What a year 2011 was. From a royal wedding to the WikiLeaks scandal, the Arab Spring and Japanese earthquake: these news events proved to be the major talking points, both online and offline.

The discussions and debates sparked from these stories were amplified by the transparency of social networks. People are not only reading the news, but expressing their opinions to their community.

Thanks to the array of "Like" buttons, comment boxes and sharing options becoming a common feature alongside articles, news is now spreading wider than it has done before. As penned by the author of Socialnomics, "word of mouth" truly has been replaced by "world of mouth".

Taking the English riots that unfolded in August last year for example, they were particularly notable due to the way in which they were organised with Facebook, Twitter and BlackBerry Messenger being the platforms used to co-ordinate the looting.

In this case social media was seen to be a contributing factor; however what you have to remember is that social media also formed part of the solution. Users harnessed the power of Twitter to arrange various clean-up operations for the areas affected by the riots, with communities coming together online to provide offers of help and resources.

When reviewing 2011, the influence that celebrities had on social media last year cannot be ignored. Charlie Sheen accumulated over a million followers in 24 hours and somehow managed to make the term Tiger Blood part of our vocabulary, and Beyonce broke Twitter records by generating 8868 tweets per second following the announcement of her pregnancy.

And so we welcome 2012. I would recommend keeping an eye on Pinterest and Tourist Link this year; however my digital predictions aren't necessarily that of new social networks, but the development of existing ones, particularly Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Google+.

I believe (and hope) that Google+ surprises us by introducing developments that fully lure both individuals and businesses in and ensure we include it as part of our social media strategies.

Finally, I would like to see Facebook find the balance which presents greater opportunity for brands, whilst keeping the privacy concerns of Facebook users at bay. Here’s to 2012 and all the digital developments it has in store.