There’s an ongoing debate about whether or not PR people should be allowed to edit Wikipedia entries that they have a direct interest in. Constantin Basturea, in his typical style, has pieced together an excellent post detailing the arguments from all sides.
I’m a little on the fence about this one. I get the need for transparency and to remove the perception of conflict of interest, but on the other hand, Wikipedia is a community-edited resource, and good PR should be a part of the online community.
Jimmy Wales, the founder of Wikipedia has gone on record as saying that PR people editing articles is “something we frown upon very very strongly.” The question that comes to my mind when I read all of these public statements is why PR people are singled out. Is it different for me to edit an article about my client than it is for my client to do it themselves? Is it still astroturfing if what is being changed is factual, cited and objective?
All of this also makes me wonder if it would anger the social media PR Gods if I were to edit or create a page that is tangentially related to one of my clients. For instance, if my client is in an industry that is burgeoning, but only a stub on Wikipedia, is it unethical for me to add to the article about that industry? What if I don’t mention my client?
Perhaps this is my own sensitivity, but this feels like a case of PR being equated with lies. In reality, sometimes we as communicators are the most qualified to present a balanced case on a particular subject because we have the most information on it, but public perception is that we can’t be trusted to do so. Maybe they’re right.
The interesting thing about PR in the social media realm is the number of new rules that pop up every day. I’ve seen things that I never would have considered improper that turn out to be a mortal sin of public relations. Some, I don’t even understand.
To my mind, when PR people enter the world of social media, they are under every obligation to treat the culture with respect, to act transparently and honestly, and to work with the community to make it a better place, not just to plaster their clients’ names all over it. However, in a world where so-called “PR people” will mortgage the reputation of an entire industry to make a quick buck paying people in India to digg a story, or who charge $80 to write a Wikipedia entry, such loose rules of engagement may not be possible. It’s up to us as professionals to work with the online community to establish a way of working together that benefits both parties.
Maybe I’m dreaming, but it doesn’t seem impossible.
