Chris Brogan, a wonderful and prolific writer about social media & networks, lists three things he thinks users want from websites:

1. information
2. simple
3. connection

Read his post for more on what he meant by each: What Do YOU Think People Want From Your Site

Once you’ve started building media, like a podcast, or a new videoblog, the very next thing that happens is that you want people to actually see it and experience it. One of the most common questions I’m asked by people who blog or podcast is how to grow their audience. Audience does make a difference in making media, at least if your goal is to build conversations and relationships. Here are a few tips to getting the word out to prospective new people.

Link: Promoting Your Media

The best contacts and resources to help you get it done.

Link: Guide to Twitter for Business

Jim Cashel writes:

To Wiki or Not To Wiki? Community leads across the web love wiki technology, attracted by its flexibility and low cost, but concerned about control issues and barriers to participation. When do wikis make most sense?

I recently led a session on wiki implementation at the Online Community Unconference. The collective wisdom of the group informed the following list of factors for when wikis work best…

Continue reading at: When To Use a Wiki?

Michael Stein advises:

…here are two good articles that were published recently on the subject. The first is Should Your Organization Use Social Networking Sites? written by Brett Bonfield and published by Idealware. I like the way this article is divided into two parts, beginning with a discussion of why online social networks may not be a good fit for an organization, and then moving on to a second part that discusses opportunities of this new medium.

The second article is Eight Secrets of Effective Online Networking - Tips, tricks, and tools for using and managing your social networks wisely written by Beth Kanter.

Link: Two good articles on online social networks

Nothing to do with best practices, but very nice, anyway.

Like blogging, there are many misperceptions about the productivity potential for Twitter. Those unfamiliar will often say, What’s up with: “My flight is leaving”. “We landed”. “Getting in cab. Etc?”. Trust me, there is a method to the MicroMedia madness as both an individual and a commercial communications tool.

There’s both a social/play and a social/communicate aspect to Twitter that makes it productive as a promotional tool for pointing to interesting things you’ve found on the web as well as a tool for building credibility and influence. On their own, such updates can be blasé and uninteresting. However, followed over time, you can gain insight into people you may end up hiring, getting hired by, working for, partnering with or simply socializing with.

It’s true that some people do use Twitter as if they’re trying to copy the most boring blog on the web. However, many others are sharing links to timely resources or things they’ve found on the web that they’d like to share/promote immediately as well as tidbits of personal/business information.

Read more for tips and resources on how to make Twitter work for you.

Link: Guide to Twitter as a Tool for Marketing and PR

Last month, a friend from Montreal wrote to me for suggestions on how to raise money for an organization she had come across several years ago in Peru. She was about to return to the country and wanted to bring good news in the form of a micro-philanthropy campaign that would support the organization’s community projects.The only problem: she didn’t know anything about micro-philanthropy.

Below are my suggestions to her. I’m posting them here as a resources to anyone thinking of raising money and support for an inspiring organization they meet while traveling…

Link: Raising Money for an Organization You Meet While Traveling