’t eliminate danger, especially when strangers are involved. Just think of those unlikely e-mails you’ve received – a Nigerian prince would like to share his wealth with you, but is he really who he says he is? Why should you trust whoever sent you that message?
Still, there should always be a fair measure of caution punctuating our interactions, it is important to acknowledge reputation and trust are contextual. Your neighbours might be trustworthy in one thing, but that won’t mean you could trust them with everything. That’s why there are people you can trust to babysit, others you can trust write articles about the currency of trust, or to bake cakes and fix home appliances, for example.
Trust is not a rigid commodity. And that is why it cannot be bought or sold; it needs to be built and earned
In sum, trust is not a rigid commodity. And that is why it cannot be bought or sold; it needs to be built and earned. Realistically, it may never come to replace cash, but if we want to actively participate in our communities, the implications of the currency of trust to our daily lives can no longer be ignored. Trust me on this one – trust is not just the flavour of the month.
Guest post written by Helena Palha.
Helena Palha works as a community manager at Fajoya Oy, a Helsinki-based startup dedicated to help people get the best out of their relationships by creating easy and fun opportunities for collaborative interaction.