What To Do With Social Characters

I enjoy playing the social savvy face man type of character. I like characters who are popular, well connected, wise-cracking and downright sexy. In my experience, a lot of game masters aren't really sure what to do with a socially focused character, and this can lead to frustration for the player, who doesn't see a character he loves really being able to shine.

First, let me address what social characters can do in non-social situations.I'm of the firm belief that any type of character can be potentially useful in any type of encounter. You just have to get creative.

Combat: The most obvious flaw in social characters is that they tend to be weak combatants. However, social characters can be particularly useful if the combat is something you know is coming. Social characters can rally reinforcements prior to the combat. They can emotionally bolster allies with inspiring words or performances - an obliging game master should be gracious enough to award a circumstantial bonus of some sort if this is done well. When it comes to actual combat, a social character can do one of the following well:

Distract and Taunt: Not the most manly of actions, but if the enemy is busy trying to cut down an irritating social character who can stay out of harm's way, it gives the combat-oriented party members a chance to strike while the enemy is distracted.
Force Surrender: There have been more than one instance where my social character was able to cut combat short and save lives by persuading a nearly defeated enemy to surrender. Social characters are also particularly good at negotiating terms of surrender that will benefit their side more than the enemy.
Intimidate: Along a similar vein, a socially-focused character can be effective at making enemies nervous and unsure of their own capabilities. Provided the enemies are weak-willed enough, effective intimidation can do everything from weaken enemy attacks to inspiring them to make tactical mistakes.
Coordinate: Because the social character isn't busy trying to dodge blows and find openings, he can serve the party as a strategist. Socially focused characters DO tend to have well developed mental attributes and skills, and these can come in handy when trying to coordinate your allies into a more effective fighting force. Remember, social characters are good at getting others to listen to them.
Be The Voice of Reason: In the heat of battle, a party can sometimes loose sight of what exactly their real goal is. The social character can remind them of that. Often times, it isn't necessary to take out every single enemy in order to continue towards a goal.
Inspire Defection: This can be a little tricky, but if you know your enemy is being coerced into fighting you, and you offer them a sweeter deal, the social character just might turn former low-powered enemies into minions, allies, or informants for the party.
Negotiate Terms of Engagement: Formal combat such as a duel often includes a set time and place for the fight to happen. A social character can arrange things so that the time and place are more advantageous to the party and not the enemy.

Stealth, Sneaking, and Infiltration: Even if a social character isn't particularly stealthy, they can still be useful for these types of missions in the following ways:
Spy: The most obvious way a social character could help would be to act as the party's spy, slipping in alone and passing as one of the enemy in order to sniff out the area. Social characters tend to be very good at lying, acting and conning others into revealing information.
Diversion: As in combat, social characters can distract enemy security forces long enough for the real stealthy party members to get where they need to go.
Getting the Party Inside: This is a staple of espionage and action films - the socially or culturally savvy person does all the talking. All the others just have to wear a disguise and follow her lead.

Magical or Mystical Confrontations: If your party is faced with a more supernatural obstacle like a demon or a magical curse, here's how the social character can help: 
Make a Deal: Most mystical enemies are intelligent enough to interact with socially. The social character can try to cut a devil's bargain, at least long enough for the other party members to betray the pact and slay the enemy. They may even negotiate a deal that involves the enemy voluntarily leaving the story.
Confuse: If your mystic boogie man is from a sufficently different point of origin like the distant past or another dimension, the social character can try to dazzle and overwhelm it with a flood of irrelevant details about the modern world. This is one version of the next type of help.
Stalling for Time: If what the party needs is time to gather the right things to take on the mystical bad guy, the social character can do any number of things to stall for time, from nitpicking arguments to morality debates. Just don't piss the bad guy off too much too fast.
Gather Appropriate Allies or Information: If the mystical obstacle is not sentient, like a doomsday machine, the social character can call on his network of contacts and allies in order to find useful sources of information for the party. He may even be able to scrounge up a specialist NPC who can help the party overcome the problem.

Okay, now for the game-running side. These are things you can put in your game in order to satisfy a player who wants to go the social route:

Make Some Obstacles Socially Focused: Make some of the things that prevent the party from achieving their goal social in nature.
Examples: An incooperative bouncer at a club, a snobby court, a local prejudice revelavnt to the party, general distrust of outsiders.

Include Clues in the Local Culture: Write up a few usefit tidbits of information for the party that the socially-focused character would be the most likely to find.
Examples: The name of the murderer is known to a frightened barkeep, the whereabouts of a magic key is only known by the madam of the local harem, the secret password has to be interrogated out of a stubborn guard.

Let Them Flirt: Sometimes it's easy enough to satisfy a social character if you make him feel sexy. Make the local barmaids want to serve him first. Have the local tavern owners know the character by name as if they were old friends. Play up all the campy romantic stereotypes of a debonaire charmer's effects on local women. Trust me, they'll eat it up.

Make Evil Minions Potential Allies: Works best if you do this from the first chapter of a campaign, so that the social character's player learns and remembers to try his powers of persuasion on low-level enemies. Give your expendable NPCs some potential reason to want to help the party, and allow the social character to try and discover it.

Give Them Allies: Works especially well if the ultimate bad guy is someone the party cannot take down without allies.
Classic Examples to Set Up: Incite a rebellion or prison riot, make a stirring speech that rouses the local militia, wine and dine and romance the lady with power, con the local biker punks into thinking you're one of them.