Social currency is a term that has been cropping up frequently on social networks lately. As brands become increasingly aware that they need to incorporate social media into their strategies in order to meet the expectations of their modern customers, the concept of social currency surfaces.

As with most concepts that deal with relationships among people, the idea of social currency is nothing new. While the term sounds smartly crafted for the Digital Age, its roots go back to social capital, a concept created by Pierre Bourdieu, a French sociologist, anthropologist and philosopher.

Social capital is a sociological concept which refers to connections within and between social networks. It is concerned with the value of social relations and the role of cooperation and confidence to get collective or economic results.

Social networks existed long before the Internet.  While the online aspect of our social interactions introduces a set of unique relationship dynamics, the essence of these relationships is still the same. When we engage via social networks, we are using what we have to obtain what we want or need.  This exchange involves social currency.

Social currency can mean different things to different people, and it can vary across mediums, as well. For example, when we’re engaging with friends on Facebook, we may have a compliment or joke to offer, while we’re looking for emotional support or a sense of belonging within our groups of friends.  There is a give and take relationship.  The same relationship exists between businesses and consumers.  An example would be Zappos providing excellent customer service through quick response times on Twitter, while the customers receive an increased sense of trust and satisfaction, which of course can turn into increased sales for Zappos.

It is helpful to think of social currency as a cyclical relationship between two or more parties, especially when brands and customers are involved.  When all parties are invested in the relationship, all can benefit from the social currency exchanged.

If you want to make the most of your social networking experiences online, it’s important to establish what you have to give and what you are looking to receive.  The next step is to create strategies which utilize social currency in effective and efficient ways.

So, ask yourself the following questions:  What is my brand’s social currency?  What are my customers in need of?  What is the relationship between the two; how can we make this work?

The opening of luxury flagship stores, such as the Louis Vuitton flagship store on Bond Street in London in 2010, is symptomatic of a trend among fashion houses to establish a more permanent presence in influential cities around the world. Now a model that seems half brand marketing and half conceptual art, the idea of a “flagship” or large scale atelier has evolved significantly since the foundation of the first luxury fashion houses over 150 years ago.

Yet, as we enter the second decade of the 21^st century, what does the concept of a flagship store represent, particularly in the multi-country model that many companies adopt as well as in the face of an increasingly digital-oriented retail market for fashion?

It’s funny to think that the luxury goods giant Vuitton had its origins in humble suitcase design. Louis Vuitton was a licensed layetier, or travelling case manufacturer, who was hired by Napoleon III to design luggage for his wife, Empress Eugénie. From this base, Vuitton began marketing his label from his studio on Rue Neuve des Capucines in Paris in the mid-1850s and eventually opened his first store on Oxford Street in London in 1885. The Vuitton building on the Champs-Elysées, which was spectacularly renovated in 2005, did not open until 1913, by when the company had become the largest travel goods manufacturer in the world.

Vuitton, then, have come full circle, launching their “most luxurious store to date” on Bond Street in London, only a few streets away from their first retail space. But, what does this new store signify for the brand and for the luxury market in general? The 2005 refurbishment of the Champs-Elysées store established an updated presence, confirming the brand’s permanent position on the elite roster of luxury brand stores on what is arguably the most famous shopping street in the world.

An article from the BBC suggested that the depreciation of the Euro has decreased costs and increased sales for luxury goods manufacturers whose primary business is overseas in the United States and Asia. As the BBC points out, this trend suggests that part of the impetus behind the choice of London for Vuitton’s new flagship store is to target the tourist and ex-pat market, which continues to grow.

Yet, almost in contrast to any sensible market-driven purpose, the new Vuitton store has started a quiet media frenzy on its own simply because it’s new, gorgeous, and Vuitton. The name, not surprisingly, sells as much as its product, presentation, and store location. Why? It is luxury or haute couture, we say, which represents the culmination of money, power, beauty, and fame. In short, luxury is a tantalizing, unreachable, yet desirable aesthetic.

