The connection economy has caused a shift and I have watched this shift in myself, my colleagues, and the marketplace. I call it “The New Culture of Generosity”.

Against popular opinion, I don’t believe that social media promotes narcissism. It certainly doesn’t reward it.

While there will always be exceptions, the people who are “takers” are not successful at attracting followers, supporters, or readers. Instead, Pinterest, YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, and blogs reward “givers”—people who are generous.

The implication of this cultural shift is that the more generous you are, the more you and your organisation will succeed online. In other words, the more you give:

• the more supporters and followers you will attract
• the more people you will influence
• and the more conversations you will lead

Here are four quick ways you can be generous with your social media channels:

1. Share recommendations. Provide links to the things you find remarkable  This can include blogs, news articles, books, music, and movies.
2. Share your expertise.  Everybody is an expert about something. Everybody has a passion, a hobby and a cause. And your expertise could be a big help to others. Your friends and perfect strangers alike will appreciate it.
3. Share your connections. If you don’t know the answer or don’t feel like you can help someone, try to connect them to someone who can.
4. Share your empathy. Sometimes people just need your empathy. You can remind people that they are not alone. All by itself, this is an act of generosity.

This is just the beginning. Have you noticed that other people willingly share their resources, encouragement, and even humour. It is also the basic principle Cause & Effective is based foundered on. So what about you?

Author – This post is by Patrick McFadden. Patrick is Cause and Effective’s marketing advisor and the author of the Indispensable Marketing Blog. You can also follow him on Twitter. If you would like to guest post on B-Cause, check out our guidelines here.