Giving good digital

Edward O Wilson is the double Pulitzer prize winning American biologist and is known as the 'the father of sociobiology'. He's had an illustrious 40 year long career at Harvard and his latest book is called The Social Conquest of Earth. 

'Eusociality' is the key word at the heart of this book and a 'eusocial' species is one where individuals go against their selfish interests. Advanced Eusociality is only found in ants, bees and termites and the conventional evolutionary theory is called 'kin selection', which maintains that individuals only behave in an altruistic manner to relatives, in order that their own genes (selfish gene) will benefit; however, it's now believed by Wilson that their is a more inclusive 'group selection' theory, that favours groups working together, regardless of how closely related their members are, whether it's bees swarming around the queen or prehistoric groups of great apes or hominids banding together in groups of around thirty (according to paleontologists).

So what has this got to the with the web? And seemingly more remotely, what does this have to do with brands? Well I believe an awful lot.

Much of the web is based on 'reciprocity', Mark Schaefer devotes a chapter on it in his excellent book, Return on Influence. The idea that you scratch my back and I'll scratch yours, you follow me and I'll follow you, you like some of my content and I'll like some of yours, you tweet me and I'll tweet you and so forth. Yet, I believe the most successful brands and individuals in the social web are acting in a 'eusocial', selfless-manner;  they are giving gifts of content, advice, expertise and support and they are doing this for the benefit of their social group or audience. They are genuinely thinking about this first, not about self-promotion. But,  I hear you say,  doesn't that just lead to them getting more likers, more tweets, a greater social score, - well yes it does but my point is that they didn't set out with this as their primary goal, they approached the social web wanting to make an altruistic contribution to a group which would benefit all.

So I believe a brand or individual must ask themselves, what can I can contribute to to my group in a eusocial way; from this will come true engagement and from this may also arise influence. This is what I call the 'value-exchange' – asking someone to expend their social capital on your brand must be matched by true altruism and not just a reciprocal mindset, from this will grow genuinely great social brands with a strong and meaningful bond with their network. 

When I read case studies of brands going to Klout  wanting to identify key influencers, so they can get them to try their products or services, it smacks to me of old school promotional marketing dressed up in a modern guise. It sounds like a shortcut – what can I squeeze from my target audience, rather than engagement in a dialogue. That's not to say I don't believe Klout is an extraordinary business which can be used highly effectively but not necessarily the way I keep reading about it

To quote Edward O Wilson, " Our instincts still desire the tiny, united-band networks that prevailed during the hundreds of millennia preceding the dawn of history. Our instincts remain unprepared for civilization'.

The wonderful thing is how the social web is beginning to break down some of those instincts and brands who are prepared to push the boundaries can be at the vanguard of this revolution.