Chris Brogan’s Social Media 100 Series:
President of New Marketing Labs, social media guru Chris Brogan is exceptionally generous with his helpful tips and encouragement for beginner bloggers, at his own highly successful blog.

I haven’t even begun yet to plumb the depths of Brogan’s 100 posts on getting started in social media, but I look forward to “schooling myself” on social media, through this series. I suspect just about everything one might need to know is at least introduced, and then some, in these hit-the-deck-running posts, archived from last summer.

Mack Collier’s Social Media Library:
Mack Collier is a social media consultant, trainer and speaker, with a ‘homebase’ at The Viral Garden. “He is also a frequent contributor to the website Marketing Profs, as well as the marketing blog Daily Fix, and small business blog Search Engine Guide.” Here are some of the social media subjects in Collier’s extensive social media library, which represent some of his best posts, over the last four years, including regular updates: Blogging 101, Social Media Case Studies, Social Media Monitoring, and Twitter 101.

Christine (C.B.) Whittemore’s The Entire Bridging New and Old Social Media Series:
In a marketing blog about improving customer experience, particularly in flooring, Christine Whittemore hosts a social media series, interviewing members of the Digital Marketing community, who make key recommendations for bridging new and old media.

(For my own recent contribution to C.B.’s series, check out Social Media Series: Peg Mulligan on Bridging New & Old.)

13 Essential Social-Media ‘Listening Tools’:
In an excellent how-to article from MarketingProfs, Clay McDaniel (principal and co-founder of the Spring Creek Group) describes 13 essential social media ‘listening tools,’ including Google Alerts and Technorati. In addition, McDaniel discusses other helpful, lesser-known tools. If you are trying to convince the boss about the value of social media, exploring these listening tools and finding out exactly what others are already saying about your brand is a good place to start.

Seven Social Media Mindset Markers:
In a MarketingProfs Daily Fix post, social media handyman Paul Chaney, Internet Marketing Director of Bizzuka, describes seven key characteristics that are part of the social media mindset. This mindset should come before selecting social media tools, to ensure that your tools choices make the most business and relational sense.

My favorite characteristic is #5 the “Web is now more about ‘shared connections’ than ‘siloed destinations.'” Several times this month, I have heard on Twitter and in various webinars, that eventually the spokes of a company’s online presence (that is, its social media connections) will become more important than the company’s online hub (its corporate web site).

Steve Woodruff’s Getting Started: Social Networking:
Steve Woodruff leads StickyFigure, a division of Impactiviti LLC. His 15 page e-booklet includes the “What” and “Why” of social networking, as well as the “How,” in a practical step-by-step way. Plus, Steve provides a bonus Appendix, with a worksheet to help you define your “personal brand” and refine your message. For pharmaceutical professionals, Steve (who led sales, marketing, and business development efforts for two decades in the healthcare field) provides a special Appendix of resources.

Twitter: the 13 types of tweet to take notice of:
Econsultancy describes tweets that support Customer Service, Product Development, Usability, Business Development, and other cross-disciplinary functions, including marketing. This post is simply one of the best I’ve read, on ways social media, in particular Twitter, can enhance all business functions, including “listening, talking, energizing, supporting, and embracing” the groundswell (see Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff’s BusinessWeek Bestseller, Groundswell, p 69).

Why we tweet:
Paul Chaney, Internet marketing director for Bizzuka and member of the SmartBrief on Social Media Advisory Board, reports the results of a recent poll, which indicates “Twitter [may] tend to appeal to news junkies.” Other notable results from the “Why we tweet” poll include “the extremely low percentage of people/companies using it for customer service” and “the markedly high percentage of those that use it for staying on top of news and trends.”

Why FriendFeed is the New Must Have in your Social Media Toolbox:
Debbie Weil, author of The Corporate Blogging Book, notes that since FriendFeed announced a redesign of its site a couple weeks ago, she has noticed a significant uptick of FriendFeed subscribers. She offers several explanations for FriendFeed’s increasing popularity, including its main feature as a real-time aggregator of all your social networking accounts. She speculates that it may be the next “new thing” in the social media toolbox. In the comments, she also briefly discusses FriendFeed versus Plaxo.

3 Things You Should Know Before Starting A Blog:
In Conversation Agent, recognized among the world’s top online marketing blogs, Valeria Maltoni provides “some of the less frequently thought-about and more useful things you should know before starting a blog.” She mentions that when you start to blog, you will probably experiment with a lot of formats and content ideas. Over time, your blog is likely to evolve in a specific direction. Valerie also provides lesser-known objectives for blogging, including “using your blog as a sort of library of interesting things to think about.”

Recent or Soon-To-Be-Released Social Media Books

• Toby Bloomberg, Diva Marketing Blog: 44 Social Media Books for 2009-2010 Plus One
• ProBlogger, Darren Rowse: Get Your Own Copy of the 31 Days to Build a Better Blog WorkBook
• Chris Brogan and Julien Smith: Trust Agents: Using the Web to Build Influence, Improve Reputation, and Earn Trust (Hardcover) (For more info, see also Trust Agents for Publishers.)
• David Meerman Scott, editor for new Wiley & Sons’ series: The New Rules of Social Media Book Series