What do we know about Wikipedia? We know it’s the place to go for detailed information and a full history about pretty much everything and anything. With billions of pages viewed every month from all over the world, it is an information source on all sorts of topics. If you have a question, Wikipedia has an answer.

If Wikipedia is such a valuable well of information, why isn’t everyone on Wikipedia? In theory anyone can add a page but it isn’t as easy as setting up a company LinkedIn page. Wikipedia is an open-source information site so they are extremely careful of the content that makes it onto certain pages. It would be easy to manipulate information or facts to make the page positive, Wikipedia’s mission is to be a website people come to for good, verified, unbiased information so pages with opinions tend to be taken down quickly.

If you want to set up a page on Wikipedia, these steps have been said to give you the best shot at making that happen.

1. Get Involved – Wikipedia is not just going to hand you a page. The page is going to come out of hard work. An easy way to get noticed by Wikipedia and page administrators is to volunteer to edit their pages. We have established that Wikipedia is crowd sourced content, but it is also up to the audience to fact check and edit. Lend your skills and knowledge and look through pages on subjects you’re an expert on and make sure the content is accurate. By participating, you’re helping the site be more factual and you are also establishing yourself as a trustworthy contributor for the site.
2. Get Noticed – This is going to sound harsh, but if no one is talking about your business then you don’t really have any reason to be on Wikipedia. Part of what makes Wikipedia so useful is the web of connected information it creates. Pages are linked back to other relevant information to give the reader the opportunity to learn more. Your page is less likely to be taken down if it has relevant links to other articles that mention your business or subjects directly related.
3. Be Transparent – You aren’t fooling anyone with language on your page that is incredibly favorable to you. Wikipedia content should be facts, figures and history. One of the pros of having a Wikipedia page is the credibility it creates. That added credibility goes out the window if you use Wikipedia as a platform to try to convince everyone how wonderful you are.
4. Keep Up – Last but not least if you are going to try your hand at Wikipedia, you better set aside some time in your week to monitor, maintain and keep up with your page. Monitoring the page is essential because you have no say over what people write about your business. Wikipedia does a good job of monitoring but it’s up to you to make sure that inaccurate information gets noticed and taken down.

There is no guarantee that following these steps will result in your very own Wikipedia page, but it is a good place to start. Having, or not having a Wikipedia page is not going to make or break your small business. It would be nice for increased exposure and credibility, but before you head down this path, factor in the amount of time it will take to get the page up and then monitor it on an ongoing basis.

Like any part of your marketing, you need to balance the investment with the reward and prioritize the activities which will have the best return. Need help with your marketing planning? Download our marketing budget package.