It’s that time of year when people turn to their crystal balls and try to make some predictions as to what the New Year will bring. The world of tech may be slightly easier to predict than other events, simply because the trends are stronger and it is easier to gauge what hot tech topics are currently trending. That said, here are some of the top social media predictions for 2014.

The rise of Snapchat and other similar sexting/selfies social media outlets.

Have you heard of Snapchat? If not, chances are you will now. Facebook offered the sexting start up $3 billion dollars (that’s right, I said billion) for the internet start up that boasts a photo messaging app which can take photos, record videos or add drawings that will be sent to a controlled list of recipients for a mere few seconds before the image is permanently deleted.

This fun and spontaneous use of an app harkens back to the “good ol’ days” of social media and it is picking up steam with users. The teen market is loving it (hence the huge decline in teen users of Facebook), so watch for it to really take off in 2014.

Tweeting – It’s not just for fun, personal use anymore.

If you don’t know how to tweet yet, start learning now. Chances are, you boss will ask you to tweet in some capacity or another (no matter what role you play in your company). If you scan the job boards, there are ten times more jobs advertised that look for social media skills than last year. In previous years, tweeting was mainly reserved for the sales and marketing departments of companies. However, more and more employers are looking to their employees in the R&D, Logistics and HR department to really get some company news out to the masses.

Watch as social media kills the Customer Service phone call

How many times have you logged onto your Facebook account, only to read a post (perhaps not even from a friend of yours but a post that one of your friends has even hit “like” to) from a disgruntled person, on how bad of a service they received from a company (be it an airline, a retail outlet or a service provider)? These days, it is more efficient and effective to blow steam via a social media outlet (like Facebook or Twitter) and let the social masses comment on it and apply pressure on the company. Back in the ol’ days, one would just pick up the phone and call to complain to the Customer Service department. Just watch as the phone call to the Customer Service department goes by the way of the dinosaur.

Advertising will explode on your social media streams

2013 is really defined as the year that native social media ads (those are the ones that appear right in your Facebook and Twitter feeds) exploded. If you think they can’t get any more pervasive, think again. Twitter has just unveiled a feature enabling paid tweets to be targeted by postal code. It is a form of “geo fencing” that Facebook had introduced a couple of years ago, and it is now taking off across other forms of social media. It’s great if you love receiving the occasional promo, deal or coupon, however that means you will have to sift through a lot more ads in order to get to your more relevant content.