With all things comes change, and if you’re determined to make positive moves for your business in 2011, there are a few necessary things to keep in mind. More importantly, if you’re using social media as a marketing or communication tool, it’s critical that you add these changes to your strategies to be well prepared.

Here are some changes that are expected to occur in 2011:

1. Changes to the FTC Guidelines: Although the FTC changes may not happen on January 1st, the FTC is known to be looking into this industry for future regulations. The FTC has begun to focus on paid reviews, blogging, and the ethics surrounding traditional bloggers and journalists. If your company is based on interacting and promoting yourself through the Internet, you will need to use these guidelines to conduct business correctly.

2. A neutral network: Have you heard any news about what Verizon and Google plan to do together? If their plan goes accordingly, they are trying to incorporate a paid model into their system. So all you lovely bloggers will not be able to post your content like you have in the past. Reaching people through blogs will no longer be a “free” way. Companies or individuals with substantial amounts of cash will be able to regulate their blogs quickly, so the rest of us poor souls will have to wait. It’s pretty unfair and honestly I never see this happen. There should be something we can do about it, right?

3. Buying in Groups: I’m sure you’ve heard of sites like Groupon before and that’s exactly what I’m talking about. Sites that offer you a greater discount if you involve several people in the purchase process. Groupon has been quite successful in this venture with a gross turnover of $1 billion in sales. Therefore, it is very likely that other sites will take note and implement the same strategies.

4. Sell through social networks: You might be thinking, “Um, what?” but some of you “social media rock stars” already know that you can use Facebook to sell. Plus, those customers can recommend you and tell their friends to buy. Whether or not you’re using an eCommerce site or setting one up through a social network, it’s now easier than ever to sell through social media.

5. It’s still true, it’s important to interact with customers!: Hopefully, you’ve already heard about this a few times by learning how to strategize with social media. For 2011, it’s not really changing, but now it’s become more than necessary. Regardless of the type of content you provide when trying to engage your readers, the easiest way to start the conversation is simply by asking simple questions. For example: How are you, how is the weather or what can we do better? Having a lot of Twitter followers and Facebook friends is great, but it means nothing unless your business is successful. The only way to do that with social media is to get involved!

6. Sites with questions and answers: Another interesting aspect of social networking that is seeing a big change in its influence is question and answer sites. MerchantCircle and Facebook have incorporated this feature into their site and it may sound strange, but luckily these types of sites are having a huge impact on what people buy. I would hope to see more sites like these become popular and more, you should get a head start and start answering questions. Marketing through question and answer sites creates an endless possibility of gaining new customers.

7. Go Mobile: This is really not surprising, since many people use PDAs and other mobile phones to access the Internet. As for the changes in 2011, it’s probably a good idea to start thinking about how you can add new features to your site that allow mobile shopping via some kind of app.

8. Oh, and did I mention the content factor?: I’ve said this before and so have many others, but your content is a very valuable factor in the success of your business. Content is not dead or about to be. More or less, it’s about to take a huge turn and be extremely critical to gaining new customers. Remember that your content must be valuable to your audience; it must be consistent and take a non-commercial approach. It’s also important to include as many aspects as your time allows, including videos, podcasts, e-newsletters, and white papers, not to mention the actual content on your website and blog.

I’m sure we’ll see more changes in 2011 and we’ve only touched base on a few. Also, expect more widespread changes for freelancers, small business owners, and social media hackers to gain more security and financial stability in the future. What have you heard that could be changing in 2011?