Imitation: Flattery or Fakery?

Does the old adage about imitation being the sincerest form of flattery apply in the social media sphere?

On one hand, we measure the success of social media campaigns in retweets and others posting links to our content. On the other side of the argument, look back to the fierce row that errupted on twiter when a group comedians accused TV presenter Keith Chegwin of stealing jokes and passing them off as his own to see that plagiarism and ownership are still issues in social media.

Wheteher or not  imitation can be called a 'sincere' form of flattery, you know you're something of a big deal when someone has gone to the bother of parodying your creation. Quora parody Cwera was one of the hot topic doing the rounds on twitter last week. Tom Scott got there first, poking fun at the impending tsunami of spam that Quora is likely to become as it grows while most of us were still scratching our heads trying to work out how exactly to make the most of our brand new Quora profiles.

So yes, imitation is flattering when it comes to social media. As long as you remember to credit your sources with a hashtag reference.