The usage of Wikipedia as a marketing tool is a testimony that humans would use any great tool such as Wikipedia itself for marketing. In recent times, companies and brands flex their presence and power in their industry by regularly updating their Wikipedia profiles. While encyclopaedia is meant to provide information, recent times has seen it become one of the most sought-out marketing affairs.
Keep in mind that search engines put any Wikipedia related results on the top and that is one of the dreams of SEO rankings. Search engine optimization is one of the most useful tools in digital marketing, Wikipedia proves to be the difference between top-ranking and low ranking for many. Therefore, if you are looking to create a Wikipedia page for business, then here are some of the facts and what you need to do.
Understand The Need
One of the initial steps towards achieving any goal is to comprehend the very requirement. Ask yourself, why do you need a Wikipedia page? If your goal is for your company to be identified in the market or industry, then you need to write that down. However, understanding the requirement is more about finding the right balance between need & want. If you want a page just because you think it is cool, then you should back away. Because keep in mind that Wikipedia is a respected online platform that does not entertain non-professional content. Therefore, thoroughly recognize your need before you dive into it.
Understand The Policies
A good place to start is understanding the various policies of Wikipedia. For instance, you need to go through their guidelines and rules in order to comprehend the entire process. If your brand is not that noticeable or noteworthy, chances are your page creation will fail during submission. Since submission is one of the last stages, you do not want your entire effort to go to waste because you overlooked one simple fact. Go through their rules, understand their guidelines and see if you are up to their noteworthiness and notable guidelines.
Determine If Your Company Is Notable
Put your company name in the search query and find out how many people are talking about it. More importantly, look for news outlets and such making mention of your company name. If that is the case, then you need to save that information. Bear in mind that providing citation is one of the most vital parts of page creation. Therefore, you need to research in those regards. If a newspaper or media outlet mentions your name, specifically stats or reviews, then you need to save that for future use.
Create An Account
One of the initial steps of actual Wikipedia page creation is making an account on Wikipedia. This account will be your sole access to the page you will create. The steps on Wikipedia account creation are easy and all it takes are barely 10 minutes of your time. Moreover, account creation is supposed to help you establish credibility as a Wikipedia contributor before you go about making your own page. Speaking of which, after you have done so, you will be required to find any articles with the name of your company. If none exists, then you shall proceed with the page creation.
Create The Page
When you look for your company’s name in Wikipedia query and if none exist, Wikipedia will ask you to requisite one. Therefore, click the “ask for it to be created” link once it presents itself. The process is small yet one must understand it by reading their guidelines beforehand. Then, you will have to create content accordingly. Keep in mind that Wikipedia has a strict NPOV guideline, which prohibits content writers to employ any sort of opinion or belief. Therefore, even if you are creating a page for your company, you need to be unbiased in your approach.
Another important thing to understand is the format. If you have read enough Wikipedia pages, you will realize that they are strictly in a formal and non-casual format. Therefore, study their format as you can find many templates online to help you out with that.
Provide Sources
Since you have created content, Wikipedia is bound to ask for its legitimacy. If your content consists of various stats and information, then you will have to provide information that backs it up. In other words, provide citations. As mentioned earlier when you searched your company name on Google, the results you found will be your primary source of citations.
If you are successful in all of the above-mentioned steps, which you should be if you have the right approach, then you will proceed towards submission. Once done, Wikipedia takes about 5-6 days to confirm the credibility of the information provided.
Regular Maintenance
There you have it, you have created a Wikipedia page and now your company name is naturally on the top of search results. However, does your job end here? Not even close. If your company keeps going, then additional information will keep on pouring in. That means the information you provided on Wikipedia is bound to run obsolete sooner or later. In order to prevent that, you need to ensure timely maintenance and editing. As new developments occur and stats about your business change, make sure that you update them and keep your audience informed through Wikipedia.
