3 reasons why you should leave writing your Wikipedia article to a professional

One thing is clear: everything of significance in the world has its own entry on Wikipedia. Having your own Wikipedia article would therefore boost your company’s image enormously.

The relevance criteria and guidelines you must meet in order to publish your own article have already been covered in previous articles.

The key point we took away was this: having your own Wikipedia article is brilliant. But getting it published is harder than we thought.

Whilst the relevance criteria, guidelines and fundamental principles that must be observed ensure Wikipedia’s reliability and transparency as a source of information, they also make it more difficult to write and publish an article.

In other words: simply typing a few nice words to make your business look good is not enough. If you breach the criteria and guidelines set out by Wikipedia, the article will be deleted.

Ambitious and determined individuals may now be motivated to fight their way through the jungle of work and the conditions they have to meet on their own.

At this stage, one can only wish them the best of luck, as there is a high probability that the whole process of writing and publishing will fail.

If you want a Wikipedia article to be not only of a high standard but also accepted by the community, you should definitely consider seeking the help of a professional writer.

Why is that? These three reasons will convince you.

Reason 1: Neutrality and conflicts of interest

Two important aspects that one should definitely bear in mind when writing a Wikipedia article are neutrality and conflicts of interest.

As anyone can potentially create and edit a Wikipedia entry, content marketers often think they can simply write a Wikipedia article for their company themselves. However, doing so contravenes several of Wikipedia’s guidelines.

One of Wikipedia’s key principles is neutrality. When publishing an article, you must ensure that it has been written in a completely neutral manner, without any bias or embellishment.

Wikipedia sees itself as a reputable encyclopaedia that has no interest in being part of a marketing strategy for your business. Transparency and objectivity are key requirements for an article to be included.

Conflicts of interest

If you or your colleagues write a Wikipedia article about your business, neutrality is not guaranteed. As an integral part of the company – and therefore also the subject of the article – it is virtually impossible to present the facts without a personal and emotional undertone.

And even if you or your staff were to succeed in doing so, it would still constitute a conflict of interest. As someone involved with the company, you are biased on this issue. Your personal interests could influence the content of the article, which would violate the fundamental principle of neutrality.

You should also refrain from editing an existing article where there is a conflict of interest. The Wikipedia community generally endeavours to identify conflicts of interest.

Wikipedia contributors generally use pseudonyms, which guarantee anonymity. If you are working on an article whilst having a conflict of interest, this undermines your anonymity. You may be publishing information that is known only within the company and cannot be substantiated by sources. This makes it easier to trace connections back to specific individuals, which has a negative impact on you and the reputation of your company.

Conflicts of interest in sourcing

Neutrality and conflicts of interest relate not only to the writing of articles, but also to the citation of sources.

The fundamental principle of neutrality also requires that facts and statements be substantiated by reliable sources. If, in a conflict of interest, one cites one’s own literature or other publications as sources, these are deemed to be non-neutral.

This does not mean that you are not allowed to cite any sources or publications that you have written or published. However, these must be assessed as reliable by independent authors or editors and included accordingly. This ensures a neutral point of view when citing sources.

If you consider your own publications to be suitable evidence, you may refer to them in discussions. Other authors and editors can evaluate the sources independently and, if appropriate, add them to the article. If you add your own sources without consultation, in the worst-case scenario you may come across as untrustworthy and self-promoting.

Reason 2: Time and effort

Given the amount of work involved in the entire process of creating a Wikipedia article, you should allow plenty of time. Even if we set aside the issue of neutrality for the moment, it is still doubtful whether you will be able to devote the time required to produce a high-quality article that will ultimately be accepted.

If you take a step-by-step look at the process from writing to publication, it becomes clear just how much effort is involved.

Step 1: Checking encyclopaedic relevance

Firstly, you should check whether your company is of encyclopaedic relevance at all. Your company must meet at least one of the specified relevance criteria. You must also be able to substantiate this using reliable sources.

