So it is the end of the year, and it seems that at the end of every year, every man and his dog is doing either a retrospective of the past year or guess-work about next year.

Since you obviously survived 2009, I am not going to bore you with a re-cap of that. But, since the beginning of a new year always raises curiosity and hopes about what the new year will bring, I thought I would come up with a prediction for the new year, but just one.

2010, according to me, is going to be the year of TRUST. With an explosion of forums, blogs and social media sites on the web, there has never been a better time to say what you want to a huge online audience. But, when you are looking for recommendations, or unbiased product reviews, how do you know who to trust?

Maybe the positive one IS written by them or their friends/family. Maybe the negative ones are written by their competition. Don't you prefer to have recommendations from people you know and trust?

This is why I think in 2010, online marketing is going to have to embrace social media even more. Using your existing networks, and that of trusted friends, to find products and services. Using the reviews of regular commenters, or bloggers, whom you trust - and maybe the ones they recommend.

For every person, there is a 'trust network' of people they could rely on for honest opinions, and this network is now existing and growing online. Businesses and marketers need to learn the importance of this, and figure out how to participate. For example, do they want brand advocates? Do they want to offer freebies? Do they want regular commenters or bloggers to do paid reviews?

One other thing that businesses will have to do to ensure they have the trust of their customers, is to employ AUTHENTICITY. Cutting through the PR-speak and making it more subtle. Making themselves accessible, (maybe through online chat or Twitter), and allowing their faults to be discussed openly so you can understand those negative reviews.

And that's how I see 2010.