PR & Wikipedia

From Contention to Cooperation

It's the first place your audience members go when they need to look something up: Wikipedia is one of the world's largest reference websites, attracting 400 million unique visitors monthly. In this session, you will:

• Get a 360-degree view of where public relations and Wikipedia intersect.
• Learn how the public relations industry and Wikipedia are now exploring a spirit of cooperation.
• Find out how to work with the Wikipedia community to serve the public interest of objectively accurate entries.

More Social Media Training from PRSA

Moderator Phil Gomes is senior vice president with Edelman Digital, where he is responsible for crafting the online engagement policies and standards for the agency and its clients, as well as serving as an educator and counselor with regard to online communities. While at Edelman, he has counseled clients within the energy, health, financial, technology, automotive and consumer packaged goods sectors. In this role, he challenges teams and companies to engage with online communities in ways that are compelling, persuasive and parallel to “digital citizenship” expectations.

John Cass, SNCR founding fellow, is author of the PR Communications blog.

Jeff Taylor is an associate strategist at New Media Strategies, a Washington, D.C.-based social media agency and subsidiary of Meredith Corporation. There, he has consulted with and trained Fortune 500 brand teams on the methods of effective and ethical Wikipedia engagement. Known as “Jeff Bedford” on Wikipedia, he has been an active participant in the community since 2010. Working with clients such as PepsiCo and Honda, Taylor identifies inaccuracies, approaches other Wikipedia editors, makes them aware of the relationship he has with his client, and proposes corrections and changes for their consideration. This method ensures community approval of content revisions, and also adheres to FTC-mandated disclosure standards. His overall approach and recommendation for public relations professionals is to disclose and discuss instead of making unannounced direct changes to Wikipedia articles. Taylor’s primary area of focus outside of Wikipedia is the development of Facebook strategies for CPG, retail and technology brands.

Dave Coustan is vice president of content strategy and planning at Voce Communications. There, he leads and manages content initiatives across Voce’s client roster. His work and personal projects reflect an ongoing passion for the history and evolution of Web culture. He has more than twelve years of experience developing and executing successful online entertainment, ecommerce, communications and marketing projects with major brands on the agency side, and on the client side as one of the first official corporate bloggers and social media strategists for a Fortune 1000 company at EarthLink.