Wikipedia, Yahoo! Answers, and Answer Sharing

Lise Broer, Wikipedia

This was the most interesting talk so far.  I was listening so closely that I didn’t even type a word.  What did she say?

She’s a volunteer member of the Wikipedia P. D., specializing in Conflict of Interest issues - people promoting themselves or their companies, thinking that they are being clever.

Trust me.  “Durova” (her Username) will find you - and it will be a very bad day for you.

Editor’s note: I spoke with Lise after this session.  She does not want bloggers like me to perpetuate this image of her as the Wicked Wikipedia Witch of the West!  Marketers who are forthright and upfront about their past, present, and future plans will find that the Wikipedia administrators are firm - but reasonable.  (But I still wouldn’t want to get on her bad side.)

Tip: Release your Press Release to  the  Press.  Let them publish it.  Then cite that in the Wikipedia  top page.  Viola - legit.

Jonathan Hochman, Hochman Consultants

Wikipedia actually provides far more visibility than digg, SU or del.icio.us

Mistakes: Don’t use a promotional username.  Don’t try to add copyrighted information.  Don’t write about yourself or your company.  Spamming is a bad idea with terrible consequences because they share their blacklist!  Edits are public and easily traceable. 

Note: You can sign up for alerts so you will know if a particular page/article is changed.

You can also enhance your reputation by contributing to the accuracy of Wikipedia articles.

Mat McGee, Marchex

Yahoo! Answers: 

* OK for professionals to use.

* Good source of referral traffic

* Yahoo! Answers can rank high on Google, providing even more traffic.

* Check out the “Create RSS Feeds” feature  - very useful.

* Sign your name to your Y! answers.

*Do not spam!

Stephen Spencer, Netconcepts

Pay your dues.  Fix typos, report spam, etc.  Accumulate respect or “Street Cred” within the Wikipedia community gradually.  Eventually you can win awards and recognition.

To pass Wikipedia’s “Notability” test, you should be mentioned in reasonably authoratative media.  Search your company on Google’s News Archives.

Sadly, due to spam, when you create new content, you are “Guilty until proven innocent.”  Suspected of spam?  Wikipedia’s policy is to “Shoot first and ask questions later.”

What’s the greatest tool for using Wikipedia successfully?  Friends.  Just like social networking sites, it may some day come in handy to have a group of friends within the Wikipedia community to vouch for your character, etc.

Don Steele, Comedy Central

Ghandi has 1 Wikipedia page.  South Park has 158 pages.

Wikipedia is a very key piece of Reputation Management for Comedy Central.  Is the information accurate?  Just don’t monkey with your own content directly!  What you can do is makes comments on the discussion pages in order to assist those who are editing or contributing the content.

End of Session Nine.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 17th, 2007 at 2:59 pm and is filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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