Immediately after its creation, Wikipedia the free encyclopedia became the most preferred source of information. Therefore, web researchers didn’t need to go through Google`s million search results. Soon after, people realized they could not cite Wikipedia as a credible source of information even for college thesis paper. The reason for this shortfall was because of its user-edited nature. Surprisingly, it turns out that Wikipedia is a good platform for digital marketing. There are various reasons why Wikipedia marketing and branding is still a valuable venture.
The fact that Wikipedia is a good platform for digital marketing might be a shocker to digital marketers. The reality is that it is one of the places where successful businesses have been flocking to market their products. Consider the fact that Wikipedia is a resourceful site when it comes to sources of information. Remember the emergence of the “Knowledge graph”? Google started pulling information from Wikipedia pages to fill the knowledge graph. Other similar platforms include Wikidata and also Google+.
Wikipedia is a good place to get started for businesses that wish to establish an online presence. If people find information about your brand on Wikipedia, they are more likely to read what is on Wikipedia before checking out your website! A question that emerges is how can Wikipedia be used as a digital marketing tool by marketers? Here is a guide for implementing Wikipedia marketing that digital marketers need to follow. Therefore, when you want to incorporate Wikipedia in your digital marketing, consider the following:
#1 Start by Creating a Wikipedia Page
To include Wikipedia marketing as one of your digital marketing strategies, you need a Wikipedia page first. As illustrated above, Wikipedia page acts as a source of information for Google`s Knowledge Graph. Globally, Wikipedia ranks number five relative to other sites. In the United States alone, the website ranks number 6. (Alexa.com).
Therefore, it is important for digital marketers to consider creating a Wikipedia page so as to take advantage of this great popularity. But wait, who qualifies to create a page on Wikipedia? This is a question that many people would ask. Notability is a test that is used by editors when they want to decide that the topic was chosen warrants an article. Ideally, a topic is presumed by Wikipedia to be suitable for its own article if it has received a noteworthy coverage in independent reliable sources. Therefore, before you start creating a page for your company, it is important to ensure you choose a topic that has received in-depth coverage from reliable sources. It is important to ensure you meet independence criteria when choosing a relevant topic.
There are additional guidelines to be allowed to create a Wikipedia page. For instance, your Wikipedia page should not create a conflict of interest. In addition, the content published on Wikipedia page should take neutrality point of view. You should also practice civility before you publish content on Wikipedia.
#2 Take Advantage of Wikipedia Backlinks
Wikipedia has managed to build itself as an incredible and a high profile website that is full of authority. SEO experts might argue that Wikipedia backlinks are no follow and therefore have no significant value when it comes to digital marketing. However, the truth is that the Wikipedia backlinks carry significant importance when it comes to making your brand visible. Therefore, it is advisable that digital marketers take advantage of the Wikipedia backlinks. Note that adding backlinks on Wikipedia page will not give you any link juice.
Wikipedia backlinks have a huge potential when it comes to positioning and authority when being cited on a Wikipedia article. Consider adding in-text links that point to another Wikipedia page. For instance, you might want to find articles on Wikipedia that need sources.
This could also be sources that could fit into your articles. For example, you can take advantage of the articles that need to be expanded and add in a relevant source. Note that you need to go through thousands of articles to be expanded to find the right one that suits you. However, to make the experience better, take advantage of third-party tools like Wikigrabber, which helps Wikipedia article creators find pages that need sources.
Dead links opportunity is also good enough when it comes to Wikipedia backlinking. Probably your content is what the Wikipedia moderators have been looking for. Therefore, grab the opportunity to make your brand more visible online.
#3 Keep Monitoring your Presence on Wikipedia
We began by illustrating how Wikipedia credibility as a cited source in academia failed. Should this be the reason why you need to monitor your Wikipedia presence continuously? However, just like in any other digital marketing strategy, you need to monitor how well Wikipedia marketing performs.
As you monitor your Wikipedia marketing, you also want to be sure not just anyone else will manage your Wikipedia marketing content. When it comes to monitoring the Wikipedia marketing content, you can use various approaches. These include the Enabling Notifications on Wikipedia
To begin with, it is important to make sure you have an active Wikipedia account. Since you already have Wikipedia page and your Wikipedia marketing content on the page, it’s obvious that you signed for the account. Now, you need to add your business or personal e-mail through which you will be receiving notifications from Wikipedia.
