All marketing strategies must involve some sort of Wikipedia page management. Managing your brand’s Wikipedia page is essential if one exists. As you do not technically control the content, you must watch to make sure that people are not introducing anything that does not belong on the page.
Failure to monitor your Wikipedia page could lead to an embarrassment when you realize that the page is full of factual errors or misinformation.
Wikipedia page management is a process, involving regular monitoring and updates. To be effective, you must have a good sense of how Wikipedia works and how to make changes to pages.
Without the knowledge of how Wikipedia works, your efforts to control page content will be futile. Here are a few things that you need to know if you plan on taking on Wikipedia page management for yourself.
- Monitoring pages
- Wait for others
- Make the changes
Monitoring Wikipedia Pages
Monitoring a Wikipedia page can be done numerous ways.
The first is to simply search for the page within Wikipedia and click on the “view history” tab of the article you want to monitor. You will see the history of the changes to the page and can then compare the various changes to see if there is something significant that needs your attention.
Another way to monitor a page is to set up email notifications. This can be done under the preference tab in your Wikipedia account. Once you set up notifications, you will receive an email any time there is a change to a page on your watch list. However, keep in mind that you need to log in every time you are notified or you will stop receiving notifications.
The third way is to simply pay someone to monitor the Wikipedia article. If you already have a company that does your marketing, chances are they offer a Wikipedia page management service. If not, you can find Wikipedia writing companies such as myself who offer this service.
Wait For Others to Make Changes to Your Wikipedia Page
If you are notified of a change to a page, don’t necessarily jump in to correct it. Many changes will be corrected on their own. For instance, the majority of vandalism is corrected by people looking for suspicious edits and bots that are queued to recognize various types of vandalism (e.g., page blanking, curse words).
The majority of vandalism will be corrected by others.
Don’t be so quick to jump in as many issues will be corrected for you. There is no real set time that you should wait, but generally errors that are not fixed within the first couple of days will need your attention.
Make the Changes Yourself
If the changes were not corrected or they will not be corrected, you now have the option to take action or leave it alone.
Prior to removing any content that is added or reintroducing content that was deleted, make sure you are familiar with Wikipedia guidelines.
You do not want to simply edit the page to your liking or the page will ultimately be protected and you could get yourself banned from the site. Also make sure that you do not wind up in an edit war with another editor. An edit war is when two or more editors go back and forth reverting each others edits. This will likely end with administrator intervention, page protection, and edit restrictions placed on the editors involved.
Wikipedia page management is something that you must tackle if you have a Wikipedia page. Regardless if you do it yourself or leave it to a professional, make it a part of your Internet marketing strategy or reputation management plan. After all, leaving your reputation in the hands of strangers not in your control is not the best strategy you can have.