Why Wikipedia is a Powerful Marketing Tool for Personal Branding and Business

Have you ever searched something on Google? Then you must have seen the relevant Wikipedia link in one of the top five results in Google’s search page. Just type in a search term like “Jeff Bullas” or “Linkedin” and see for yourself. You know, your business, your brand or even your name could also be there too, but how?

We will discuss how using this effective online marketing tool to your advantage and beef up your personal brand or company’s online presence it later.

First let’s take you through the basics of Wikipedia.

What is Wikipedia?

Wikipedia is actually an online collaborative encyclopaedia. It does not hire content writers to create posts, like other typical encyclopaedia’s. It is an open source site that if used correctly, can be an effective online marketing tool for your business or personal branding. Let’s disclose here, how?

Why should my business, brand or my name be on Wikipedia?

Wikipedia can be huge for your business and offers you the following benefits:

1. You can create or edit your business, brand or biography post on its website.
2. Your business or personal brand Wikipedia page can produce significant improvement to your business and your reputation.
3. It adds a level of prestige, authenticity and credibility to your business, brand or persona.
4. It provides you with an additional and credible website presence that will depict your business with integrity.
5. Can produce a significant positive increase in sales
6. Enhance your visibility in search engine results

Wikipedia holds some prime real estate on Google’s search results page.  It’s usually pops up in one of the top five spots, so your company page gets a automatic SEO boast on Google to enjoy. This Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is free of cost! So there will be one more website about your business at the top level of Google search engine results.

Why following the guidelines is important

It is crucial to mention that your business can reap all these benefits if you follow the wiki writing guidelines, otherwise, your post have a risk of being removed or flagged. Wikipedia does not allow you to create biased or promotional content.

You need to follow their  guidelines to create Wikipedia page. Here is a quick and simple guide for writing an effective wiki page.

If you decide to undertake this project, it’s important to take your time and do it right.

Guidelines to create Wikipedia page

Here are the 4 key guidelines to create a Wikipedia page.

Step #1.

You should make sure that your business is renowned and someone has created articles or news about your business or company, which are available online.

Has anyone created outside articles about your company online?

Step #2.

Create Wikipedia account.

Step #3.

Now you need to find informative articles on your business or brand. These articles should be related to your company and must be present online. It would be excellent idea to take articles from online trade magazines, online newspapers and magazines.

• Do not include your personal essays or original research as citations.
• It is not recommended you to pull tons of information directly from your business website, until you have a big company like Apple or KMart.
• This outside source citation about your business proves that your business is known.
• And very important  – do not advertise or market your company in your post.
• If you don’t have a lot of outside articles, consider doing a little public relations outreach and publish new relevant content before creating a page.

Step #4.

If you have got these in place then you can create the wiki page or post.

Having a solid Wiki page is not easy

Although the Wikipedia writing guidelines for businesses are available, the task is cumbersome and gruelling for a novice. From having a registered account (having a minimum approved edits restriction) to conducting a neutral research for your company where each sentence is to be supported by a reference similar to academic citations, is in fact a lot to ask from a new user.

Furthermore, wiki does not like self-promotion, so if it is proved that a company is making its own wiki page, the page is flagged for deletion.

Thus I recommend that companies should use expert help to create their wiki pages, so that they minimize the risk of deletion.

Guest author: Irina Kalonatchi. You can contact her at Bettiblue.com if you need some advice or assistance on creating a presence on Wikipedia.  

 

 

Want to learn how to build a powerful personal brand online?

My book – “Blogging the Smart Way – How to Create and Market a Killer Blog with Social Media” – will show you how.