Six Ways Wikis Can Work for You

Hi there, The Digital Marketer here, ready to help you put the power of the Internet and technology to work for your business.

Have you been avoiding using wikis for your business because you’re not really sure what they are? You’ve probably used Wikipedia, the largest wiki on the Web, but you might not realize that wikis aren’t all collaborative encyclopedias.

I’ve got to admit that I avoided wikis for years because I just couldn’t figure out what they were much less how to use them. Even as I used Wikipedia on a regular basis, the concept of a wiki just didn’t resonate with me. But then I had a particular business need and suddenly realized that a wiki would be the perfect solution.

Build a Web-Based Handbook

So what is a wiki? According to the Wikipedia definition, a wiki is “a page or collection of Web pages designed to enable anyone who accesses it to contribute or modify content using a simplified markup language.” Phew!

Think of a wiki as a basic website where you can create links, embed objects such as images, and basically edit it in a collaborative fashion without having to know HTML. With wikis, collaborative is the operative word, and in the same way you can see revision histories on a Google Doc, a wiki tool lets you see who made what changes and when on your wiki.

So how did I end up using a wiki for a client? I was charged with involving an entire team of employees in the process of developing accounts on social networks to promote their projects. I normally use a Google Doc spreadsheet to make notes on each account I’m setting up, but with a large team involved, the spreadsheet didn’t offer enough space for all the detailed information we needed to include.

I decided to sign up for a wiki at Wikispaces.com and paid for an upgrade to make the page private for $5 per month. You can also set wikis to be moderated so you can approve the people requesting access.

For my client’s project, I invited the team to access the page and proceeded to make a separate page for each social networking account. Having started my website-building career in 1994 and being a veteran user of numerous website authoring tools, I was surprised with how easy it was to build my wiki.

We basically ended up with what is referred to as a Wikibook or a reference book that anyone on the team could access and update anytime and store key information about their many social networking accounts.

5 Other Ways to Use Wikis

Building a knowledge base or Wikibook is a common way to use a wiki. Here are some other ideas of using wikis for private and public projects.

1. Publish Your Curriculum Vitae. Keeping track of an extensive CV can be a challenge. So can linking to relevant web pages such as articles you’ve published or projects you’ve worked on. With a wiki, you can continue to build and expand your CV as needed and make it public to be viewed — but not edited — by others.
2. Keep Building Your Frequently Asked Questions Page. A big challenge for small companies is to create — much less keep up with — their FAQ or Frequently Asked Questions page on their website. A wiki is a handy tool for adding questions and answers as you — or your staff — gets them. Again, you can make this document available to the public but limit editing to your team.
3. Start a Private Brainstorming Document. Giving your entire team — no matter where they are — access to a private wiki as a place to brainstorm takes advantage of the collaborative aspect of wikis. Team members can not only add content but they can add pages to the wiki and link to them and insert images and other objects to illustrate their thoughts.
4. Manage Event Plans. In the same collaborative way wikis can facilitate and archive brainstorming ideas, you can use a wiki for planning purposes and invite others to participate. When planning an event using a wiki, you can have a page for venue details, another for entertainment details, a page for catering specs, and everyone on your planning committee can be responsible for updating their page to keep everyone else on the committee informed of their progress.
5. Take Notes Live at a Meeting or Event. Using a wiki to take notes can be a useful tool to document key information. Others can access the document as it is being created, refreshing the page periodically to see the new updates. Others in attendance can also be invited to add to the document to ensure accuracy or get additional feedback.

However you decide to use a wiki for business — and the possibilities are endless — you can change the wiki’s settings to make it public or as private as you want.

Where to Get a Wiki

If you want a wiki, some places to start include Google Sites which is free. Wikispaces has a free level but you can also upgrade starting at $5 amonth for additional features such as setting up private wikis. PBWiki allows up to 3 users on a wiki for free, then charges $8 a user up to 100 users. EditMe starts at $4.95 per month for basic features and goes up to $49.95 monthly for their corporate plan. A free portable wiki is TiddlyWiki, a single file that has all the functionality of a wiki but you can download it to your computer and email it around.

Bottom Line: Wikis are easy to use tools for assembling websites and working collaboratively to develop content in a manageable format. Any business can benefit from using wikis both internally and publicly; you just have to get a wiki started and invite others to join in.

Contact Me

That’s all we have time for today. Visit the show’s website at digitalmarketer.quickanddirtytips.com for links to all of the sites mentioned in the show. If you’d like to ask a question or request a topic for The Digital Marketer, email me at digitalmarketer@quickanddirtytips.com or leave a message by calling 206-339-6279.

The Digital Marketer’s Quick and Dirty Tips for Building Your Business With Web Tools is part of the Quick and Dirty Tips network at quickanddirtytips.com.

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Resources

Google Sites – Visit Google Sites

Wikispaces – Wikispaces

PBWiki – Visit PBWiki

Tiddlywiki – Visit Tiddlywiki

EditMe – Visit EditMe