Hot Headlines of the Year:

With thousands of headlines and tips being shared on Twitter alone each hour, we think it’s helpful to share our favorites—the articles and blog posts from 2011 that really stood out as being most relevant, interesting and insightful. This month we’re sharing our thoughts about the top news, social tools and more for the year. Browse the list and then tell us about your favorite news from 2011.

Melissa Lion: I think this article from Venture Beat pretty much sums up 2011 for me: Surprise hit Pinterest a top 10 most trafficked social network. Go ahead and click that link so you can see for yourself that Pinterest (or as I fondly think of it—crack) has more users than both Google+ and Tumblr. Here’s to more inspirational quotes in pretty typefaces, cupcakes shaped like pandas and nail polish/messy bun/smoky eyeliner tutorials in 2012.

Darcie Meihoff: My favorite re-read of 2011 is not new, nor is it from an online source (although there is a Kindle version). Now in its fourth edition, The Elements of Style, by William Strunk Jr. and E.B. White, remains the authority on clear and concise writing. In a world where bad prose can be summed up in as little as 140 characters, this book promotes and celebrates such ideas as, “Make definite assertions. Avoid tame, colorless, hesitating and noncommittal language.” Cheers to Strunk and White, whose fight to improve the quality of writing rings as true today as ever.

Erik Sebellin-Ross: TechDirt does a great, thorough recap of the Ocean Marketting [sic] debacle that proved to be this week’s cause de jour, driving hardcore gamers to rage. What lessons can we gain from this? 1) Your parents gave you good advice when they said you should be polite to people; 2) Don’t plagiarize; 3) Pretty much anyone can call themselves a marketer, so check credentials before you hire someone to represent your brand.

Sarah Biedak: My favorite reads this year haven’t been individual posts as much as daily digests from my favorite sites: Mashable.com and Incredible Things. There is a reason articles from Mashable get tweeted and quoted over and over. The content is timely, relevant and interesting to anyone with an interest in social media. Mashable recently posted a series of 2011 wrap-up/2012 prediction articles; here’s one of my favorites: 5 Tech Trends to Watch in 2012. Incredible Things delivers what the title promises: unique, clever, odd and amazing people, places and things. I look to this site as both an entertaining break from the social media news feed as well as a pulse on what is happening on the fringe of consumer culture. I mean, where else would I find out that the Human Slinky is now available for sale, or that there is a toy that will tweet every time your cat plays with it?

Stefanie Week: One of the most interesting articles I came across this year was a bit of an investigative piece, The Dirty Little Secrets of Search, from the New York Times about J.C. Penney’s search optimization practices. The article gives a great introduction to SEM and also some clear warnings about how to play by the rules.