links for 2011-01-18

Interesting overview of online dating sites

An interesting discussion of what social media means for corporate reputation

RT @LauraOliver: Frontline Club to discuss founder's support for Julian Assange http://t.co/CkWRY16

"Unless your business plans to use what it learns online as an opportunity to fix internal processes, social outposts will continue to be expensive lightning rods." – Includes some interesting stats on how online audiences in different countries feel about social media monitoring and engagement by brands

Facebook gives a bump to community pages of brands that buy ads http://bit.ly/fDSqi9
– Wendy Tarr (wendytarr) http://twitter.com/wendytarr/status/27309590525771776

NY Times article on AOL's massive investment in local journalism player, Patch: http://nyti.ms/gc5C8I

Over the last year and a half, AOL, the former Internet colossus, has spent tens of millions of dollars to build local news sites across the country through Patch.com. The idea is that the service would fill the gap in coverage left by local newspapers, many of which are operating on a string after declines in advertising revenue.

In the last 10 weeks, Mr. Mehta says, Dell has trained 3,500 employees, and those who finish the training are then certified to use social media on behalf of the company. To manage its brand presence online, for the last few years the company has been using online tools and techniques like sentiment analysis to “listen” to conversations on the Web that refer to Dell. In addition, it is building a social media “command center” that will monitor “all the conversations that happen to Dell,” Mr. Mehta said.