Was on the phone with a colleague yesterday just moments after reading this piece about Wikipedia banning Overstock.com and the fury over the Astra Zeneca changes. My colleague has a client that wanted to contribute to a Wikipedia entry about a certain type of software. The CEO wanted to get online and edit the entry with some important facts…NOT add anything about the company or try to push the definition into their favor. Here was my advice, I’d love to get other people’s thoughts:
1) Create an account in your own name;
2) When making any edit be completely transparent who you are and that you work in the industry;
3) Invite co-workers, partners and competitors alike to post their thoughts;
4) Never promote your company, yourself or your products;
5) Never delete other’s input, just add your own;
Right? Wrong? Should you, a corporation, never edit a Wikipedia entry tied to your business no matter what because it is a losing proposition?
/kff
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Here’s another article about this topic (about my company and our competitors). Wikipedia Scanner tracks IP addresses, so even if you create your own account, it will be public information that someone at the company made the changes.
http://blog.novedge.com/2007/08/cad-companies-p.html
In marketing, we’ve made it a policy to only edit our entry with truthful statements (I know, it’s hard to believe coming from a marketing department), and we will continue to do so on a fairly regular basis. We do not edit competitors’ entries, but it’s evident that other employees have been. It’s worth educating ALL employees about the pros and cons of making edits because the smack talk comes across as pretty immature to customers and the media.
Thanks Nancy, really helpful stuff. This is such an important topic for my clients right now.
Continuing the Discussion