Colonel Hatherence leaned over toward Fassin.—This kudos thing, then, she sent. It is really how they calculate their worth?
—I'm afraid so.
(from The Algebraist, by Iain M. Banks)

In Banks' sci-fi epic, the Dwellers—a gas-giant-inhabiting species who live billions of years—trade on a concept called "kudos." Not money, exactly, but something more akin to reputation points or "coolness." Kudos are accrued by associating with or doing favors for other Dwellers who have lots of kudos. On the other hand, as one character points out, the harder you work for your kudos, the less they're worth.

In the world of social networking, kudos is the new currency.

How do you acquire kudos? By being helpful, sharing knowledge, being professional, authentic, insightful, humorous or thought-provoking, and of course, hanging out with people who have kudos.

Kudos are acquired by being visible. Being visible means you're well-connected, and being well-connected means you must be worth knowing.

Kudos are not the same thing as karma. Karma (in its popularized sense) is doing good deeds because the universe seeks balance and eventually good will come back to you in some form. Kudos are more directly about personal gain, just not at the expense of others.

Don't be greedy, there's plenty of kudos to go around.

I've read articles that tell you it's okay to shamelessly self-promote 10% of the time on Twitter as long as you are being helpful the rest of the time. This is too obvious a tactic to gain kudos. As soon as I figure out that's what you're doing, you've already lost kudos for it. Instead, make 90% of your intention to help others, with 10% acknowledgment that you may gain from it.

Kudos cannot be gained through the use of tactics, unless your tactic is to be authentic. You can be an authentic asshole and gain kudos.

One of my clients—a management consultant who specializes in aging workforce issues—told me that older employees are often reluctant to use knowledge bases and wikis because they feel that if they give expertise away, they will lose stature. In the kudos economy, the opposite is true. The more you give away, the higher your stature—because it proves you have something to give.

Hoarding knowledge makes you invisible.

Kudos can be acquired through referrals. If my high-kudos friend recommends you, it automatically confers on you unearned kudos. Eventually, you will still have to earn your own kudos, but you're starting from a higher level than if you were a stranger.

Don't work too hard for your kudos. As soon as you care too much for them, the ability to earn them will slip through your fingers. There's nothing less cool than someone who's trying to be cool. Just like cool, kudos can only be acquired through confidence and a certain lack of regard for whether you're earning kudos or not.

Kudos are inherently socialistic. That is, you can only rise so far on kudos because they only work in a relatively small commune. There may be unlimited kudos in the world, but the pool available to you is limited by the number of people you can hope to have an authentic connection with.

In a new network, your currency is worthless. You have to start earning kudos all over again.

[ Kim Bieler wrote this article and she welcomes your comments. ]