Content Fatigue and Whatever Happened to the Snake Oil folks in Social Media?

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Full Disclosure-Sometimes I have no clue about what I’m going to write about even after I have clicked on, “new post”. How about you? I have content creation fatigue and frankly I’m tired. Are you tired? Tired of creating content? Tired of reading the same content? Tired or stumped on what you might write today or tomorrow? Do you create content for your blog or  for your company blog? For clients?  I do.  I do it for my site and I instruct clients on what to write, how to write, where to write, and when to write and frankly I’m sometimes overcome with social media writers fatigue.

Today was one of those days where I knew I had to write something but wasn’t sure what to write. Funny thing is, I have so many drafts saved here and I have so many ideas scrawled on napkins, pieces of paper and stored on Evernote-that writing or creating that content should be easy right? And yet at the end of the day, in an ironic twist, this post ends up being about not knowing what to write about…It’s like this post is being reincarnated as George Costanza and Jerry’s Seinfeld’s show about nothing.

Everyone writes about the same thing in social media-sort of

The other half of my fatigue revolves around the hopes that I will read the next great post. I wonder every day, “Does anyone have anything new to say today?” Invariably the answer is yes but I do read a lot of crappy, link-baity blog posts that make me feel dirty for actually wasting my time with it. The good news?  There are some good kickass, up and comer, social media bloggers and writers hittin’ the space every day; but I still think that, “Does anyone have anything new to say in this space?” Seriously. I can’t be the only one thinking this out loud. Am I? Maybe it’s that whole I’m livin in the bubble thing goin on. I’m not sure.

Remember the good ole days when we all used to bash the emergence of the snake oil folks-Whatever happened to those posts?  Maybe a better questions is whatever happened to the social media snake oil folks? But those types of posts were easy to write and easy to read.

Home runs and link bait

Snake oil dude aside, I do love how everyday brings the promise of events that will prompt us to read, write, react and share don’t you? The snake oil folks used to do that. It was easy to get all fired up about what they did or didn’t do and then write about it.  Social media #fails are always easy to read and write about too. Look, we all want to hit that home run of a post that gets commented on and shared out the wazoo.  Sometimes I write posts with the hope that it hits that home run, but I admit it, I struggle. I know you do too. We all do. Want to know a clear indicator for me? When I see any top 10 list in the title of the post. I know that person is fishing for eyeballs and may be struggling for content. Hey it’s OK sometimes because I’m a sucker, as we all are for a top ten list, just not all the time.

So will I snap out of my content fatigue? Maybe I have. I usually bank on some Fortune 500 screwing up in social and getting me back on track..

5 thoughts on “Content Fatigue and Whatever Happened to the Snake Oil folks in Social Media?”

  1. Hey Marc. I know what you mean, with the “it’s all been said” thing. For me, it’s not been as bad on the content creation end because quite frankly, I’ve mostly managed to avoid the sandbox altogether. Except for the period when I was writing on Social Media Explorer, my content creation has been either personal, or on behalf of clients, none of whom were in the social media business.

    For me, the “it’s all been said” problem has been why I’ve found myself dropping off of Twitter again. When my feed begins to resemble the Redundancy Department of Redundancy, it’s time to trim some follows. And follow some new people. Change the mix. I don’t really add people any more based on their being in the “social media industry.” That’s not to say I don’t add social media nerds; just that when I add them, it’s not because of their social media related tweets.

    The variety has helped me have something fresh to say, when I feel like saying something. Because all copywriting is stealing, after all. And blogging is copywriting.

    But I don’t have an AdAge Power 150 blog to maintain. 😉

  3. @Kat I think I just have to quit limiting myself to one specific niche, I mean it does have the word marketing in the title…:) So blogging is stealing??? 🙂 jk

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