From the folks at trendwatching.com come eleven trends for 2011. They are experts at observing trends and have created a list which anticipates what trends will impact consumers, businesses, and marketing departments.
1) Random Acts of Kindness
As you can see from the above Twitter post from InterfloralUK the marketing department is not only communicating to the followers, but also listening to them. By using a medium which is based on broadcasting individuals thoughts and links, InterfloralUK, will gain a considerable amount of positive feedback in the recipients personal network (especially if they pick an individual with several thousand followers).
Beyond a token interaction with their customers and followers InterfloralUK is creating a human touch to their brand. By taking this approach, a large floral company is able to gain some of the closeness to the individuals that a small floral company in the neighborhood has with their community.
With smaller companies this might not be done over Twitter but through personal interactions, but can still have the same effect. Regardless of what way you display the random acts of kindness, you will gain loyalty from your customers.
-Patrick