Most of what is on the Internet, Banner Ads, email, and Click Through, are direct advertising: at the end of the chain is a call to action and hopefully a purchase. More eyes on the site results in more revenue; improved conversion rate gives more revenue; sales process - site interaction, email interaction, phone call - generates higher transaction rates per contact.

Brand Advertising is more of what is on television & radio; Nike does a great deal of it and so does Gatoraid. Ads that don’t necessarily sell but generates mind share: High quality car is a …
Most green car is a…
Longest Lasting car is a…
Hopefully your answers weren’t all the same, else the folks doing the ads at Honda, Toyota, and Subaru are in trouble.

Couldn’t twitter be thought of as a new category, one that combines brand advertising with customer service? Your brand is re-enforced or eroded with every tweet — are you an industry expert? travelling? producing somthing in batches? What you say and how you say it (in 124 characters or less) is your brand image.

But its also a two-way communication, so each response or failure to respond helps or hinders your customer service rating.

Therefore, to measure twitter effectiveness wouldn’t you need to measure mind share and customer satisfaction?

And, aren’t the tools at hand, clicks and views, next to useless for this type of metric?

Good topic to start a discussion and get some people talking, though. Thanks!