[WikiEN-l] PR consultants: perhaps Wikipedia is not the ideal promotional medium

[David Goodman]

A PR agent should be able to learn how to write a neutral article, if
they see one aspect of their role as to provide information about
their client, not necessarily to directly promote them. In the fields
I work in, I have frequently worked with PR staff, and about half of
them have proved open to learning a new medium.  (The basic
instruction I give them is to write a dull an article as possible,
remove all possible adjectives, use the minimum number of words, give
the name of the company only once, list nobody but the successive
CEOs, provide specific sourced numbers about market share,  and give
no contact information beyond the principal web site.) And when I see
a promotional article for a notable company, if I have the time i
neither delete nor blank it, but rewrite it according to my just those
instructions.

And if we had a systematic campaign to provide basic information about
all companies that meet our notabiliity requirements, the way we do
for populated places, it would greatly diminish the tendency for
people to think they needed to write their own article.

David Goodman, Ph.D, M.L.S.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_talk:DGG



On Fri, Apr 2, 2010 at 5:34 AM, Samuel Klein <meta.sj at gmail.com> wrote:
> This article makes my week.
>
> I generally feel we should blank articles more and delete them less,
> but this is an area where the explicit rebuff of deletion has its
> advantages.
>
> SJ
>
> On Wed, Mar 31, 2010 at 8:41 PM, Durova <nadezhda.durova at gmail.com> wrote:
>> Excellent piece.  Especially the close about how it's a difficult position
>> for PR professionals to report to the client that the article was deleted.
>>
>> -Durova
>>
>> On Wed, Mar 31, 2010 at 1:35 PM, David Gerard <dgerard at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>>
>>> http://rushprnews.com/2010/03/31/pr-consultants-should-think-twice-before-using-wikipedia-to-promote-clients
>>>
>>> PR consultants should think twice before using Wikipedia to promote clients
>>> March 31, 2010
>>>
>>> Leicestershire, UK (RPRN) 03/31/10 — PR consultants are being advised
>>> to think twice before incorporating Wikipedia entries into campaign
>>> strategies after the site started cracking down on articles submitted
>>> by any public relations agency it considered to be using its resource
>>> to promote clients.
>>>
>>>
>>> (muwahaha. Spotted by Mathias Schindler. The article sets out en:wp's
>>> rationales and likely actions very well indeed.)
>>>
>>>
>>> - d.
>>>
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>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> http://durova.blogspot.com/
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