Jean Bergeron, former president of the Comité Colbert in France, defines luxury as “part dream, but its reality is excellence…. Yes, the superfluous is essential and luxury is the stuff of dreams. Dreams are what create all human adventures. It is not money, but dreams.” (Translated from a brochure from L’Agence Regionale d’Information Strategique et Techologique de Paris)

Of course, the popular conception of haute couture as representing all luxury fashion is a misnomer. In fact, the French actually own the rights to the term haute couture. Technically, it refers to custom-order fashion, as opposed to ready to wear (prêt-a-porter). In France, to qualify as haute couture, a fashion house has to meet a set of qualifications and then be approved by the Chambre de commerce et d’industrie de Paris in order to call themselves true artisans of haute couture.

Technicalities aside, then, the new Vuitton store is a further embellishment, in a way, in the fleurissance or flowering of its international brand. The concept of a flagship store is a living cultural artifact: a way for luxury brands to make their mark, setting up a type of cultural permanence. This seems comforting in the face of so much impermanence in the virtual world established by online media. Even the multiplicity of flagships, i.e. a company having “flagship” stores in select cities across the world, is arguably a quiet form of cultural diplomacy, even if from a profit-driven standpoint.

So, the next time you’re in airport duty-free or at a shopping mall or on the high street and spy the characteristic Vuitton “LV” logo, think of luxury and admire its sheer necessity.

It is with great sadness that Jessica and I write about the loss of Steve Jobs, one of the most influential innovators of our time. This morning, we were talking about our first experiences with the Apple brand and how it has truly impacted our lives. So, we thought it fitting to send up a digital thank you note to Steve Jobs.

“Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma, which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.” — Steve Jobs

Jessica Quillin Remembers

As a child, I remember computers being everywhere. My father, a medical physicist, worked with massive computers that had to live in their own air-conditioned rooms. At home, we had devices of all sorts from a teletype that was defunct even in 1982 to an early IBM that impressed me because one could make it talk. But, these machines seemed bulky and unfriendly.

However, everything changed in 1984, just before I entered the fourth grade. One day in early September, my father brought home a new computer, a Macintosh. Even though I was only nine, I remember being impressed with its compact, geometric shape. Like many children, I played educational games on the little black-and-white screen that seemed infinitely more fun than our IBM.

Fast forward nine years and by my freshman year of college, I was lucky enough to have my own Mac SE. It was a state-of-the-art powerhouse that would let me type files, save them, and print them. For a college student who did everything at the last minute, the machine literally changed my life.

As an adult, Apple has continued to revolutionize with various amazing gadgets like iPods that talk to my running shoes, iPhones that amuse my husband while I’m shopping, and iPads with applications that can record every minute of my newborn baby’s existence.

While we now may be used to the immediate gratification that technology can provide, we have Steve Jobs to thank for giving it personality and making it fun. Thanks to Steve Jobs, it is a brave, new, interconnected world where anything is possible if you set your mind to it.

Krista Peck Remembers

In 1984, my beloved fourth grade teacher, Mrs. Tyler, announced to the class that we had our own computer in the classroom. Pointing to the smart looking device topping a sturdy table tucked neatly in an inviting corner of the room, I laid my eyes on the Macintosh. My classmates and I were instantly in awe of this amazing machine. I remember playing educational games on it, quickly understanding how to use it. I was hooked with this engaging new thing.

While many schools offered Macs in the classroom, it took some of us a little longer to incorporate them into our homes. Our family didn’t spend a ton of money on tech stuff… We had lived so long without computers that we didn’t find owning one a necessity.

Then I entered college. With a word processor. Pecking away at that prehistoric contraption, trying to make out what I had just typed on the dim screen which only displayed a few lines… Horrors. After a summer of saving money and convincing my parents that it was a good investment, I entered my sophomore year of college with a Mac. It changed my life.

Now with my iPod, iPhone and iPad, I cannot imagine life without the contributions of Steve Jobs. His vision has truly changed my life–not only making it more enjoyable and efficient, but also reminding me that you should follow your dreams and live life with the passion that drives you.

Thank you, Steve Jobs. Rest in peace.