Recently, Jason Falls of Social Media Explorer tagged Kipp Bodnar of Digital Capitalism and me to add on to Mitch Joel’s (Twist Image) meme on Best Practices in Social Media Marketing.

This is a great project to collect what is just the start of some best practices. And I say a start because some of us are still new to learning about social media and implementing social media marketing. That said there have been a lot of successes and that’s the best part of being involved in social media—we all learn from one another.

Here are just a few best practices that have been shared so far:

• Consistency (Mitch Joel)
• Embrace your Audience (Jason Falls)
• Listen and Add Value (Kipp Bodnar)
• Listen (Chris Brogan)
• Be Human (Kristie Wells)
• Reach out to others (Morriss Partee)
• Lift up others! (Drew McLellan)
• Honesty & Respect (Paisano)

The best practice that I would like to add is: Provide a Platform

Marketers are so accustomed to ‘talking at’ their customers instead of ‘talking with’ their customers. And typically when two-way conversation occurs, it happens infrequently at events, tradeshows, off-line forums, customer council meetings or during that once a year customer satisfaction survey.

Why wait for those limited occasions? Why not provide an on-line platform for your community that gives them a place to express themselves, interact and engage? (Remember the rule: two ears, one mouth).

Providing a platform could mean starting a blog or a new on-line community, but not necessarily. There are a lot of other great ways to provide a platform and you can always join one that exists.

Here are just a few:

• Twitter
• Plurk
• Ning (Social Networks)
• Forums
• LinkedIn
• Facebook
• MySpace
• FriendFeed
• Second Life
• Interactive Webinars
• Blog

I am sure there are more ways to provide a platform. What would you suggest?

Once you have selected the platform that works best for your community, be sure to follow the above best practices! In the meantime, Chris Brogan offers some great advice for getting involved in social networking.

If they haven’t already been tagged, I’d like to invite Amber Naslund of The Brand Box and Paul Chaney of Conversational Media Marketing to add one of their best practices.

[Photo: iStock]