Every year is a big year in social media. Upheaval is the status quo. I thought it would be fun to ask a bunch of smart folks what they thought were the biggest social media “disrupters” of 2011. I intentionally kept the question vague. As you’ll see, I got answers that are all over the map, but all help define the social media zeitgeist of 2011 and contain hints of where we’re going in 2012. Here’s the first installment (of three to be shared throughout the week), in no particular order.

(Note: Some of these folks wear ten different hats and have five different jobs and wrote a book and host a podcast and speak and consult, and one may or may not hold the record for consuming the world’s largest pancake. I’ve gone with the simplest descriptor that makes sense.)

Jason Keath, President of SocialFresh

Spotify launched with as much fanfare as a new tech product can in the US. And it showed us what Facebook’s actions could really do. Want the world to know you are listening to the Pokemon soundtrack? No problem. Want to show your boss how much work you are doing by creating and publishing a new music playlist while at work? They’ve got you covered. And if you really hated forgetting about all those amazing 80′s songs you never listen to anymore, don’t worry; if your friends are anything like mine, they will flood your Facebook stream with these wonderful tunes.

Chris Brogan, President, Human Business Works

The biggest disrupter of 2011 has been the Occupy movement, and specifically UC Davis and the pepper spray. A jarring realization that the US as a police state appears to be on the rise, and that social has played a huge part in communicating the experiences people are having during this time.

Ann Handley, Chief Content Officer, MarketingProfs

The biggest social “disrupter” in 2011 for me is Instagram. (Insta-rupt?) Why: You’ve no doubt seen the news that Instagram is the fastest-growing mobile-social network in… well, the history of mobile-social networks!  But what’s most interesting to me (and a key reason for its appeal and growth, I’m convinced) is less about its mobile-first Social-Location-Mobile (SoLoMo) characteristics, but because of the way that stories are part of the fabric of Instagram. In other words, it’s not about SoLoMo… it’s about SoLoMo-Sto’.

Instagram, at its core, allows you to tell stories visually, with a simplicity and immediacy mobile users expect. But at the same time, it adds another layer of elegance and artfulness, and that’s what makes its stories so appealing, and (for me) why it breaks new ground.

Paul Greenberg, CRM and SCRM author, consultant and speaker

The number one social disrupter in 2011 was the use of social channels, particularly Facebook, to propagate the revolutionary activity of Arab Spring. But make no mistake about one thing. The hype around this was ridiculous, crediting Facebook for its success. That is NOT the case. The value of Facebook was that it was able to provide the means to communicate to not only others in the struggles but also the world and was able to capture the support of the world. But it was the people of the varying Arab nations who were responsible for the government changes. Not Facebook. Too many people credited Facebook for it. Again, a channel used to support social change, not to create it.

Shel Holtz, Principal, Holtz Communication + Technology

You can’t talk about disrupters over the past year without looking at the train disaster in China and the impact citizen outrage, expressed over Chinese microblogging site Weibo, had on the government’s response. Officials figured they’d effectively inhibited any backlash by burying the train — reportedly with bodies still aboard. But this and other dimensions of the crisis were openly discussed by an angry public, leading authorities to address the crash more openly than they normally would. Now, China is going to require real names for Weibo accounts, but how long will it take for people to figure out a way around that — or a different system to use? Organizations can take a lesson from this: social media has intensified the notion that information routes around obstacles, and deliberate opacity in the face of a public event just isn’t an option any more.

What do you see as some of the top social media disrupters of 2011? Keep an eye on our blog for more opinions and thoughts throughout the week.

Tags: Brand, Community, engagement, Marketing, PR