Take the Plunge into Wikis!

Another FREE Web 2.0 Tool to Leverage Clients’ Brands

Last week I revisited the concept of Facebook that was one of the basic Web 2.0 concepts from my first post. This week I am going to focus on Wikis.

Just to review:

•Wikis: Term means “quick” and “fast.” It is a type of website that allows users to add, remove, and edit all content without need for registration. The most famous example being Wikipedia-(www.wikipedia.com).

Wikipedia is a great FREE tool to leverage clients’ brands. It has become common practice to add a company-(your clients’) as well as information about their products, services, technology, etc. to Wikipedia or other wikis.

Wikis are effective tools for collaborative writing because they allow anyone that visits the site to easily add, remove, and edit information.

PR practioners that want to jump on the wiki trend should:

•Research wikis relevant to your client, their products, services, industry topics.
•Make sure your purpose for the wiki is clear and narrowly focused.
•Enter company information as well as information regarding their products, services, etc. in Wikipedia or other relevant wikis.
•Monitor wiki entries to make sure important information isn’t altered.
•Enter and edit information on your clients’ behalf to other revelevant wikis.

Here is a link to “The New PR/Wiki" site: http://www.thenewpr.com/wiki/pmwiki.php?pagename=Main.HomePage which contains pertinent information about how Web 2.0 is changing PR practice and is a collaboration tool and open forum for PR professionals to ask questions, post ideas, or start a project.

In addition to free wikis, there are a multitude of wiki products in the market, ranging from hosted services and back-end appliances, to do-it-yourself open source implementations – each ranging in cost and complexity too. It is up to you to determine which service meets your unique needs, however, most companies prefer the hosted services offered by commercial providers like JotSpot (http://www.jot.com/) and Socialtext (http://www.socialtext.com/). With the hosted services there’s no installation and no set-up, you just need a few minutes and a credit card and your wiki is born!