In “Social” Anything, there are leaders and followers. Which demographic do you think is growing rapidly?

Forrester Research Data Creators vs. Joiners Chart

Just like on the playground in elementary school, someone has to be the team captain and the rest have to be picked from a line-up of potential augments.  Unfortunately that line-up is getting awfully long in the world of emerging media, whereas the captains, inevitably, are garnering more and more social clout.  I’m not saying everyone needs to throw their hat into the ring on a daily basis; however, I do think it’s important to engage yourself on a level above simply sharing others’ content.  Through the clutter of spam messages and “special offers” that comes through my Twitter feed on a daily basis, there are gems of astute wit from insightful people that get buried by the lethargy coming from droves of “followers” and “joiners”.

As a call to action, I ask you to support the thought leaders in Social Media rather than just repeating what all the big sources have to say.  Sure, huge blog and news sites report some very good stories and have tremendous research and creative resources at their disposal, but what separates these bold, new, emerging channels if you’re simply regurgitating what’s on your local news stand.

Let’s make this happen!

-Daniel

P.S.  Thanks to Forrester Research for the great data once again.  If you haven’t heard of these guys, they’re doing a lot of analytic heavy lifting that we all benefit from.