Social Metrics - Quality vs Quantity in the Cola Wars

The effectiveness of social conversation usually revolves one key topic Quality vs. Quantity of followers and which is more important to measure social success.
There are many arguments for and against both, but this can be illustrated using a classic example of the Coke wars.
Coca Cola and Pepsi have been battling it out since time immemorial , and now with the advent of digital this has just moved to a different sphere, the social world.
Crisp Social put together a nifty infograph on the 'Epic Battle of the Bubbles', where it compared the performance of both brands in key areas (winners in bold):

• Total Fans - Coca Cola 51 million vs Pepsi 8 million
• Engagement Days - Coca Cola 51 days vs Pepsi 73 days
• Engaged more than once - Coca Cola 25% vs Pepsi 48%
• Engaged with Page - Coca Cola 0.8% vs Pepsi 5.3%
• Mobile Engagement - Coca Cola 35% vs Pepsi 52%

So from an overall perspective Pepsi is the clear winner, with having a more active and socially engaged fan base even with a much smaller fan count, so therefore it is quality which matters.

However while it's all fun to look at percentages, it is the actual numbers which make a difference so here is my take on it:

• Total Fans - Coca Cola 51 million vs Pepsi 8 million
• Engagement Days - Coca Cola 51 days vs Pepsi 73 days
• Engaged more than once - Coca Cola 12.75m (25%) vs Pepsi 3.84m (48%)
• Engaged with Page - Coca Cola 4m (0.8% ) vs Pepsi (4.24m) 5.3%
• Mobile Engagement - Coca Cola 17.85m (35%)  vs Pepsi (4.16m) 52m

By looking at the actual numbers, it levels the playing field where Coca-Cola scored better than Pepsi on fans who engaged more than once and who are more digitally savvy. So therefore it is quantity which also matters.

It is next to impossible to say which metric is better, as they both work together. A large of quantity of followers is essential but as long as they are of high quality. This will certain affect the overall quality of engagement with the brand.