PR agencies are great when it comes to promoting you or your company and product, but stumble when it comes to writing Wikipedia articles.
There are numerous companies that write Wikipedia pages, but only a handful that actual perform the task with any sort of proficiency. It is a profession that many have tried to take on only to be met with frustration and aggravation. That is why many companies outsource their projects to me and a few others that edit Wikipedia on a regular basis. I was shocked when I was contacted by a PR agency for the first time as the company had been in business for nearly 20 years, yet all of its writers had tried and failed to get an article posted for a client. However, I was not that shocked when I obtained a copy of the content they were trying to post.
The Past Comes Back to Haunt Marketing Professionals
The PR industry has always had an adversarial relationship with Wikipedia. Years ago, Wikipedia had do-follow links (now that has changed to no-follow) and was used by many as a marketing platform. Companies saw Wikipedia in a similar fashion as they do Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn today, a great place to promote their business. Unfortunately, Wikipedia editors and the Wikimedia Foundation never saw it as such and soon the community built up hundreds of policies and guidelines as a protective barrier to keep promotion away from the website.
The majority of PR professionals that I work with fully understand that Wikipedia is a completely different writing style than they are used to and I would bet that the many PR professionals I do NOT work with also understand the same. However, due to the previous issues between PR and Wikipedia, the pendulum has swung so far that it is even more difficult to edit Wikipedia than ever before. PR agencies need to understand this and know they are up against an even greater challenge than was faced by writers just a few years ago. Now, PR professionals are shunned when caught editing Wikipedia.
Wikipedia is a Different Writing Style Compared to PR
When working with PR clients, I instruct them to do the following: “Take everything that you know and understand about writing, crumble it up, and throw it out the window.” This is because relying on a promotional writing style is not going to help them when it comes to Wikipedia. It is a style and one that is not familiar to many people, including those in promotions.
Take everything that you know and understand about writing, crumble it up, and throw it out the window.
I do not write promotional copy. Press releases are far from my forte and I would not trust myself to write a press release for anyone. In fact, the PR clients that I do have write great promotional copy. If you look at the press releases they write, you would want to purchase the product or service they are promoting. Quite simply they are great at what they do. However, being used to writing promotional copy can be a killer when they switch gears to write a Wikipedia article.
Advice to PR Professionals – Best Practices for Marketers and Wikipedia
When writing a Wikipedia article for a client, step back and forget about all the writing rules you know. Look at a few similar articles on Wikipedia (if you are writing for a musician, read and study about a dozen or so musician articles currently on the site). Study the layout, the introduction, the referencing, and anything else that would be similar for your client. Use these as a start for your article. I recommend reading articles that have been on Wikipedia for a few years as they are likely to have been edited by many different hands and will be closer to reflecting Wikipedia guidelines than others.
When writing a Wikipedia article for a client, step back and forget about all the writing rules you know.
If you are one of the companies that write Wikipedia pages and subcontracts your work, get rid of just hiring any old freelancer. Elance and Freelancer are great places to subcontract work, but can be dangerous for posting Wikipedia projects. The Wikipedia community hates paid editors and stalks these sites looking for paid projects. Once they find out the name of the page being created, they wait for it to be created and then either vandalize it with tags at the top or delete the page altogether. Find one person you trust and stick with them.
People come to Wikipedia to obtain basic information, not to get sold on a product or service. As such, having a longer Wikipedia article is not necessarily better. Keeping an article short and to the point is likely to yield the same result, as people reading the article do not care about the extra fluff you may want in the article. Is it worth putting an awards section in the article if no one really cares other than volunteer editors who want to come along and place an ugly tag at the top of the article? Leaving certain items out of an article can be more beneficial than trying to cram it full of fluff and promotion.
Having a longer Wikipedia article is not necessarily better. Keeping an article short and to the point is likely to yield the same result, as people reading the article do not care about the extra fluff you may want in the article.
While a Wikipedia article is great to have as part of a promotional campaign, the content in the article should never be written as such. If you plan to tackle Wikipedia on your own, I would suggest partnering with a Wikipedia editing service who can read through the article and provide you feedback. Getting feedback from a professional prior to posting the article can lead to a better understanding of different guidelines and help mold your writing style to conform to Wikipedia standards.
As stated there are numerous companies that write Wikipedia pages, but only a few that are professional at what they do. I have many PR companies and marketing professionals as clients and handle most, if not all, of their Wikipedia projects. If you decide to go it alone, make sure that you adhere to Wikipedia guidelines such as notability and reach out to a professional if you run into any issues or need guidance on any policy or guideline established by the Wikipedia community.