Well, I tend to use both. I do use stars to quickly cull tagged (where tagged for me means either |don't delete" or "look more closely") photos from a shoot, ready for photoshop and ftp, and I tend to use the colours as a long-term reminders of good/bad/others/... photos, so I can get back at e.g. competition material, boring photos but for personal memory, or an alternative.
Dunno if it's the best way, I am sure you can think of others...