What is the average weight of a male orca?

How many years did Charles I of England reign?

What is the definition of a wiki?

Wikipedia and the proliferation of wiki resources from both external and internal communities have served as open source organization for the internet.

Put simply? It's the fastest and most efficient means to build a base of knowledge about a particular subject by tapping into a general collective. It institutionalizes knowledge for a particular category. Want to know the answer to a random question? You'll probably find it on Wikipedia.

What implications does the crowdsourcing of knowledge have for businesses?

1. You don't control your message. Your customers do.

Ever see a corporation try to edit a public Wikipedia page? It's ugly, messy and will likely lead to a failure on the part of the corporation trying to amend and change the language.

This doesn't have to be the case. Most of the issues come from a top-down mentality for corporate communications. You can't just jump into a community and assume you have the right to control your message. It's arrogant, short-sighted and will stir up a hornets nest.

So to marketers who ask, “How can I control negative comments?” or “How can I control what people say about me on social sites?”, I can offer no solace. And I warn them from trying to find the relief they so desperately seek in new products, creative techniques, or consultants that promise greater control. These companies sell the equivalent of today’s snake oil.

Instead, I hope that the conversation at this event begins with the simply acknowledgment that marketers are no longer in control, and instead, stress that it’s time to think about building a real relationship with those customers, one that is based on trust and dialog. To me, that would seem to be a much healthier way to approach the problem of feeling out of control. ~Charlene Li, The Altimeter Group

2. Understand the rules.

Wikis don't have a traditional hierarchy. It's a democracy; albeit a loose one. Those who contribute more and create more infrastructure? Will gain power. Those who don't will receive less benefit. It's a classic case of the more you put in? The more you get out.

If you adhere to the rules of Wikipedia and listen, work with and communicate back and forth with the editors? You'll likely end up with a great looking page. Failure to do so will end up with a backlash and a shut down in communication.

One of the most powerful business objectives social media can deliver is consumer engagement. At least that’s what all the social media advocates tell you, right. But what exactly is “engagement,” how do you measure it and why is it all of a sudden the holy grail of marketing?

Frankly, engagement is just a bullshit term made up to apply to making people do something in the online (or offline) space. Sixty years ago engaging a customer meant you said, “Hi. Wanna buy some stuff?” They said, “Sure, whatya got?” Then they bought something.

Successful engagement. ~ Jason Falls

3. The truth will always come out.

The days of "amazing", "groundbreaking" and "revolutionary" being mainstays in your corporate communications are over. These words don't hold any merit coming from the company that issued the communication. After all, wouldn't the world be one incredible place if it were actually like the one described in a corporate press release?

Your buyers (and the media that cover your company) want to know what specific problems your
product solves, and they want proof that it works—in plain language. Your marketing and PR is
meant to be the beginning of a relationship with buyers and to drive action (such as generating sales
leads), which requires a focus on buyer problems. Your buyers want to hear this in their own words.
Every time you write—yes, even in news releases—you have an opportunity to communicate. At
each stage of the sales process, well- written materials will help your buyers understand how you,
specifically, will help them.

Because these writers don’t understand how their products solve customer problems, they cover by explaining how the product works and pepper this blather with industry jargon. ~ from David Meerman Scott's The Gobbledygook Manifesto

Simple, concise and accurate information will always trump embellishment. In today's world, it's better to be honest then to be right.

4. Help by building, not destroying.

If you are a large enough brand, your company page probably already exists. Before you start making changes and complaining about the page's inaccuracies? Think of this: Someone cared enough to create your page.

Shouldn't you do that person the courtesy of contacting them and thanking them, before stomping all over their work?

Don’t compete with your own fans, it’s stupid.

Digitas created this group for their Flickr Vauxhall Astra campaign. To date, it’s attracted 11 members. They launched it and left it. It’s a failure (which they choose to feature on the BIMA showcase).

The madness is they decided to compete with their own fans. There are 9 more successful Vauxhall groups.

The very first step should have been to make contact with creators and top participants in each group. Explain your objectives, listen to their advice, offer them official Flickr Ambassador positions and let them launch the group together. ~ Rich Millington, FeverBee

5. Swim with the tide.

The world has fundamentally changed. While it may not be the ideal situation for everyone to have a say when it comes to your company's messaging? It's the reality.

Don’t Just Say What You Mean, Explain

I had a realization recently about how the Internet encourages us to find information and derive meaning as an independent activity. The good part news is that this breeds a lot of diversity of thought. The bad news is we’re relying less on real definitions and instead relying on context and a general intuitive sense of what a word actually means.

If we’re confusing basic concepts in communication, what else are we confusing? Think about this the next time you talk with people about social media.

If familiar concepts like feedback and criticism can become confused, just think how different your definitions of terms related to social media or the social web in general can seem to your clients and colleagues… chances are, your definition of a blog isn’t theirs. ~ Shannon Paul

Don't try and fight the tide. It will only make the situation worse. If you truly want to make a difference? You'll need to work with the community in order to ensure the accuracy of the information out there.

Photo Credit: wohack, microcosmos, benny4bs