Top how-tos and tech tips of 2011

I began this series with a list of my 11 most popular blog posts of 2011. As I looked through my analytics in preparation for that post, I was interested to see the appetite for posts that offer specific tech tips and how-to guidance.  Today, I round up the 2011 posts that I think offered the most useful tech how-to tips.

1. 3 steps to creating a Facebook friend list for your kid-related content: Whether or not you have kids, there’s no question that creating smart, specific lists of different Facebook friends is the essential skill for successful Facebook use. This post walks you through the steps for creating a list to protect your kids’ privacy, but it’s just as applicable to creating a list of close friends, trusted colleagues, or simply a list of the Facebook friends you actually know.
2. Create a category-specific series box with WordPress, Thesis and Organize Series: If you use WordPress, I highly recommend the Organize Series plug-in. This post represents the high water mark of my nerd achievements for 2011, since I actually had to do some original PHP scripting (a personal first) in order to make it work.
3. Search party: 10 tips for better searching on Google and beyond: The better you are at constructing nuanced, targeted search strings, the more effective and efficient you will be at just about everything you do online. These 10 tips will help you make the most of your Googling.
4. 10 ways to save on roaming charges when traveling with your smartphone: Don’t blow the budget for your next vacation or business trip on a whopping cell phone bill. These 10 tips will help keep your voice and data costs under control.
5. 4 great ways to use Evernote with Skitch today — plus 14 new possibilities: You know how happy you feel when you find out that two of your good friends have hooked up and are now a couple? That’s how I felt when  note-taking and information management powerhouse Evernote acquired screen capture and image uploader Skitch, and celebrated by sharing these ways I already use them together.
6. Using Syncplicity and Dropbox to put Google Docs on your desktop: If you spend a lot of time uploading and downloading to and from Google Docs, or you simply prefer working in Word and/or Excel, this neat trick will help you keep your Google Docs automatically synchronized to your desktop or laptop (and even your iPad or iPhone, if you use Dropbox on them).
7. 4 ways to protect your privacy and reputation on Facebook Timeline: Protect your privacy on Facebook’s Timeline by tweaking your lists, past history settings and the permissions you give other apps.
8. 4 easy steps to creating a Twitter list from your conference backchannel: One of my favourite new tools of 2011 is Tweetbe.at, which makes it easy to create and maintain Twitter lists (among other useful features). Here’s how you can use it to create a list of anyone who participates in the backchannel of an event or conference.
9. What is Evernote, and how can it make you a social media power user?: Part of the reason I harangue random strangers into using Evernote is that it makes life and work easier for just about anyone. But the other reason is that it’s the gateway to social media competency, because it teaches you to work and think in ways that will make you a social media power user.
10. Delete your Klout profile and be more than a Klout score: Why and how to delete your Klout score — even if (or especially if!) you don’t think you have one.
11. 29 free or cheap online collaboration software tools for you and your team: Even if you do all your work solo (and who does?) most of these 29 tools are must-haves. But if you work with collaborators or teams, using these difference collaboration software tools will rock your world.