Whatever differences I have with The Sun over its choice of content, I continue to admire the men and women who sub the stories. Collectively, they are the best in the business though that doesn't mean that there are not talented subs on other tabloids.

It isn't just about interacting with users though, but also about encouraging best practice amongst staff who might be unfamiliar with entering into the dialogue that happens underneath their writing. Within the Guardian they are aided by our 'really social media' intranet site, put together by Meg Pickard to encourage best practice.

Want to see all of the data we have reported? Here's all the data we've covered over the last two years, that's almost 600 spreadsheets linked from one spreadsheet

Within a few weeks, more than 100,000 people had completed them, providing a wealth of demographic information about themselves. Crucially, the vast majority of these people (86 percent so far) actively opted in to enable cookie tracking for future visits to the site so that content recommendations could be made based on their preferences

t, for some communities, it may make sense to require real names or, at least, the display of real names. This can be both detrimental and beneficial and there is no right or wrong answer – it all depends on your unique situation.

Few would argue that social media will replace all forms of customer care.  But, if companies were to focus their highly transactional exchanges to online there is a win-win for all:  Potential cost reduction for the company and frustration reduction for the customer who now gets the information and interactions they want on their terms. 

One of the secrets to Demand Media’s success is paying close attention to what people are searching for and then writing articles to serve to order, especially articles it think will generate lots of ad revenue.