This past year brought many significant changes in the world of email and social marketing, with many of them affecting how messages are delivered to consumers.  These changes will work to define the industry as we move into 2011.

In terms of email, this year brought the introduction of Gmail’s “priority inbox” and Hotmail’s “inbox filtering,” which both work to help users define and classify incoming email messages.  The idea is to help users’ bury spam and other unwanted messages while prioritizing “important” messages and recipients to better organize and manage their inbox.

While there’s been debate on how these changes affect email campaigns, it does not change the emphasis that marketers should place on subscriber engagement, relevancy, timeliness and following best practices.  Though Google and Microsoft are leading the charge through Gmail and Hotmail, the changes they’ve introduced will likely work to evolve the industry as a whole, so it’s important marketers pay close attention to in 2011.

Another trend that’s likely to gain momentum in 2011 is the concept of “interactive email,” which again is being pioneered by Microsoft for its Hotmail users.  Put simply, interactive emails are dynamic messages that act like traditional Websites within a user’s inbox, meaning they update in real-time as the user opens the message.  Examples would be Netflix emails that give you recommendations based on what your previous rental habits have been, or email from travel sites that allows you to see current travel deals instead of stale ones that were valid when the email was sent, while also letting you search for flights directly from your inbox.

From a marketer’s perspective, interactive email opens up a world of possibility in terms of user engagement.  It allows users to interact with messages within their inbox without the need to direct them to a Website or elsewhere through calls-to-action.  This will greatly increase success rates for marketers who understand and leverage the technology effectively.

In terms of social media marketing in 2011, the key will be standing out from the crowd and effectively leveraging the concept of social media monitoring.  Nearly every business has begun some sort of social media campaign, and as more and more brands go social, there will be a lot of noise clogging up social networks.  Similar to email marketing, the key to effective social media marketing will rely on relevancy, engagement and the ability to maintain a dialog with customers rather than simply a one-way communication.

Another major trend set to define social media marketing in 2011 is mobile.  Consumers will be accessing social networks anywhere and everywhere and will be sharing information about what they’re doing and what they’re consuming.  As such, the art of social media monitoring will become even more important.  Monitoring the conversation surrounding a brand and effectively inserting your message when it’s necessary and relevant will be the key to an effective social strategy in 2011.

Looking at email and social together, Facebook is still on track to launch its new “Messages” feature at some point in 2011 that will give all its users an “@facebook.com” email address and an inbox that unifies email and Facebook messages.  As this represents the growing bridge between email and social, we’ll likely see steady unification of the two channels in the year to come.

While 2010 brought many changes to how brands communicate with consumers via email and social channels, 2011 is set to bring even more changes and opportunities.  From a marketing standpoint, the idea of “integrated communication” will begin to take shape as several communication channels become unified.  While there’s long been an emphasis on so-called “multi-channel marketing,” 2011 is poised to be a year focused on integrated communication, especially as the line between email and social continues to dissolve.