This document provides best practices for brands and businesses to edit Wikipedia entries on their behalf while upholding Wikipedia's community ethics and processes. It advises assigning a single point of contact, creating a user page profile, auditing and substantiating any proposed edits through discussions on talk pages, and being patient and working within Wikipedia's processes and community guidelines. The goal is to maximize positive search results and brand reputation without violating any rules.

1. CONFIDENTIAL Copyright 2014 ROSETTA. This document is confidential and proprietary property.
Please do not forward or release this document without prior consent from ROSETTA.
FOR EDITING WIKIPEDIA
ENTRIES ON BEHALF OF A
BRAND OR BUSINESS
06.24.2014
TIPS

2. On June 10th, 2014, several large public
relations agencies pledged to uphold the
Wikipedia community ethics and
processes for contributing and editing
content on their clients’ behalf.
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Why is this significant?
• Wikipedia URLs tend to show up pretty high in search results.
• Editing a company’s Wikipedia articles can be difficult due to
perceived conflict of interest.
• Brands can get into trouble when they edit Wikipedia article
entries without input from the community, and this tends to
catch a lot of our clients off-guard.

4. 4
So, what’s a brand to do?
Best practices dictate that a
corporate user not actually edit or
create new content, but instead,
petition the Wikipedia community
to make changes/updates.

5. 5
Warning: This process can be
technical, tedious and long.

6. 6
...Still interested?
Here’s a primer of best practices
for requesting Wikipedia page
edits to maximize search results
and brand reputation – without
breaking any rules.

7. 1. Assign one point of contact from
your organization to communicate
with the Wikipedia community.
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8. 2. Create a User Page (profile) so
that you can register to contribute
to Wikipedia.
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9. 999
Think of a User Page as
your personal workspace
on Wikipedia, which
enables you to recommend
new content and article
updates for consideration
by Wikipedia editors.

10. 3. Audit your organization’s Wikipedia
page to determine any content gaps or
errors. Reference competitor pages
for a point of comparison.
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11. 4. Familiarize yourself with your
company’s Talk Page, which is the
forum used to engage with editors.
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This will also give insight
into editor conversations
about existing content
and identify possible
influencers within the
community.

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5. Substantiate content edits and
additions to suggest to the
community.
Explain why the changes or new content are warranted in
as unbiased a way as possible.

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Explain why the changes
or new content are
warranted in as unbiased
a way as possible.

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6. Pick your battles and prioritize
your requests. Since a corporation
must rely on the approval (and
pace) of the community, the
process of editing or adding
content can be cumbersome.

16. 16
7. Communicate with editors via
your organization’s Talk Page. If a
specific topic or issue is already
being discussed on the Talk Page,
add a comment to that section. If
not, start a new topic.

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8. Speak in the editors’ language
to avoid the “tell” of a newbie user.
For example, properly format communications within
Wikipedia and sign your contributions by typing four tildes
(~~~~) at the end of your comment.

18. 18
For example, properly
format communications
within Wikipedia and sign
your contributions by typing
four tildes (~~~~) at the end
of your comment.

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9. Address feedback and questions
from the community. Do not move
forward with any of your
recommended edits until you
receive the go-ahead from a
Wikipedia editor.

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10. Crickets? If it’s been a couple
of weeks, type {{help me}} within
the article Talk Page where you
have not heard a response.

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The process is understandably
intimidating, but in general, the
Wikipedia community is
appreciative of a good faith effort.

22. 22
The upfront prep time is well
worth forgoing the headache of
putting out fires later.

23. THANK YOU
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