Bailey touched on several different aspects of social media, from blogs to forums to Wikipedia itself, and guided listeners through the highs – and lows – of each of them.  The main thing, Bailey said, is to check out the reviews so that you know what consumers (read: potential customers) want and like.

There’s also the matter of accepting what comes your way.  After the EepyBird video hit YouTube, for example, Coke huffed, “We would hope people want to drink [Diet Coke] more than try to experiment with it. . . .  The craziness with Mentos . . . doesn’t fit with the Coke brand personality.”

Mentos was a little friendlier about the free publicity.  “We are tickled by it,” said Pete Healy, Vice President of Marketing.  Mentos, according to Bailey, spent less than $20 million per year in the U.S. on advertising, but received a buzz worth over $10 million due to EepyBird.

Still, there’s no point in trying to be something you’re not.  Bailey took issue with AT&T, which had a billboard that proclaimed “Blogging Delivered,” and yet does not have a blog.  The SiteLogic founder doesn’t even have a problem with fake blogs (or "flogs,” as they’ve been called), so long as businesses clearly mark them as such.

But even when successful social media brings in lots of traffic, Bailey warns businesses to remain aware of sales.  Sales, not rankings, are the end goal, after all.  The bridge between traffic and sales can include key performance indicators such as “time on site,” “pages viewed,” and conversion statistics.

Bailey has found that blogs are often a business’s best source of customers – there’s simply less competition for attention among blogs and articles than on a social news site.  To be effective, though, businesses must remain focused on who their customer is.  And if your customers aren’t exactly tech-savvy, always remember to apply the “mom test.”

That post is currently sitting prominently on the main page of the Google Press Center. “A good viral video sets off a chain reaction that continues until nearly everyone has seen it, including your mom,” wrote George Strompolos, Google Video Team.

As Strompolos describes it, the latest EepyBird video features “a chain reaction like none other: 500 liters of Diet Coke and 1500+ Mentos, all triggered by the pull of one string.”

The video wasn’t promoted for its “fun factor” alone, though. “It demonstrates another interesting application of our Sponsored Video program – this time with user-generated content,” Strompolos asserted. “This helps producers like EepyBird earn revenue by pairing them up with our advertising partners.”

Haochi Chen pointed out that this doesn’t mean Google is paying regular people to upload their videos. “You have to be a (big) producer and must have the online distribution rights for your video content,” he said.

WebProNews contributor Andy Beal observed that there is a “sponsored ad — which is assumed to be courtesy of Coke” at the end of the The Domino Effect. Of the video itself, he wrote, “And you thought the fountains at the Bellagio were cool.” Google seems to have picked a good clip with which to promote its Sponsored Video program.

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Doug is a staff writer for WebProNews. Visit WebProNews for the latest eBusiness news.