It’s not just social media. Create a killer product, expect knock-offs. I used to say that you truly haven’t made it until you have been knocked off. It happens with consumer products, food products, you name it. Imitation is the best form of flattery right? Monopolies in social media? Facebook has an argument, but that’s about it. Everything else is fair game right now.
We’re a demand society. This is the “Consumers of Content” generation.
Networks, apps, aggregators, blogs, microblogs-copy what works, tweak it a little, or not, and see what market share you can pull. Make it just as good as… and release it. Make it better than…and release it. Because social media is “still” new and still growing, the thinking can be that there is always someone new coming to the party that may or may not be reading content for the first time, seeing a site for the first time and using an app for the first time. So everyone has a chance to succeed; but what seperates the real thing, the solid thing or the big dog from the one who just showed up trying to capitalize or catch the big wave? Sometimes money, sometimes nothing. It might just be an issue of WOM, Buzz or SEO and search.
In some cases the noobie or the one coming to the party late has a better chance to get it right. Take what they did and do it better, or just rip it off and call it something different. The noobie has a chance to appeal to the noobie.
From the standpoint of the blogger. How fresh can or could their content be? In social media, is it possible that what they are saying is fresh? Or is it just a fresh coat of paint, lipstick on a pig. Repeat the obvious and give it a fresh name and claim it as your own.
Why does history repeat itself even in social media? How many times can we read the 10 ways to use Twitter for your business? Because we will always be suckers for bulleted lists. History shows that we love the compelling headline with the notion that what we might read is new, insightful and helps us leverage what we do in the social media. We’re hoping for fresh.
Who’s doing fresh in social media right now? What makes them fresh? What blogger is still a must read in social media? What are we looking for as readers these days in the world of social media? Is it all just about being sucked into another top 10? Can you resist reading a top ten?
Direct Marketing Observations 
Hi Marc,
I think you’re a tad cynical today. Sure, there are a lot of “me too’s,” rehashed memes, and recycled tools. But the best ideas and innovations don’t happen in a vacuum. They are iterations of what’s come before.
Social media tools facilitate connectivity and conversation. And that conversation facilitates the transfer of knowledge, ideas, information. Which at least offers the promise of innovation.
The best bloggers either teach me something I don’t know, point out stuff I should read or know, or give me ideas to ponder, apply and/or expand on (in my business, on my blog, or across the rest of my life)
As to “what blogger is still a must read in social media?”: since I’m replying here I guess that means that answer is You. 🙂
Well, great content will be repeated and recycled and those top 10 lists will keep on coming, over and over, but I guess the hope here is that if someone is publishing a top 10 list, perhaps they are adding their wisdom to it, a new spin on it, new information to it.
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