64 percent of top companies neglect Wikipedia
The German-language Wikipedia gives companies the opportunity to contribute to their own articles - as long as they follow the rules. All that is required is a verified user account. However, 64 percent of the hundred most important companies in terms of their domestic value added do not make use of this option - including major players such as Volkswagen, Daimler and Deutsche Telekom. This is the result of an evaluation of over 11,000 verified Wikipedia user accounts.
"The disinterest shown towards Wikipedia is hard to understand, after all Wikipedia is a source of information of great importance - for editors, business partners, customers and potential employees", explains Peter Montag, Wikipedia expert at the PR agency Aufgesang. "The impression is particularly unfavorable if there are already 'maintenance modules' in the articles. That's because they indicate that content is outdated and in need of revision or updating, as in the case of Linde or Stadtwerke München."
Markus Franz, Managing Director of the PR agency Sucomo, adds: "Apparently, the insight into the relevance of the online encyclopedia does not automatically grow with the size of a company. Due to structural problems, the entries are often outdated, but are called up more frequently than the Facebook profile. History, products, company structure and criticism are often not in any meaningful relationship. If you want to change this, you have to interact with the community. Many smaller municipal utilities, credit unions and medium-sized companies have already recognized this, but only a few large corporations."
More top companies without a verified Wikipedia user account:
- German Railway
- Schaeffler Group
- Schwarz Group (Lidl, Kaufland)
- Alliance
- Metro
- Boehringer Ingelheim
- KfW Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau
- Fraport
- KPMG (Germany)
- Axel Springer
What's the deal with verification?
The verification ensures that the company is easily recognizable for the community (transparency). For this purpose, it is sufficient to send an e-mail with the name of the future user account and the request for verification to info-de-v@wikimedia.org to send. The sender address must be clearly assignable to the company (@unternehmen.de). This makes it possible to determine that the new user is able to send messages from the company's domain. This is not a real authentication.
After activation, each user should store additional information on the user page - such as details about the identity of the specific person contributing and their position in the company. This creates trust in the community. The responsible employee acts on behalf of his company and is therefore considered a "paid writer" - he should disclose this on the user page.
A free guide offers advice and support on all questions relating to Wikipedia: https://www.aufgesang.de/wikipedia-leitfaden
