Most beverage-makers would love to be flies on a wall when it comes to a conversation between consumers about their brands. Luckily, many of these conversations are becoming public knowledge thanks to social media.

According to a survey by InSites Consulting, 61 percent of U.S. companies listen to consumer conversations on social media, and 83 percent respond to questions and complaints via social media. Similarly, 82 percent of consumers reported that consumer reviews influence their purchase decisions, according to Tampico Beverages.

Catering to this online-savvy group of consumers, Tampico launched an interactive social media contest and 3-D Facebook app to promote its 20-ounce single-serve refrigerated juice drinks. The “Pinata Bash” Facebook campaign asks fans to enter the sweepstakes by personalizing a digital piñata and sharing it with a friend who breaks the piñata, or vice versa.

Also capitalizing on social media, Red Bull created the website RedBullAirDrop.com, along with the Twitter hashtag #airdrop, to get college students around the globe involved with the Red Bull Air Drop, in which helicopters delivered crates of Red Bull to 400 college campuses in 55 countries across six continents. The brand achieved nearly a 24 percent increase on NBCUniversal’s Integrated Media’s Brand Power Index among men, and close to a 10 percent increase with women.

 According to the InSites Consulting study, 80 percent of U.S. companies are present on Facebook; 45 percent have a Twitter account; and 48 percent are on LinkedIn. How social are you?