40 of the Most Useful Social Media and PR Blog Posts of Q1, 2010 (Jan - Mar)

Compiled by Adam Vincenzini

Late last year, I published my picks for the 99 most useful social media posts of 2009, a collection which was received really well.

This year, I've been publishing 10 of the best posts from around the web each week as part of the '10 out of 10 in 2010' series.

Now that the first quarter of the year has been completed, I thought it was worth bringing together 40 of my favorites from 2010 (so far)...and, here they are...

The 40 Most Useful Social Media Posts of Q1, 2010

I've broken the collection into the following categories: Tools, Social Networks, PR, Blogs / Blogging, Content, and General / Other.

Tools
1. The ULTIMATE list of 29 top tools for competitive intelligence
2. The 39 Tools I (Jay Baer) Will Use Today
3. 11 free tools for social media optimization
4. 5 online tools making social media easier in 2010
5. 10 essential design tools for social media pros
6. The one-stop social media toolkit shop
7. The top 10 re-tweet measurement tools
8. 9 tools that will help you livestream your newsroom
9. A list of social media management systems
10. 20 Free Social Media Tools To Help Find Your Brand's Social Media Mentions

Social Networks
11. The 11 Commandments of Corporate Tweeting
12. How to retain Facebook fans
13. The complete Twitter 'follow / unfollow' guide
14. Top 10 ways to drive blog traffic using LinkedIn
15. The 7 news ways to use Twitter

PR
16. How To Write Media Releases That Google Will Love / Get Page Rank
17. Designing a Social Web Marketing and PR Strategy
18. PR crisis management in the 'Twitter Age'
19. Blogger relations: 5 tips to hone your approach
20. The PR 2.0 Checklist

Blogging
21. 12 things to do before launching your Blog
22. The Key Traits Of A Successful Blog / Blogger
23. 10 tips for making your Blog posts more del.icio.us
24. 22 Linkbait Headlines That Almost Every Blogger Can Use
25. 10 Ways To Get More Blog Comments

Content / Interaction
26. Planning a content strategy
27. 5 easy steps to creating reusable social media content
28. How to write for search engines without knowing SEO
29. 5 'unorthodox' ways of fixing your social media
30. The anatomy of fruitful online conversation(s)

General / Other
31. How to use Bit.ly (advanced) for spying, link building and happiness
32. 10 great tools to create a mobile version of your site
33. 4 simple ways to integrate analytics into your daily marketing efforts
34. How to manage your online reputation
35. Social Media's top 'how to' blogs
36. Understanding the participatory news consumer (PEW study)
37. Justin Timberlake and the art of presenting well
38. 7 online video tips every B2B marketer should know
39. Simon Mainwaring's Top Ten Trends for 2010
40. Einstein's guide to social media (my favorite post of 2010 so far)

The great work of more than 30 people is featured here so be sure to thank them when you click through to the links you are interested in.

I wanted to make special note of a few people featured in this post including Amber Naslund, Jay Baer, Jason Falls, Lee Odden and Steve Farnsworth - you share and produce an awful lot of great stuff.

There are also a few posts from me scattered within the selection above - so thanks for supporting those posts as well.

Have fun reading and stay tuned for more throughout the year.

Adam Vincenzini
Paratus Communications, London