Wiki's: What are they?

A Wiki is another form of website where users create the content. The most well-known wiki is Wikipedia, essentially an online encyclopedia created by, well, all of us.  Use it like you would use an encyclopedia (not a search engine.)

Is there a marketing opportunity in wiki's?  Yes, but for most businesses I would say there are other online tactics that will drive more revenue, including email marketing,  blogging and word-of-mouth marketing to name a few.

Wiki's and blogs sound similar, and they are.  The main difference is that a wiki will read more like an encyclopedia, and a blog more like an ongoing conversation.  You can now create a "Product Wiki" on Amazon.com, as dozens have done for the book Freakonomics  (scroll down to the bottom.)

Why does Amazon have forums, customer reviews and a wiki?  Does it sound like overkill?  Yes, there's lots of overlap, but a huge online brand like Amazon understands that they need to give their customers different ways to get involved. Some prefer a wiki, while others would rather write a review. More on how this will shake-out later; things are moving fast.  Wiki's are undoubteldy one more way to leverage the internet.

wiki wiki+marketing small+business smb sme leverage+the+internet

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Comments

[Michael Rolph]

Todd at The Bullshit Observer passed along an article from AdPulp.

It says that two online travel guides that use the wiki format-- "user-contributed" content-- have been acquired for a (large) undisclosed sum.

Also of note-- the two sites garner 2 MILLION visits a month. Wiki's are big business, just like blogs.

The article is here.