Wikipedia allows you to subscribe for notifications whenever you want to receive important alerts like edited Wikipedia marketing content. To do so, Navigate to your Wikipedia page, and on the top of the page, you will see Preferences tab on the right-hand side. Click on the preferences tab, and you will see Notifications. Once you open the notifications tab, you will have options for setting how to receive the notifications and the frequency. Set the frequency to daily for close monitoring.
You might also wish to add your Wikipedia marketing content page to your watch list. There is a “Watchlist” tab on the top side of the Wikipedia page that you can use to add the page to your watch list.
#4 Avoid Using Wikipedia as a Promotional Tool
Wikipedia guidelines indicate clearly that the content published should not be promotional in any case. Therefore, using the platform as a promotional tool will lead to a violation of the rules. Ideally, the website requires you to publish only content that takes complete neutrality. Therefore any page that contains promotional tone is pulled down literally (Legalmorning).
When referring to Wikipedia marketing, note that our argument emphasizes on creating an online brand visibility and not publishing promotional content. For promotional content, the publisher will use a biased tone with the intention of attracting buyer’s attention. However, with getting your brand visible, it is not necessary for you to write promotional content. Therefore, only use unbiased tone when creating Wikipedia page content.
As an example, check out KLM`s Wikipedia page. The company has published general information about KLM and the tone used is purely non-promotional. They start by sharing the company’s history, gives information on the corporate affairs, their destinations, and also about their current fleet. Further, they share crucial information about their services but in an unbiased manner. Basically, the intention is just to share the company’s information. Here is a screenshot of the KLM Wikipedia Page.
If you look at it from the marketing perspective, the Wikipedia page silently lures you into booking with KLM next time you want to travel. However, the editor chooses a very neutral approach when publishing the content. For marketers, we can say this is a strategic Wikipedia marketing approach. Therefore, for your companies Wikipedia page, it is important to borrow from what KLM has done.
#5 Keep Wikipedia Pages Up To Date
We have said that Wikipedia offers a good potential for marketers because of the high authority the site enjoys. Note that the information on Wikipedia will be verified and high accuracy is important to earn credibility. Therefore, it is important to ensure you have updated the information on Wikipedia page to reflect a high degree of accuracy. Otherwise, your Wikipedia marketing efforts will not be fruitful.
Note that if you maintain updated content on Wikipedia, you are increasing your brand’s trust online. Consider that if your clients find inaccurate information, this breaches the trust and affects your brand credibility overall.
For example, let’s say you have published information indicating that you operate in five European countries. In a likely event that you have shut down in two of the countries, update this information immediately.
This is important so that you will not be misguiding the people who will be viewing your Wikipedia content. Again, this has a negative effect because your content lacks accuracy. Overdeveloped pages on your company risk being frowned upon by the community members (econsultancy.com).
This amounts to enough reasons why the page should be removed from Wikipedia. Factual Wikipedia marketing content will rank high in search results. Therefore, if you are aiming at appearing in the top results, you should only publish content that is up to date. As a rule of thumb, also makes sure your content is unbiased.
#6 Use Photos within Wikipedia Marketing Content
We have talked about the Google Knowledge Graph. The Knowledge graph also captures images to display as part of the information. Images have a huge potential since they attract more page views. Therefore, it is always a good idea to ensure that you have added images to your Wikipedia page.
Make sure the images that you use of high quality. Blurred images affect the quality score when posted online. Basically, it is important to include the images that your potential clients easily identify. Also, the color code used should represent your brand so that your clients and the audience viewing your Wikipedia page can easily identify your brand on search results.
To Sum Up
Use of Wikipedia as a marketing platform has been going on for a very long time. Established brands like KLM and Coca-Cola have Wikipedia presence, and this has helped the companies become popular. Small businesses can borrow from these established brands. We have illustrated that the website has established itself as an information source. However, the fact that anyone can edit Wikipedia pages is a cause of alarm for some people.
To get started, you have to create a Wikipedia page. While creating the page, make sure you if adhere to the notability requirements. Secondly, take advantage of Wikipedia backlinks to promote your brand online visibility. Carefully identify the backlinks that you should use on your content. You can make use of Wikipedia grabber tools that are available online.
Just like with other digital marketing campaigns, it is important that you monitor your Wikipedia presence. Subscribe to receive important notifications. Most importantly, avoid using promotional tone on Wikipedia. Lastly, make sure you have updated the information that you publish on Wikipedia.
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