Wikipedia is one of the stars of the social media web as thousands of volunteers have made Wikipedia the largest reference website on the Internet. Search engines (especially Google) love the content and a recent study by Micropersuasion showed that 11 of the top 20 advertised brands in the US had a Wikipedia page showing on Page 1 of the Google SERP for it’s brand.
The problem that brand managers are facing is that many of those Wikipedia articles included neutral or unsavory information about the brand. For example the McDonald’s Wikipedia entry is an online version of the critical movie Super Size Me.
Most brands are used to controlling and crafting the messaging around their brand. In today’s social media world, this one way communication path is obsolete. Over the next twelve months I expect to see a lot more emphasis put on reputation management by brands as they try to regain control about what is said about their products online.
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