Are you sometimes asked to by clients to assist them in editing their Wikipedia pages? This post will outline some of the challenges surround direct editing of Wikipedia pages (or even suggesting edits via Wikipedia “talk pages) and how direct editing of Freebase might be a more direct way of influencing change in Wikipedia pages.
Wikipedia’s conflict of interest policy
It is difficult for marketers who work on behalf of clients to make edits (or suggest edits to) our client’s pages due to Wikipedia’s conflict of interest. Wikipedia’s policy is that editors are strongly discouraged from editing articles where they have a conflict of interest, and Wikipedians have found that editors with a conflict of interest have a difficult time maintaining a neutral point of view.
In some instances it’s not only the Wikipedia backlash but also the negative media coverage that can occur from trying to influence the editing of pages where you have a conflict of interest that causes one to pause before offering to edit a client’s Wikipedia page. In 2013, BP was accused of rewriting their environmental record on Wikipedia by making requests using the Talk pages. Arturo Silva, a member of BP’s corporate communications department, clearly identified himself as a BP employee and made all his Wikipedia requests through the Talk pages but still received significant amount of negative media coverage.
Let’s talk about the “myth” that anyone can “edit” a page:
Technically yes – anyone can edit a Wikipedia page. But Wikipedians are wary of “paid editors” and you have to follow a diverse set of Wikipedia rules to add content in a format that they like. Our role (as a professional being paid on behalf of a client to edit a page) will most certainly cause the edit to be deleted and our accounts to be banned (this is even more true of PR professionals who attempt to edit pages). Public relations professionals face is what Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales calls a “bright line’ rule.” This rule requires public relations professionals to use the Talk pages to request changes to the Wikipedia articles for their company or client instead of directly editing the content. Wikipedia editors don’t trust anyone who is affiliated with a PR firm, and will either ignore PR people’s editing suggestions or will ban/block them. Here’s a recent run with Wikipedia editors from a PR person’s point of view: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/john-p-david/crack-the-code-on-wikiped_b_4914668.html
However, you can influence Wikipedia indirectly
There is another database (called Freebase) which is now owned by Google and is used by all of the major search engines. The search engines use the database to provide better personalized search results and as a way to understand concepts and how they inter-relate. It is also used by Google (along with other sources like Wikipedia, schema.org markups, CIA WorldFactbook and other sources) to power the Knowledge Graph box which can often take up to half of the Google search results pages for a particular query:
Did you know that updates to Freebase are also pinged directly to Wikipedia editors?
Unlike Wikipedia, anyone can edit Freebase, and to do so you need to log in with your Google+ profile to enable true transparency. (If you are going to try to edit a Freebase article you should also list your employer in your Google+ profile). Each edit that is made is then checked by a Google employee who checks the facts off of 2-3 other sources to ensure that the information is accurate. While this isn’t a direct way of changing a Wikipedia page, it is a way of influencing those pages and increasing the chances of your clients having a Knowledge box appear for their company name or executive’s names.
Here are the instructions for how to get started with Freebase:
Note, before you dive in, you might want to learn more about contributing here.
Step 1: Create your own user profile
- Go to: http://www.freebase.com/
- Sign up (top right hand corner)
- Sign in using your Google account
- Add yourself as a person:
- Click the Gear icon in the top-right corner
- Choose Add Topic
- https://www.freebase.com/people/person
- The name of the topic would be your First and Last Name
- Then add whatever public information you want to be openly available on that page (filling in the properties with the yellow down-down arrows on the left hand side of the property name. Note: the dropdown arrows are not visible until you rollover them with your mouse)
- Start to add/edit/update/correct other entities on the Freebase
- Currently no images but can be uploaded but nearly all the other information can be edited
Step 2: Make sure your topic is not already covered:
Many times when you think you need to create a new topic, you probably will NOT need to. Since Freebase already has millions and millions of existing topics, and sometimes the topic you need or want to link with, or select in a drop down, is already created. It’s just a matter of searching through the suggestions that appear in a drop down list or the flyout panel that appears and selecting the correct topic. (or even typing the right phrase into the input box)
Step 3: Add a new topic:
- Navigate to the larger category/type. (for example: person, skyscraper, book, business operation
- On Freebase.com, navigate to that Type (the Search interface at the top of each page is an easy way to do this)
- When you are on the type page, click “Add more topics” in the upper right of the page
- Enter the name of your new topic
- Once it is added, you can click through to it and then edit it to add more information.
- New topics usually appear in a Search within a minute or so, but this can be longer if the system is under high load.
I need to get a Wikipedia entry changed! What do I do?
There are seasoned Wikipedians who are paid Wikipedia editors that could potentially get an article edited for you. Not all editors have a strong history of getting edits made within Wikipedia, but I like William Beutler’s approach. His company is Beutler Ink and he has been working with the PR and Wikipedia community to see if larger changes can be made which makes it easier for PR people to support Wikipedia’s mission of having accurate information in their encyclopedia, and would be a strong resource to attempt to suggest edits to Wikipedia pages directly.
In the meantime, I would encourage you to create a Freebase account and start enhancing the information there based on your expertise.