Wikis in PR

Internet has given various tools to public relations practitioners for effective communication with their organizations, internal and external publics, media and other stakeholders. These tools include emails, blogs, websites, social networks, search engines and many others .One tool which is still not explored and majorly used for external communication purposes is Wikis.

A Wiki is a website that allows the creation and editing of any number of interlinked web pages via a web browser using a simplified markup language or a WYSIWYG text editor.  It differs from a traditional website because the content is user created and dynamic.  This type of website allows any user to create and edit pages from the browser.  Users can even edit the existing entries, add new entries, and even create new pages.  . All of this occurs in an observable manner with all changes being logged and publicly viewable.  The most visited wiki is the user-created encyclopa , Wikipedia .Wikis change the role of the website user.  From just passive viewers of a document they become the potential creators, contributors, and editors.

The potential for wikis in public relations is great.  This form of website meets the requirements for dialogic communication in a way that other Internet tools are unable to.  In terms of relationship creations, management and enhancement, wikis are an ideal form of Internet communication. . A wiki can be used to suit your project, as it will reduce the time of having meetings , even the changes made to the wiki can be tracked by ‘watching’ – receiving email notifications when someone changes something, you can also upload documents, photos, videos etc.

Even for the purposes of research and development for a PR campaign wikis are of a great help. Wikis are used  internally do gain knowledge from organization’s internal stakeholders in order to get  better understanding of their perceptions, or externally in order to gain feedback from the public. This information can be valuable for several reasons as it will promote interactivity, stakeholder relations.

Wikis can be seen as a tool for applying Grunig’s principle of two-way-symmetrical communication where all users have an equal opportunity to make a contribution to the content which is communicated i.e. they have an option to provide their feedback. Wikis are of best use when formulating a joint piece of work or organizing an event where often plentiful copies of work are edited and are lost in the process of email – but a wiki allows for a single editable copy.

So the use of Wikis is huge for internal communication from a public relations perspective but for external communication, it is still limited because companies are afraid of vandalism. What if someone writes negative comments or expresses anger on the wiki page of organization ,the whole image and reputation will be soiled in few hours.  Because it is very difficult for PR practitioners to re edit the wrong information on organizations wiki page especially now when Wikipedia is available in more than 100 active language editions it will be really hard for PR practitioners to know what has been edited in which language edition.

So in my Opinion I think If a company uses a Wiki for external communication. Then it is very important that they have someone in charge  who whole-solely looks after it and keeps an eye on content which is added by people outside the organization.


Here is a video explaining How wikis can be used in an organization.

Sources
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Hrxes6qVkw
www.wiki.sdn.sap.com
http://www.wikipedia.org/
http://www.webpronews.com/putting-wikis-to-work-for-your-pr-program-2005-09
http://www.prismjournal.org/fileadmin/Praxis/Files/Journal_Files/Hickerson_Thompson.pdf