ROC Weekly Marketing Minute
ROC Weekly Marketing Minute
Creating a Wikipedia Page for Your Drug and Alcohol Rehab Center
Wikipedia is one of the highest ranking websites in the world, often appearing higher than LinkedIn and company websites in search engine results. Having a Wikipedia page can be an attractive goal for many professionals and businesses, but the process to get a Wikipedia page is challenging. While Wikipedia pages are often expensive and time-consuming to create, they can provide an added level of credibility and public exposure, benefitting you and your rehab center.
5 pillars of Wikipedia
While Wikipedia has no firm rules, it does operate under what they call its five pillars, including:
Wikipedia is an encyclopedia.
Wikipedia is written from a neutral point of view.
Wikipedia is free content that anyone can use, edit, and distribute.
Wikipedia’s editors should treat each other with respect and civility.
Wikipedia has no firm rules, only policies and guidelines.
Conditions for writing a Wikipedia page
Here is a list of conditions that you can consider and follow if you are interested in creating a Wikipedia page for yourself or your business:
Articles demonstrate neutrality. Content in Wikipedia articles must be written from a neutral point of view.
You can’t find any information about your technology or topic on Wikipedia. Only write a Wikipedia page if another one on the topic does not exist.
Your or your company are “notable.” Wikipedia editors apply a “notability” test to determine if your subject warrants a Wikipedia page, and passing that test is a requirement for publication.
You have multiple, verifiable sources. Wikipedia articles need multiple verifiable sources. These are “articles on reliable, third-party, published sources with a reputation for fact-checking and accuracy.” For example, university-level textbooks, books published by respected publishing houses, magazines, journals, and mainstream newspapers. It also helps if these references have their own Wikipedia page, as they are more likely to be considered reliable.
What does notability mean in the context of Wikipedia?
Notability guidelines are some of the most subjective aspects of getting a Wikipedia article. The key point to remember is “Existence does not prove notability.” To be considered notable, you will need to demonstrate that you and/or your business have garnered significant coverage by verifiable, reliable, and independent sources. Wikipedia states: “If a topic has received significant coverage in reliable sources that are independent of the subject, it is presumed to be suitable for a stand-alone article or list.”
Having your name or your business name simply mentioned in an article typically doesn’t qualify. Articles about you need to have you as the main subject. This includes articles that are in the form of an interview, a biography, or an article by a reasonably well-known author. These articles should have your name or business name in the title and be published on a recognizable site.
How to get an article on Wikipedia
If your organization is notable enough to deserve an article, and you wish to avoid the appearance of a conflict of interest, the best thing to do is to provide any useful sources and request that an independent editor create the article. Specifically:
On your user page, disclose your relationship to the organization.
Go to Wikipedia:Requested articles and find a category under which to list your request.
Describe the very basics of what your company is, no more than a couple of lines, and avoid puffery. Be up-front about your conflict of interest by mentioning it in the request.
Find a number of independent reliable sources that have substantial information about the topic and provide links to them in the request. Your own organization's material about itself does not count as such a source.
Optionally, find a WikiProject related to your organization's campaigns, products, or services if one exists. On the WikiProject's talk page, post a link to your request, and make sure to mention your relationship to the company so the person who creates the article understands where the request is coming from.
If the topic has promise, a member of the WikiProject (or any editor that regularly responds to article requests) may start an article in article space based on your sources. Keep in mind that due to the nature of Wikipedia and its community, being honest in your relationship with your company will increase the chances of your article being improved by the community, rather than deleted.
It may be helpful to create a draft of an article in a user subpage. You can also submit a draft through the Wikipedia:Article wizard, if you feel strongly that you can meet the requirements of neutrality and sourcing. However, be aware that even in a user subpage or through the article wizard, advertising is forbidden. Do not create a draft unless you are reasonably certain you can do so within Wikipedia's expectations. Do not be surprised if such a draft ends up deleted as advertising and be willing to adjust your approach.
If you have little or no experience with editing on Wikipedia, please realize that starting new articles that are soon removed can be very difficult for new users. Wikipedia has a lot of policies and guidelines that are not very obvious and may challenge new users who start from a blank page. The result is that Wikipedia deletes many articles from the site every day. To learn more, see Why was my page deleted?
A gentler introduction to Wikipedia is to begin by making small edits to existing articles, to gain experience and understanding before adding new articles, and to demonstrate a good faith interest in helping the Wikipedia project and not just your own organization. You may also request adoption by an experienced user who will help you learn to edit productively. Take your time and build your article in your user subpage. When you are ready, have an experienced editor review it and then deploy it as a regular article with an appropriate article title.
Tips to get a Wikipedia page written about you or your business
Here is a list of tips you can follow to increase your chances of getting a Wikipedia page published about you or your rehab center:
Go through community guidelines before creating a page
When you create a Wikipedia page, you need to be a registered user. If you start making edits without signing up, you won't gain credibility. You need to be at least 4-days-old as a user and edit 10 other articles before you start thinking about starting your own page.
Get many people involved to build your page
If the only person putting updates on the page is you, there is a probable chance that an editor might erase your content from the platform. It is important that you have multiple people who keep updating information about you on the platform. You can ask your colleagues or other Wikipedia writers to edit your page once in a while. You can find Wikipedia writers on LinkedIn, build a network, and edit each other's pages.
Create content which resonates with a large audience
A larger community of editors and readers would have to verify your content in order for it to last. Think clearly about what you want to write. If you are writing about yourself, think about what exactly have you done that deserves a Wikipedia page to communicate it to the world?
Make the readers feel more involved
The people who are visiting your personal Wikipedia page are almost like a part of your story. They are there because they are fascinated by you and want to know more. You can make the readers feel more involved in your journey by posting images of you and updating your profile regularly.
Hire a marketing agency to create and maintain your page
There are many marketing agencies that create and maintain Wikipedia profiles. It is likely that you will not have the time to make a Wikipedia page for yourself, given the constant updates required. A marketing agency can take care of all these requirements and can set the page up for you. They can even take care of the regular updates and visits that are required to build your profile.
Additional tips and links
Here is a list of things to keep in mind and helpful links you can visit to learn more:
Every article written on Wikipedia needs to be unique and a summarized version of the information. No copy and pasting from other sources- even if it is your own site.
Images are only allowed if you own them or they’re not subject to copyright.
You can read through Wikipedia’s Articles for Creation for additional explanations and guidance.
Get written about in as many places as possible. To help you qualify as a “notable” person, you and your business need to be featured in multiple, reliable, independent secondary sources. Because Wikipedia borrows its content and credibility from external editorial bodies, there needs to be credible content about you published in other reliable sources.
Remember that Wikipedia is not a directory. Here is a list of things that Wikipedia is not.
Use red-linking to your advantage. If there are pre-existing articles on Wikipedia that reference you or your work, you can go into those pages and red-link your name to alert people that your biography is missing from Wikipedia. This will help editors assess whether you need a standalone page or a biography on an already existing page.
Be cautious about writing your own Wikipedia page, as doing so can be viewed as violating Wikipedia’s stipulations for neutrality. This can lead to the page being rejected or taken down. Even more serious than the initial rejection is that once an article is rejected, it is very difficult to get a new page because Wikipedia flags it.
If you are interested in joining the ROC community, please complete this form for consideration: https://tinyurl.com/5btxe39z