QUOTE(thekohser @ Sat 9th May 2009, 11:07pm)
Never happened on my watch. Arch Coal was written for free, out of love.
Actually, even if it hadn't been, Arch Coal would have had precisely the right idea in that case. Writing a Wikipedia article, and perhaps even trying to maintain it, would be an ideal job for a contract employee, one with knowledge of how Wikipedia "works," i.e., how its users often do their best to screw with facts, references, links, and information in general. Hiring a full-time "social media expert," which is what the aforementioned blogger seems to be talking about, actually
would be a serious waste of money and resources for a coal company.
As for business types that would benefit from having full-time social media experts, I'd say the obvious ones would be entertainment/publishing, colleges/universities, online retailers, outsourcing firms, telecommunications companies (esp. ISP's), and of course "online venture"-type companies like Wikia that appear to have no real coherent business plan. Some consumer-products manufacturers and financial services companies too, I suppose... Hardly an insubstantial list, but not all-inclusive. I'm not pretending to be an expert on this, though!