The year of the rabbit - some predictions

No, I'm not becoming Chinese, I just thought I'd give some predictions for the year ahead now. Mainly because I missed all the prediction stuff last month as I was rather busy.

What are the tools and trends to watch in 2011, now that its over a month old?

Here's my take on the year ahead:

1. There will be another technology along very soon that most of the people here won’t understand or care for how it works. But some of us will use it in our personal lives and in business to build relationships.
2. Companies with large numbers of ‘fans’ or ‘likes’ on Facebook will soon start asking “Ok, so what? How is this helping my relationship with my customer and making me more money?”
3. People will still need to run business and make money… and many will do so just fine without all this stuff
4. Social Media analysis will become a specific skill that employees (mainly agencies) will want to capture, create or cultivate.

Oh, and one prediction for the longer-term while I'm at it... We won’t use the term ‘social media’ in 5 or perhaps even 3 years time. It will simply be a ubiquitous part of how we communicate.

Let's see how these predictions far next Chinese New Year