Editing your company’s entry on Wikipedia
Here’s an email I received from a client working in the Comms team of a FTSE 100 company:
“Our wikipedia site is very, very old and out of date and generally needs a complete overhaul. We’re getting pressure from up high to do whatever we can to get it updated quickly and accurately however as I’m a novice I don’t want to go headfirst into editing it when I don’t know what I’m doing
Our internet people have some grand (and quite frankly expensive) proposals from one of our digital agencies to manage and edit the site on our behalf but these will be long to implement and they don’t have budget secured at the moment to progress.”
Yikes! Glad she emailed us before wading in.
Firstly, it’s dangerous to think of it as YOUR Wikipedia entry. It belongs to the community, and you’re not in control. Anything you change can be reverted by someone else at the click of a button. It’s also against Wikipedia guidelines to edit your own entry and you can whip up a storm of negative publicity if you break these guidelines. Because of this, it’s dangerous for you (or someone on your behalf) to “manage and edit it.”
But that doesn’t mean you can’t influence what’s on the page, especially if it’s out of date or inaccurate. Here are the guidelines that I gave the client for safe corporate Wikipedia tinkerage:
- Don’t edit the page itself
- Do create a Wikipedia account and dive into the Discussion page
- Be completely transparent about who you are and that you want to work within the Wikipedia guidelines
- Do point out any factual inaccuracies
- Remember that Wikipedia pages must be written from a neutral, objective point of view and not like an advertisement or marketing material
- Suggest changes and additions on the discussion page
- Back up any suggested changes with links to third party references like online newspaper articles wherever possible
- Wait and see how the community responds
- You might find that others make the changes on your behalf or that they would support you if you wanted to make the changes yourself
I’d be interested to know if anyone else has any other top corporate Wikipedia tips or experiences to share in the comments.
Tom wrote this on 14.01.09 – 7 comments
It's filed in the Social media box
On January 14th, 2009 at 7:13 pm, Danny Hope responded:
Ensure that your companies site has a factual, up-to-date, unbiased and detailed ‘About Us’ page.
Providing this information to Wikipedians increases the likelihood that the Wikipedia page about your company, is to your liking.
Increase your chances still further by backing up your site’s claims with references, and external links.
On January 14th, 2009 at 10:15 pm, Jay Walsh responded:
Hi there – just wanted to thank you for quite aptly and succinctly covering some best practices for editing Wikipedia entries. We provide this very same kind of advice to the thousands of individuals who contact us every week at the Wikimedia Foundation (which is the non-profit organization that operates Wikipedia).
Thanks for your smart suggestions!
Jay Walsh, Head of Communications
Wikimedia Foundation
On January 15th, 2009 at 12:56 am, Robin Grant responded:
Thanks Tom – nothing extra to add, but sounds like good advice to me. Would love to know who the ‘digital’ agency was…
On January 15th, 2009 at 4:20 pm, Will McInnes responded:
Are you sure about point #1? I have always suggested that it is perfectly acceptable to make edits and corrections, and especially to build out and populate stubs, as long as you follow point #5.
Hanging out in the discussion and suggesting edits is fine, but what’s wrong with making them?
It feels less honest to me, than cracking on with it and doing the right thing, and entrusting that the vigilant hard-working wikipedia community will quality check, shape and mould the entry anyway.
More broadly I think there’s a risk that we over-complicate and divide ourselves into little silos. And that behaviour becomes too right on, too timid – like the person who refuses to let you buy the first round, to the point of being a faffing idiot.
No?
On January 15th, 2009 at 5:12 pm, Tom responded:
It’s not an absolute, but it is a guideline. The Wikipedia Conflict of Interest Page says:
“…avoid, or exercise great caution when… editing articles related to you, your organization, or its competitors…”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:COI
I think it’s better to follow the procedure above in the first instance, but perhaps if nobody makes the edits independently then you can tentatively make them yourself.
I take the point though, sometimes it pays to be bold!
On January 15th, 2009 at 5:59 pm, Chris Applegate responded:
A good list Tom – as a Wikipedia admin I’ve seen my fair share of conflict-of-interest entries and the lack of co-operation from most people editing “their” page. I’d also advice on making sure you understand Wikipedia’s copyright policy – text simply cannot be copy & pasted from your own website, and the use of images or video that are not licenced under Creative Commons or GFDL is strictly limited. Also I’d recommend seeking out the appropriate Wikiproject for your company (list here) and ask the wider community there for advice and help – they tend to have a bigger and more diverse audience than the article talk page and you’ll probably get a better response.
On January 29th, 2009 at 4:07 pm, Sam Tilston responded:
This is a dangerous game, you are better off contacting someone who has editing history and is a regular contributor to Wikipedia and asking them to make the change for you.