1. Do your research first. Before creating any content on Wikipedia, learn about the Wikipedia community and how it works. Learning the ins and outs of being a good Wikipedia citizen will help ensure your page won’t be deleted or challenged after you’ve submitted it for review. I read a number of articles before creating my client’s page, including How to Game Wikipedia, by BNet, and MarketingSherpa’s, How to Get Your Company Listed on Wikipedia, Part I. I also found Eloqua’s, The Grande Guide to Wikipedia, very helpful.
2. Create an account. You must be a registered user to make changes to existing Wikipedia pages and articles, as well as to create your own. Creating an account is pretty straightforward. I advise using your real name and email address.
3. Start small. It pays to start by making small edits to existing pages to test your skills before trying to create new content. I started with pages with which I was already familiar. My son’s fencing coach, for example, is an Olympic medalist and has a Wikipedia page. I updated it by adding some biographical information I found on the internet and added a link back to his fan club’s website.
By making these small changes, I was able to get more familiar with the site’s content management system and build my Wikipedia user profile. Once you create an account, every change you make on Wikipedia is recorded on your user page, which anyone can access — anyone being Wikipedia editors and other users. With enough editing and creating activity under your belt, you can become an “auto-confirmed user.” This gives you permission to perform certain restricted functions, such as uploading images and moving pages to the public space.
4. Gather your sources. While you’re feeling your way around Wikipedia, begin gathering sources for the page or article you want to create. This will save you a huge amount of time once you’re ready to create your page.
Sources are tremendously important in Wikipedia. Wikipedia is an encyclopedia (not another marketing channel for promoting your product), and this means everything on your page needs to be verified. I can’t stress this enough.
Even if you’re a notable inventor or a famous person who rowed across the Atlantic in a plastic tub, you can’t simply sit down and write a Wikipedia page based on your experience. Sorry, but you’ll need third-party sources such as printed material (books and magazines) and online material such as websites, articles, or videos to support the information you provide.
Your content must be factual and unbiased. When creating my client’s technology page, I had to include information about competitors and their technology, as well as links to their sites. You’ll want your facts to be straight so you’re not accused of any misrepresentation.
Also, consider including images. You’re only allowed to use images you own or images not subject to copyright. I learned this the hard way — I had to delay the launch of my client’s page while I walked them through the process of uploading their copyrighted images.
5. Write the copy. After all those other steps, you are finally ready to get down to the writing and posting of your Wikipedia content. I wrote my client’s page in Word first, cut and pasted it into the Wikipedia interface, and then formatted it from there. You can add your page to the Sandbox, where you can format it or you can add it to your My Talk page (part of your user account), which is what I did. I chose the My Talk page as the content is regularly cleared out of the Sandbox; keeping it in My Talk ensured it wouldn’t be deleted.
Formatting the page using “Wiki code” took a little while. It’s a tedious process even if you’re HTML savvy, which I am, so be sure to allow time for this or hire someone to do it for you. You can learn more about Wiki Code by reading Wikipedia’s Help Pages.
6. Submit the page for review. Once your page is complete and error-free, you will need to submit it to Wikipedia for review. This process can take as little as a few days or as long as a few weeks or more to get a response.
