ClickZ articulates 21 predictions and trends for 2011 over here, and some of them are pretty interesting. Here are a few of their predictions, and a few of my responses:

9. More and more, a marketer’s job will be focused on getting a consumer to publicly rate a product or service.

That’s a smart one. It dovetails with, I think, how companies ought to be thinking more and more about PR: It’s not so much about telling your story as it is providing the tools for the most passionate members of your audience to tell your story.

17. Fifty-four percent of all companies block social media in the workplace. Expect this number to decline as companies start to leverage their employees more and more as media outlets.

I disagree. I think the number will rise. Individual understanding of the potential of social media may rise, but by and large companies as entities don’t get it — and the ones that do are few and far between. The concern about short-term lost productivity is greater than the understanding of long-term social media gains. I think it’ll be more a case of the 80-20 rule, so expect that 54 to edge further toward the 80 neighborhood.

20. We will see more social capabilities integrated into e-readers.

Nope. We’ll see the e-reader market collapse as people embrace tablets — which can do everything an e-reader can, and then some. Okay, maybe that’ll take till 2012 or 2013, but you heard it here first.

21. The trend of marketing dollars moving from traditional media to digital media continues at a rapid pace.

No duh.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 5th, 2011 at 3:45 pm and is filed under Internet Stuff, Marketing Stuff, Social Media.