For Eleven for 2011: The social media trends coming your way I spoke to industry insiders and asked them to look into their crystal balls and predict the big social media trends for the coming year.

I also asked them about the people they think will make a big impact on social media in 2011 – the innovators, the thinkers, the entrepreneurs. Here are some of their hot tips.

Rachel Sklar
Rachel Sklar was media editor at the Huffington Post before launching Mediaite. She advises non-profits on social media (TeachAIDS.org, Robin Hood Foundation) and is an advisor for sports-blog network SBNation.com and newsroom-startup Kapost.com.

2011 for her is all about social microgiving. ‘For the past two years I have been working on this simple idea: that there is aggregate value in social microgiving  - value for the community, value for the beneficiaries, value for giving as a whole.

‘I started Charitini, with the concept being – in lieu of buying me a birthday drink, please donate to my charity of choice. This was launched in Dec. 2008 when the recession had just claimed a lot of jobs and times were tight, and everyone – but especially the charities – was all really feeling it. The concept of birthday-driven giving is not new, but it is a solid concept around which to build charitable campaigns or a business.

‘I’m working on solidifying Charitini into its own stand-alone social-microgiving platform in 2011, a one-stop event resource for social connections, group giving – and, I hope, the ancillary benefits that come when you can show advertisers and corporate partners the power of these networks. ‘I took the concept for a test-drive for my birthday a few weeks back, and raised $7200 inside a week.

‘I really believe that we are right at the beginning of what social microgiving could be – combining the connective power of social media with the infectious (dare I say viral?) impulse to do good as an individual and as part of a community. Tools like Crowdrise and Kickstarter have really tapped into this potential and I believe Charitini can add another layer of goodness to the mix. At least I am going to try!

Watch clips of Rachel’s activities as an advocate for and advisor about social microgiving: NextGen charity event, Charitini blog, interview with Tony Martignetti. You can find out more about Rachel at Change The Ratio or follow her on Twitter.

Murray Newlands
I first met Murray at Social Media Marketing 2010, the first of a series of successful monthly conferences for social media marketing and monitoring that take place in Paris, London and the US,  when his company Influence People asked me along to talk about writing viral copy.

A former lawyer, Murray is the co-founder of the London Blog Club and San Francisco Blog Club, founder of Affiliate Heat and writes on online marketing for Adotas and in his own blog.

2011 is going to be busy: ‘I have a book about social media marketing coming out in 2011 with John Wiley and I’m planning to write books next year about email marketing, social CRM, blogging for business and social media monitoring. I’m running a forum and communities conference in February in San Francisco and am launching the Northern American Affiliate Marketing Awards. ‘I’m also planning an international blogging day, which will feature local hosted events about blogging in many cities across the world webcast to a central portal.’

Steve Hall from Adrants said, ‘I’ve watched, with a fair degree of jealously I might add, Murray rise to the top of the “blogosphere” writing about affiliate marketing and marketing in general on his blog. Murray is a remarkable, honest, and intelligent guy who contributes a great deal to the industry and helps marketers understand the value of blogging and social media.

‘If you want a go-to guy for tips about blogging, he is your man. And he’s done it all in just one year. He’s got a magical touch and an incredible sense of what works and what doesn’t. And he’s everywhere.’

Find out more about Murray at the MurrayNewlands blog.

Francesco D’Orazio
Francesco’s colleague Philip McNaughton says, ‘Francesco is the ‘Gazza’ of the London Co-Creation Hub. He can be wild, but at his best he can pick a pass that no-one else can see. A true innovator who always plays with his head up.’

Over the past ten years Francesco has been involved in the web industry, research and immersive media as a researcher, web strategist and entrepreneur working for research agencies and web startups. Now the Research Director at innovation agency Face his job is ‘developing – or rather playing – with potential innovations for the research industry.’

‘We are working on a few things such as launching a number of ongoing online innovation labs for the brands we work with and launching a new version of our social media monitoring platform Pulsar that will allow us to build narratives out of online conversations.

‘We’re also developing online social simulations that harness the richness of social data provided by the web and experimenting with rapid prototyping of research programs outputs via 3D printing.’

Read more about Francesco D’Orazio at his blog Makers of Universes or follow him on Twitter.

Krystyl Baldwin
Krystyl is the director at Hootsuite University, a new social media training tool which enables people to get certified in HootSuite and join webinars led by top social media strategists.

Fêted by BizTechDay as one of San Francisco’s leading entrepreneurial women she is also the founder of Events for Nerds, behind the new social event Social Media Prom.

A hostess to start-up event SFBeta and evangelist for mobile ticketing service MogoTix, Krystyl worked with leading digital analyst Brian Solis as manager on his website. Says Solis, ‘Krystyl Baldwin is one of the great connectors that I know. When we speak of social networks and social graphs in Facebook and Twitter, Krystyl brings them to life in the real world. In fact, for many of us, Krystyl is at the centre of all things digital, from events to business alliances to collaboration opportunities.’

Find out more about Krystyl at One Letter of Truth or follow her on Twitter

Ben Parr
Ben describes himself as an ‘aspiring world changer.’ Co-editor at Mashable and a tech entrepreneur, he has recently completed his first sci-fi thriller novel, Desel, and is working on an iPhone app to launch next year.

‘I focus on helping grow and expand Mashable’s coverage and content.  We’ll be launching some amazing things early next year (unfortunately I can’t talk about it yet), but you can expect us to expand our coverage and keep on hiring (we’re at around 40 now).

‘As for personal projects, you’ll have to tune in sometime next year for an iPhone app I hope to launch. The mobile photography space is blowing up, but I hope to roll out something next year that takes it in a whole new direction.’

Find out more about Ben on Ben Parr + Entrepreneurship