In the industry of social networking and online marketing, one of the major components to being successful is your ability to stay up to date with the most current information. ?y harnessing this knowledge, you place yourself in a position to give back to the community by providing or teaching it back to your prospects, customers and followers.

Sometimes keeping up with the torrential flow of cutting edge information can be difficult, but this is where this list of the Top 10 Social Media Blogs comes in handy. Each and every one of these blogs contains a wealth of knowledge and it’s all current. It’s not the same jargon being repeated and recycled over and over again. ?y keeping yourself at the forefront of the social media game and positioning yourself as an authority by contributing to these top 10 social media blogs you are building the foundations – laying the bricks, so to speak – for your eventual and perpetual success online.

The top 10 social media blogs are listed below. ?e careful not to get overwhelmed by the vast amount of knowledge contained in them. Remember to take things slow, one step at a time. If you learn something which you can implement straight away, then do it! Don’t think after you’ve just read some crazy new secret “Oh, that’s a good idea… I’ll apply that to my business tomorrow,” and then keep trawling the blogs for the rest of the night. As soon as you learn something, put it into action. Once you’re done with that, find another strategy to implement. Step by step you will slowly but surely begin to see concrete results!

So without further ado, I give you… The Top 9 Social Media Blogs!

#1 Mashable.com – If you’re looking for the best place to come to for social media news, this is it. It is the worlds largest site dedicated to this purpose. With more than 12 million hits every month, it will definitely boost your inside knowledge on new sites, trends, technologies and services. Come here to find critiques on the newest stuff and get some great tools for your social networking campaigns.

#2 AllFacebook.com – As the name suggests, this blog is all about Facebook. Here you can learn about the newest applications and general news. You can even read predicted trends about the future of Facebook, an excellent way to stay on top of the game. If you need to know anything about Facebook, this should be your first stop.

#3 Twitip.com – Similar to #2, this blog is all about Twitter. There are so many helpful Twitter tips including things like how to get the right followers, how to build relationships and turn them into your real friends, how to build massive followings without getting booted off the system, etc. There is also a wealth of useful marketing information related to Twitter, such as personal branding, effective marketing methods and even use Twitter tools to help automate your business.

#4 SocialMediaToday.com – This blog is a community made up some of the best social networking and web 2.0 thinkers alive today. There is no limit to what you can learn here! Most importantly, this is a great place to learn how to create an interactive social community. A pretty neat perk: once you have registered on this site, you can begin feeding your existing blog posts (assuming you already have a blog) to the live content flow of SMT and create posts directly on the site, increasing your exposure to a highly valuable community! Now THAT is pretty cool.

#5 Techipedia.com – This blog is run by Tamar Weinberg, a social media consultant and techie geek. She truly has some information worth hunting down, and her blog is an amazing resource. One of her recent posts was “How to Create the Perfect Fan page.” Now, who in social media wouldn’t want to know info like that? For free? She is a freelance writer and author of The New Community Rules: Marketing on the Social Web, who specialises in social media consulting and strategy, blogger outreach, reputation management, and search engine marketing (SEO, link building, and Pay ?er Click Marketing). If you’re interested in social media, you should be checking out her blog.

#6 CollectiveThoughts.com – Another invaluable blog made up of superstars. Each member of this community is a well-known authority or upcoming figure in their own respective fields, and they all share a passion and thoroughly developed understanding on social media. So thinking collectively, they created Collective Thoughts, a place to share their fantastic knowledge.

#7 BrianSolis.com – Brian is a pioneer as he brings his own unique view to the world of social networking. He takes both approaches of traditional marketing and social media and meshes them together to create one heck of a powerful marketing machine. This blog made the top 1.5% of all blogs tracked by Technorati-which means it really is worth checking out!

#8 DoshDosh.com – This one’s a bit different, not what you would call your typical social media blog. But don’t let that fool you, because here you will find some amazing resources for cutting edge online marketing and blogging tips, social media and Web 2.0 strategies. I personally like the artistic use of their images and graphics in the various posts.

#9 ScottMonty.com – Scott is the head of social media for the Ford Motor Company. That’s right, the big corporations are realising the potential in social media are beginning to stake their claim. On his blog, Scott shares his perspectives on various topics – the convergence of marketing, advertising and PR on the Web – for marketers, agencies, the enterprise and the individual. Not only will learning from him benefit your campaign, you can build your connections as you expand your sources – and Scott is a very good source.