Mark Ritson looks at social media and takes an objective approach to it as part of the marketing mix rather than as a silver bullet.
Mark Ritson has debunked in the past the trend towards social real time marketing with large brands having social command centres to dip into the zeitgeist.
TL;DR the reach and awareness gained is mostly driven by PR rather than real time social, which is more of a social object or as TV writers would understand it, a MacGuffin. More related content here