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The growing popularity of follow-fests and ‘if you follow me, I’ll follow you back’ folks has left a sour taste in the mouths of sincere users of social media. With the growing mistrust of the authenticity of the people behind social media accounts, comes an increased difficulty to gain followers and expand social reach online. As a result we will see many people filtering those they follow or accept as friends, and an overall shrinking of legitimate social circles.

Increase of social media budgets as companies embrace.

54% of businesses currently block social media usage in the workplace, and we are seeing this number shrink as more companies realize the utility of social media. A growing number of businesses will encourage their employees not to endlessly scroll their Facebook wall in distraction, but rather utilize social media to spread good news, conduct research, and learn. According to Forrester Research, social media marketing is expected to grow at an annual rate of 34% between 2010 and 2014. That’s double the average growth rate of 17% for all other forms of online marketing. 53% of all small to medium sized organizations will increase their social media spending in light of the recession, and an increasing number of businesses are moving away from TV and radio advertising completely.

The rise of video.

Google and Facebook are the two most visited sites on the web, and YouTube is neck-and-neck with Yahoo! for third place. Currently the second largest search engine in the English speaking world, YouTube has proven to be an especially valuable resource for users looking to learn. Thousands of DIY guides, demos, and informative videos are hosted on YouTube weekly, and not only are they proving to be a valuable resource, but also to be a highly effective way to spread a message, grow a following, or expand an organization’s reach online.

Search engines incorporate social media signals.

Search engines have already shown us that they hold peer-reviewed and peer-generated content from sites like Yelp and Twitter in high regard, and in some cases we have already seen the emergence of social signals on search engine results pages. In 2011, we will see the wall between social media and search engines crumble as data from social media spews into search results. Soon we will find that top pages are appearing on search engine results pages based on the interactions between and among our peers, in addition to the traditional metrics and algorithms used by search engines. Google has introduced “Shared by” and Bing has begun displaying “Liked” via Facebook in some search results, and we will continue to see this trend grow as increasing importance is placed on peer-to-peer interaction and peer-reviewed content in search.

Incorporating social metrics with overall business goals.

Common goals for businesses of all sizes include sales, revenue and profit, customer satisfaction, and environmental friendliness, but as more companies incorporate social media into their marketing and relationship management strategies, there will be an emergence of related goals built into overall success metrics. Growth of social media following by a certain number and increase in on-page interaction by percentage are two examples that will be growing in popularity.

Growth in support of appreciation and spreading goodwill.

If a customer has a bad experience, they will tell all of their friends; if a customer has a good experience, they will tell some of their friends; and if a customer has a personal interaction and is rewarded, they are likely to evangelize. Businesses already leveraging social media realize how easy it is to gain incredibly personal and beneficial relationships with their followers. Rewarding followers for a ‘like’ or the promotion of a business’ page has been a growing trend for the past couple of years, and it will continue to grow well beyond 2011.

Sources: Forrester, Mashable, Businessweek, RWW, EMarketer.com, Alexa