Tuesday, August 10, 2010

Learning Social Media Part 2: Wikis

I know I haven't posted in a long time. This whole part time job thing is taking over my life! But the update is that I'm moving to Atlanta Oct. 2nd! I'm very excited and now I need to dedicate most of my free time to find a job!!

However, I have been really getting into social media and learning what it has to offer. So today--I'm learning about Wikis. According to Wiki.com a Wiki is "A database of pages which visitors can edit live." Essentially, you could make a wiki about anything: vacations, businesses etc. The wiki allows users to edit the pages right in your internet browser. Edits can be made in real time and appear almost instantly within the wiki page. Many wikis now are making their editing easier to casual users with WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get). This way the user doesn't need to know HTML in order to add graphical elements to the page (bold, italic, pictures etc.) sort of like when you're editing your Blogger page!

Most wikis record each edit of a page. This makes it easy for users to revert back to a more "correct" version of the page if the edited content is inappropriate or false information. Wikis have attracted the interest in experts and have becoming more and more trustworthy. Most have links to articles used as reference, so they are a good tool to use if you need references for a paper on a subject like... security printing...

A wiki that I used in college for research help was PrintWiki:


The PrintWiki allows users to add or delete information. They also encourage using the wiki as a forum for discussions on print related issues. PrintWiki posts Industry news so you can stay updated on topics that are discussed on the wiki.

Wikis are a useful tool in marketing. However, using a wiki for marketing a business or product there a set of suggested rules to follow. Wikis are used to give information, so you want to avoid sounding too biased or too promotional; stick to the facts. On Wikipedia's own "Starting an article in Wikipedia" page, they suggest writing with a neutral point of view to avoid conflicts of interest. Wikipedia also states that wiki pages/articles should be notable, meaning that it should be found in an encyclopedia. So you shouldn't write about yourself or your own business. Businesses should just edit the content written ABOUT them rather than write about themselves, but again remembering to stay neutral. You can read more about creating a Wikipedia article at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:Starting_a_new_page

I hope that expanded your view of wikis. Wikis help engage people in topics and encourage creativity and discussions with people across the country and even the world. Definitely something to learn if you want to really get into social media and information.

So I'm continuing my job search today (helping out some other new grads about navigating the job sites). I've already applied to a couple social media positions. I hope I hear from someone soon! I might have to get in contact with Clemson GC department and see if they know of any position in the Atlanta area.

Signing off still...

FUN-EMPLOYED!!

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