It is this suite of measuring tools that, in my mind, make Adwords, a much more powerful marketing tool than traditional advertising methods. If you sell trainers, it would make sense to advertise in Running Weekly. The media company that owns the magazine will tell you the demographic of their readership.  But they won’t be able to follow the conversion process or give you any details on user behaviour. What was the reaction of readers to the ad? Did it influence a purchasing decision? Did readers like the ad?

Adwords can do all of this, and therefore enable you to be responsive to your target market’s activity. Tracking how customers come on to your website and what they do there, can help influence the layout and design of your landing page to ultimately increase conversions.

You can also use landing pages to measure the effectiveness of your social media efforts. You can design landing pages around the social media campaign, and then use Google Analytics to track traffic and conversions.

Social media for companies is not about being social; it is about growing our business. So the best way to measure your efforts is to see how many customers your efforts generate. If you know a direct mail campaign at a cost of £5000, generates 50 customers, then you can spend £5000 on social media. If it generates more than 50, then it is clear that social media returns a better ROI than direct mail for your business.

Conversions are the key metric; not twitter followers or facebook friends. If your social media campaign can exceed your existing marketing efforts, then it can be considered a success.

But that is not enough. Companies need to have humans managing the social media tools and participating in the conversation. It sounds simple enough, but it is frightening to realise that a lot of companies using social media as another PR/marketing tool to push messages to customers/prospects. Your staff are the best advocates of your brand.

Sally Falkow, in her blog, makes reference to the Engagement Gap.In our (humble) opinion, this gap is borne more out of assumption on the part of companies than anything else. Assuming customers will stand for the same old marketing/PR methods of old. Our way or the highway type mentality. This is a complete turn off in the world of social media; and will only result in significant financial and time losses for the organisation.

Listening to customers is what will bring results. Nothing else.Engaging in meaningful dialogue, in an honest and transparent way. Being seen to care will only endear yourself so much more to your clients and prospects.

A willingness to solve their issues quickly and satisfactorily. Show you care.One size does not fit all. It does not even fit two. All relationships need to be handled on a one-to-one, individual basis. This personal touch is what will differentiate you from your competitors in social media.

It cannot be treated as another sales channel. I repeat, it cannot be treated as another sales channel.

Pepsi may be a classic brand, but it’s using 21st century tools to collaborate and build relationships with customers. For years, PepsiCo, has had a toll-free number that consumers can call to share product feedback. People call in all the time, and the company considers the line successful.

But when Pepsi brand managers wanted faster and more personal ways to connect with soft drinks enthusiasts, they looked online—and in January 2009, the team started using Twitter to listen to and talk with consumers. (The brand twitters as @Pepsi; the corporation twitters as @PepsiCo.)

“We’re trying to humanize the brand, to make it more accessible to consumers,” says Anamaria Irazabal, brand director for Pepsi. “On Twitter, they can complain or praise, and we can use it as a way to gauge how people are feeling.”

Reaching a new audience

Interestingly, the company finds the conversations on Twitter are different from those on the toll-free line. The callers, says Irazabal, tend to focus on products.

Twitterers, on the other hand, tend to have opinions not just on the products, but on promotions, too. “They feel they’re invited to give their opinions on the how the brand should move forward, and they’re very detailed.”

After the spring 2009 launch of Pepsi Throwback—an initiative that involved packaging with a retro look and real-sugar sweeteners—the company was able to collect quick reactions on Twitter. The company has also found asking questions works well on Twitter. Even something as simple as “How many Pepsis do you drink a day?” generates a lot of chatter.

“Consumers own the brands as much as we do, and they want to share their interests and likes,” says Bonin Bough, director of social and emerging media for PepsiCo. “Twitter is the only medium where we can have a two-way continuous dialog about the brand.”

Fast response

Pepsi brand managers find that Twitter is useful not only for quick responses from consumers but for quick responses from the company, too.

When Michael Jackson—who made high-profile commercials for Pepsi during the 1980s—died suddenly in July, the company used Twitter right away in its “Thank you, Michael” tribute, engaging with fans. “We can move at the speed of culture,” says Irazabal. “Twitter means we can react to something that happens and provide a platform for dialog, That’s the key word. It’s about engagement and building the relationship.”

Dealing with complaints

Although Pepsi finds that nearly all of the conversation on Twitter is very positive, people do sometimes complain via tweets. The brand managers try to address negative comments very quickly.

“We try to gauge the overall tone and type of problem,” says Josh Karpf, manager of social and emerging media for PepsiCo. If somebody doesn’t like a piece of advertising, the company accepts that. But if a person has had a problem with a product or is attacking the company in some way, Pepsi has a process in place to resolve the issue directly. The company responds once in public, and if the person stays negative, they switch to DM and then to email or phone if needed. Internally, a cross-functional team can help solve problems.

The logistics

Pepsi’s assistant marketing manager, Rachel Mills, works closely with two agencies to coordinate the @Pepsi Twitter account. With Mills’s oversight, one agency does the day-to-day twittering. But Mills sees all the tweets, and she gets involved if there’s a problem of any kind. Another agency helps Pepsi develop its digital promotion calendar three months ahead of time.

The calendar—along with guidance on tone of voice and how to respond to certain types of comments—help Pepsi maintain a consistent brand presence across the Web, including its Twitter account.

Finally, Pepsi requires that staffers maintain personal accounts on social media sites—not to interact on behalf of the brand, but to learn about the channels. “It’s very hard to talk to agencies if you have never used the tools,” says Irazabal. “So we ask our teams to use these tools to learn what we can get out of them.”

Measuring success

Like many brands, Pepsi looks at the number of followers it has. But the company also looks at the sentiment of tweets, rating them on a scale from positive to negative. The balance changes from week to week, and the company—which considers itself to be in experimental phase with Twitter—is still figuring out what affects consumer feeling and how to measure it.

Takeaway: “We’ve got a lot ahead of us, and we’re learning every day.” In other words “Have a go”