Social Capital Cost is what you lose when your actions directly affect a community. Its the number of people that block your page from their news feed when you promote products. Its the unsubscribes on your podcast when you have a new sponsor. Its the whine thread on a forum about the adsense ads.
In two minutes of searching, I could not find anyone else using this phrase in this context, so I call dibs. Sorry, its mine now. It is a very useful concept and I think in an environment when everyone still seems to be discussing engagement, co-creation and the rest of this vast pool of catch phrases and buzzwords,it is worth examining.
Social media spend needs to create a return for business. If there is no return, there is no point, and the resources are just better spent on developing product or servicing customers. Social media can be a part of this too, but that is not the point of this post.
Social Capital Cost should be assumed to be a cost of seeking a return from a community. If the return outweights the value of the lost Social Capital, you are ahead, if it is lower you are not. Social Capital Cost can be seen in lose of existing attention and in a lose of ability to build the community.
Sometimes the cost is acceptable, sometimes it is not.
Ceratosaurus 