Comment Marketing for Beginners
Shannon Paul applies a fun “red light, green light, yellow light” approach to the basics of “Comment Marketing.” Be sure to read (and contribute to) the comments for more insight.

HOW TO: Get Retweeted on Twitter
Pete Cashmore posts some interesting data (via Dan Zarrella) on re-tweets and re-tweet behavior. Good food for thought when using Twitter as part of your social strategy.

Timing Is A Critical Success Factor for Blog Posts
Michele Goetz expands on the importance of blog post timing and shares an example of how the great posts can fizzle out of the gate, but come back to life when the timing is right.

Buy Twitter Followers: 100,000 for $3479
It was only a matter of time. Once Twitter started to make a routine appearance on nightly news and mainstream media channels, the scammers and low-end profiteers started coming out of the woodwork. Got some extra cash laying around to buy followers who have absolutely no interest in what you have to say? Read on for pure comedy.

Are You Spreading Yourself Too Thin?
Jacob Morgan provides some food for thought around the idea of creating multiple accounts for your business on each of the platforms that you are adopting as part of your overall social strategy. The topic definitely deserves consideration to avoid diluting your efforts.

16 Boring but Important Ways to Make Your Business More Social
It’s all too easy to get caught up in the “cool-factor” of the shiny new social web-apps that get released each week. Trying to figure out how to fit all these tools into your company’s social strategy can often distract you from many of the basic things you can do that will often make a bigger (social) impact. Shannon Paul shares 16 “boring” strategies for making your business more social.

Lessons Learned from 3 Years of Blogging
Are you still struggling with the idea of starting a blog and the what content you should create for it that will contribute to its success? Rebecca from the SEOMoz blog shares a plethora of lessons learned from the last three years of her blogging experience.

Are Newspapers & Big Media Dead? Think Again… My Contrarian Take
The continuing speculation over the fate of print media is far from over and there are certainly a lot of interesting takes on the topic. Chris Treadaway shares six interesting reasons why hyperlocal on-line media won’t win out over big print media.

Community Managers Must Deliver ROI: Commandments For Surviving a Recession
Jeremiah Owyang provides sound advice to Community Managers on how to step up their game, provide continuing value and (most importantly) help keep their jobs in these tough economic times.

Are we really ready to move beyond Social Media 101?
Many of us in the PR and Marketing space have been teaching the basics of Social Media for quote some time now. Some might think its time to elevate those teachings to the next level. However, LiveWorld’s social media evangelist Bryan Person shares some incite in this MediaBullseye.com guest post on why that’s not the case and advises those who teach to “keep beating the drum.”

How Lisa Genova used social media to turn a self-published book into a NY Times bestseller
Best selling author David Meerman Scott shares an abbreviated version of fellow writer Lisa Genova’s success in using social media to propel the promotion of her book “Still Alice” all the way to the top of the charts. Her complete success story and many others can be found in David’s latest book entitled “World Wide Rave.”

Podcasters report their top 3 podcasting tips (Part 1 & Part 2)
Marketing consultant Devon Dudgeon shares TONS of podcasting tips in this two part post. The tips were submitted by seasoned podcast veterans around the globe and are aimed at those who have been thinking about getting there own podcast off the ground.

Why blogs matter
“Q: Who reads blogs? A: Journalists”; Shannon Paul delivers another thought provoking post that shows why blogs might just be the ultimate tool in your social media arsenal.

Image Credit (sans modifications): Jade Gordon

A List of Social Media Marketing Examples
Peter Kim launched an extremely valuable list of brands that are currently using social media. He invites readers to contribute to this ongoing list via the comments section where he’ll integrate submissions into the main post on a periodic basis.

Making the case for social media in PR
Shannon Paul knocks another one out of the park with this great post on stepping back from the hype of social media tools and getting back to basic communication.

Social Punishment: The “Bozo” Feature
Every once in a while Community Managers need to deal with “troublemakers” within their online communities. Jeremiah Owyang approaches the subject by suggesting the “Bozo” feature as potential solution. Be sure to dive into the comments section for a good discussion on the topic.

A fresh take on the browser
One of the most blogged about topics this week was the release of Chrome, Google’s new web browser. This post on the Google blog started the avalanche. Continue the reading from these Techmeme links.

Don’t be that guy
If you’re new to social media/networks and haven’t done your homework on the do’s and don’ts of online community engagement, then you might be “that guy.” Shannon Paul helps readers identify the traits of “that guy” and provides tips to get them back on the road to recovery.

50 Ideas on Using Twitter for Business
Chris Brogan pumps out another great mega-list to help businesses wrap their heads around using Twitter

Why the Embargo Process Is Broken and Why We Still Need It
Louis Gray expands on the topic of press release embargoes, their importance to businesses and why they need to be honored by blogger and journalists alike.

Don’t Tell, Show Them!
A lot of bloggers have picked up on the Electronic Arts/Tiger Woods YouTube video response this week, but Valeria Maltoni kicks it up a notch by sharing a few techniques that center around whey execution matters. Watch the video, absorb the tips and have a great weekend!