You should also start familiarising yourself now with the general guidelines and basic principles for writing a Wikipedia article. You can also create an account now and explore the features for yourself, as well as review and check other articles. This will help you learn how to apply the basic principles correctly.

Step 2: Gathering sources

Before you start writing the Wikipedia article itself, you should find external and reliable sources that will later back up your facts. This prevents you from including statements in your text that you cannot substantiate with sources. Every claim you make about your company must be substantiated.

Facts based purely on experience are not enough. The content of your article must be true and unbiased. You therefore need reliable third-party sources, which can sometimes be difficult to find.

Reference books, journals, other websites, articles and videos are all sources where you can look for evidence. For example, is there a journal that has reported on your leading position compared with a rival company? Or have local magazines documented the establishment and growth of your business?

Such external sources are particularly important for the credibility of your article. It is also important to bear in mind that all copyright laws relating to text and images must be observed. If you use material covered by specific licences without the rights holder’s consent, your article will be deleted.

Step 3: Writing the article

Once you have met all the previous requirements, you can start on the task itself.

When writing the article, you should follow a general structure. It is important to start with an introduction that briefly introduces your company. You should then go on to describe the history of your company. Finally, you should describe key products or services.

Once again, please note: your statements must be neutral and factual, and must be backed up by reliable sources. This is particularly true when describing services: less is more. It is important to use modest wording here, as otherwise your article could come across as an advertisement.

When writing the article itself, certain formal requirements must also be observed. There are general guidelines on formatting, citing quotations and compiling the list of references at the end of the article. It is helpful to look at articles from similar organisations as examples.

Step 4: Submit for review

Once you are sure that you meet all the criteria and can provide a factual, high-quality Wikipedia article, it is submitted for review. This process can take up to several weeks.

Your article will be checked and edited during the review process. You will also receive feedback on any missing or unnecessary content in your article.

Reason 3: Experience

If this is the first time you’ve written a Wikipedia article, you probably don’t have much experience in any of the areas just explained. Professional writers, on the other hand, do.

Many copywriters offer professional Wikipedia article writing services. They already have experience in adhering to relevance criteria, guidelines and any other formal requirements that need to be observed.

What’s more, whilst writing the article, they adopt something important that you’re likely to overlook: a neutral point of view. If a copywriter writes your Wikipedia article, you avoid a conflict of interest and the neutral point of view is maintained.

Copywriters also have significantly more experience in knowing what content actually belongs in an article and what information is unnecessary. They are also skilled at citing sources.

And let’s not forget about style and spelling. Grammatical errors and sloppy language give the impression of an unprofessional company. You should also bear in mind that writing the Wikipedia article isn’t finished once you’ve published it. Quite the contrary: your article needs to be updated as soon as there are new developments or achievements within your company. You should also consider making your article accessible to a wider audience by having it translated into several languages and then publishing it.

A professional copywriter will help you create the article of your dreams

It is not just writing the Wikipedia article itself, but also ensuring that all criteria and guidelines are followed, that results in a great deal of work. The individual steps required to publish an article illustrate this.

Alongside day-to-day work, it is therefore extremely difficult to find enough time to meet all the conditions and requirements necessary for an article to be published. You or any of your company’s staff are also in a conflict of interest, which is why you should refrain from writing your own article in the first place.

What’s more, not everyone has the talent to write meaningful, well-written texts.

This is where copywriters come in. They not only ensure that all criteria and guidelines are met, but also that your Wikipedia article ‘survives’ the critical Wikipedia community. By writing in neutral and clear language, they provide you with a high-quality article. This minimises the likelihood of your article being deleted due to breaches of the guidelines.

So, if, before writing a Wikipedia article, you find yourself torn between the choice of investing financial resources (i.e. hiring a writer) or time (i.e. writing it yourself), you should always bear the desired end result in mind.

Not only can you get this done more quickly by a professional copywriter, but your own Wikipedia article may well end up being even better than you could ever have hoped for in your wildest dreams.