Structured social capital in Q&A communities is the amount of potential knowledge or resources an individual has based on their connections with others within the community. In an online community, a structured social capital would also involve a connection with multiple sub-communities that are connected to each other via a specific individual. This can be seen in reference to how many participants are direct messaging one specific person to reach someone else (i.e. betweenness centrality).

The greater a participant has a structured social capital (i.e. higher betweenness centrality) and broader network in the community, the more likely they are to be acknowledged as a leader by the other participants in the community.