Unjournalism

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The New York Times yesterday ran a great article about wikis and the proliferation of these everyone’s-a-contributor sites on the Web. I have one hang-up, though.

At one point, Jack Herrick, of eHow.com and wikiHow fame, was quoted as saying:

“I think there’s going to be a lot of wikis,” Mr. Herrick said. “But I’m not sure how many of them will make money.”

He’s probably right: Most surely won’t make much or any money. However, this statement causes people to lose sight of one important idea: using wikis for something other than simply making money.

Wikis can be great public relations tools. Consider the tremendous community-building and “sense of ownership” qualities offered by the wiki idea. Whether you’re launching a product, testing messages, conducting research or doing several other tasks in which you’d like input from your audience, wikis can be of great use.

There’s more to this issue than simply making money in the short term. Look at wikis as a long-term tool for establishing thought-leadership and for fostering a strong sense of community and belonging around your brand or organization.

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