Each week in 2011, I shared the five most-useful social media tools on the Web.

Finally, the time has come to unveil the top five most-useful social media tools of the year. It’s the culmination of a countdown that started two weeks ago at No. 20. You can see the first installment here, the second one here, and the third—here.

It wasn’t easy narrowing down the tools that would occupy the top spots, but we arrived after much deliberation and discussion.

So, without further ado, here are the top five new social media tools of 2011:

5. MyNewsDesk.com. This “news exchange” startup out of Stockholm has become one of the most talked about social media tools of 2011, thanks to its robust analytics system and easy-to-use interface. Try it now—if you haven’t already.

4. Wanderfly.com. This is a personalized recommendations engine that helps you discover new and exciting experiences based on your budget and interests. It integrates with Facebook to bring all of your social preferences together. This is a great example of niche recommendations portal and what Google+ is aiming to achieve on a wider scale.

3. YouTube.com/create. YouTube has been ramping up is creation tools in 2011 and the animation tools located at YouTube.com/create are a great example. GoAnimate is a wonderful example, enabling you to make animated videos in less than 10 minutes.

2. AppMakr.com. Talk about doing what it says on the can! AppMakr helps you make free apps for the iPhone.

1. BufferApp.com. And now the most useful tool of 2011: BufferApp. It works by scheduling content you find online and adding into your Twitter or Facebook stream. It then publishes the tweets at regular intervals without flooding your followers. Pure genius.

Congratulations to our final five!

We’ll be back with our weekly Platform Five posts in 2012 and will continue to uncover the hottest new online tools out there.

On the Paratus Communications blog, PR Daily Europe contributing editor Adam Vincenzini rounds up five of the most-talked-about social media platforms each week. The feature is called Platform Five. Adam has agreed to simulcast it on PR Daily. If you’d like to check out the previous editions, they’re all here for you to browse through.