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For the sites that I have added sitemaps to, no matter how small, it seems to only have helped.  Either brought out some areas I could improve on or just general site architecture awareness which helped me see a bigger picture.

It's best to link them to location pages on the domain.  In local, domain authority wins over page authority.  User experience wins over bot experience.  This is the current trend of local and it doesn't appear to be changing.  Here is a great article by Nifty Marketing that illustrates a good local landing page.

As far as I can tell, social is a big part of the authentication process and filter of Google for Brand signals.  If you establish solid (not spam) social accounts with your brand identity then, yes, I am saying that will help with branding.

A good way to test is by searching your "brand" in google and see what shows up.

Good answer. I like that.

According to Google Search Quality engineer, Uli Lutz, you only need to include the links in GWMT.  Here is an article with more information on that.

That would be my assumption.  I'm sure there is some value placed on the links you place from your Facebook page timeline as well but not as much.  I would consider this type of stuff to be "signals" not direct brand ranking factors that Google would see.  Signals are the first step though and seem to be having a big impact on my client's brand recognition.

I guess it ultimately depends on the audience but I would say that I would give it a few weeks and generate some sort of written response to the new features/design from the more active users.  Then I would include those in an email blast letting everyone know what is different and that they should give it another shot.  The testimonials (responses) would garnish much more upfront trust and generate a more positive attitude among those who were disappointed with the way things were handled in the past.

Starting fresh with a soft launch and then with the testimonials of a few, conquer the world! Or something like that.

I would be good to set up Site Search tracking and monitor the searches that are taking place.  Depending on the results it might be a good idea to create a "You were looking for 'this product' but 'this product' or "this product" might be a good fit." page.

Also, make sure to check back through the links to the site and try to reach out to the websites in regards to changing the link URL.  Watch GWT closely over the next few months.

Hey David,

I saw the same information in the codex and it is a bit misleading.  An "Author" has moderation control on their own posts but doesn't have "comment moderation" power over the whole site.  Only admins do.

I just tested this out again.  Make sure you go into the top "help" menu on the edit post page and check "comments" and "discussion".

Yes, "Authors" have authority over editing their own content, publishing the post and moderating their own comments.

The Codex is looking at the "universal" control features.  Of which "authors" are very limited.

I use Standard Theme for all my blog sites. It integrates the core functions of WordPress SEO by Yoast with a really well coded theme.  As far as the duplicate content.  Wordpress SEO by Yoast lets you deal with what items to nofollow and noindex very easily on almost any theme.