Social Media Marketing Blogs: Top Picks Resource Center 

If your Social Media strategy includes Facebook, this blog should become your daily go-to source for news, trend-watching, advice, statistics and case studies. Although it's an independent news source, the writers have inside knowledge and long experience with FB.

Besides daily posts, All Facebook also offers gratis and paid research and how-to guides, including a detailed guide to Facebook Pages (US $9.95), Facebook's entry into location-based networking and marketing. One provocative post: "10 Killer Titles That Will Provoke Your Facebook Fans."

Although this blog covers a wide range of B2B topics, it's particularly strong on Social Media, with posts that mix information, advice and pointers to resources for both marketers who are new to Social Media and those who are experienced hands. Michael Brenner, Director of Online and Social Media Marketing for the software company SAP, writes his own material, focusing it toward "results-oriented" marketers. (Brenner also contributes to a companion blog, B2C Marketing Insider.)

Two notable recent posts that blend strategy and how-to advice: "Integrate Social Media Into Your Marketing Mix" and "The Role of B2B Marketing," which sounds like a sleep-inducing think piece but is actually a lively discussion of Social Media use in lead generation.

This group-written blog aims to "expand readers' awareness of marketing best practices and to encourage participation." The emphasis is on participation, and the blog posts are written not just to inform but also to explain to marketers whether they should wade in to changes or sit them out. Like its companion blog, B2B Marketing Insider, this blog covers all aspects of Online Marketing but calls out Social Media in particular.

Here are three blog posts you should check out first:

• "Geolocation: Why You Can't Afford to Ignore It"
• "5 Tips to Maintain Social Media Momentum"
• "Apple's Social Network: Discovering New Music With Ping"

This blog focuses on higher-level strategies in B2B Social Media, not just in implementing it at the corporate level but with a wider perspective. That's not surprising given that the blog's author is Paul Dunay, Global Managing Director of Services and Social Marketing for Avaya (call centers, data networking services, phone systems and other enterprise-level communications). The blog focuses more on thought leadership than daily how-to advice.

Although Dunay's niche is technology, Social Media managers in other concentrations will find his insights valuable as they build and manage their own corporate programs. Consider this blog the graduate-level course in Social Media, with posts that include "Could AT&T kill the iPhone Brand?" and "PR needs to Focus on Conversations."

Anyone with a Twitter or Facebook account can call himself a Social Media expert. Chris Brogan is one of the few who can genuinely claim that title. His blog is a blast of straight talk aimed squarely at marketers who are looking for opportunities in this emerging channel: what works and why, what doesn't and why not.

"Get More Twitter Followers Today" is a post that has become a Brogan classic. It lampoons the hucksters' promise of big bucks fast while laying out the hard work you must do to become a genuine Twitter rock star.

This blog is author-speaker-brand strategist Valeria Maltoni's personal collection of commentary on Social Media, branding and integrated marketing. Maltoni, who is also Director of Strategy for Powered, a Social Media agency working with over 60 global brands, mixes Social Media philosophy with hands-on advice for making your SocMed plan work better.

Some posts focus on strategy – for example, why you should create "customer communities." Others offer practical tips based on her own experiences, such as her personal list of sources for illustrations and images for blog posts and other uses.

One of her most popular posts is "See How They Did it: 104 Social Media Case Studies," (find it in Column 3 in the "Timeless" category on the blog's homepage), which combines advice on how to write a case study with reviews of case studies including campaigns for the movie "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo," PiperSport airplanes and Whole Foods.

Jay Baer's Convince and Convert blog is written by Social Media marketers for Social Media marketers. Like other top-quality blogs, it has a laser focus on the subject, whether it's calling out marketers who abuse their Twitter or Facebook accounts or suggesting best practices and practical advice for doing a better job no matter which brand of Social Media you cover.

Posts worth tracking down in the archives cover the tricky subject of "permission" in Social Media and the dangers of "brand-jacking" by Social Media malcontents.

Rohit Bhargava is one of the titans of the Social Media world. His 2006 post, "The 5 Rules of Social Media Optimization," launched thousands of discussions that are still going on today. As SVP for Strategy and Marketing at Ogilvy 360 Digital Influence, Bhargava's blog runs a wide gamut, mixing practical advice with strategy and what looks like parking spaces for notes that will become white papers or future presentations.

Whether he intended it this way or not, Bhargava appears to aim Influential Marketing slightly over the heads of companies that have not yet implemented a Social Media strategy. Instead, people who have already launched a program, however small, will find his advice most useful. One such post is "How To Replace A Social Media Super Star."

This is not the only blog that covers every angle of Facebook for developers and marketers, or even the most popular. For our money, however, it's the most highly focused, giving marketers the information they need to make informed budget and strategy decisions and to maximize their Facebook experience.

Inside Facebook often has breaking news and statistics that other blogs pick up and repost. Expect to find analyses of Facebook marketing campaigns, who's gaining and who's losing influence and mini-case studies of brands that understand this social network's unique opportunities and challenges.

Yes, we have reviewed Mashable.com before, but we include it here to draw your attention to its outstanding content management system, a model you can use to improve reader navigation and utility on your own blog or Web site. This site elegantly handles a high volume of posts so that you can quickly navigate to the topics that most interest you.

Besides the river of fresh posts that Mashable's bloggers generate every day, Mashable also apportions each post to a specific content category. So, you can go right to the "Social Media" category, to which this review links, and see all the fresh content without having to contend with posts classified as "Dating," "Moms and Family" or "Sports."