Social Media 2011: What the Experts Predict

The start of a new year is a great time to see what gurus predict. I used Google to search for "social media 2011" and here are some of the forecasts and future trends that turned up in the results:

• Privacy issues will stick around. Neither the industry nor government quite knows how to solve this, says Gigaom, in part because the stakes are so very high. My take: A couple of high-profile privacy slips will fuel consumer outrage and push regulators and the industry into making decisions in 2011.
• Social media will be more important than corporate Web sites. As ZDNet notes, customers and stakeholders who want the latest news or developments will check a company's Facebook page or Twitter feed. My take: Corporate sites will still be vital for expanded info and archived details that some stakeholders want or need once they've checked the Facebook page.
• Location-based services will grow. Social Media Explorer points this out, and who could disagree? The real question is, how quickly will they grow?
• Mobile-based social media and marketing will grow. So says Social Media B2B, and I concur, of course.
• Watch for more Tweet-a-thons. Reuters added this to its list of social media trends 2011, and I'm quite sure this will happen. As Twitter loses its novelty, however, I wonder how effective these will be in raising bags of money for good causes.