w10r

Business's social media outlets can become extensive to monitor for a public relations practitioner. However, constantly being in the know of what is being published about your client is essential for its social media success. Open forums and community edited pages, like Wikipedia for example, allow virtually anyone to publish something about your client, no matter how true or false it may be. 

Not only is is crucial for you to monitor websites like Wikipedia, it is equally as important to edit the content to make sure it is as accurate and truthful as possible. Since Wikipedia has only recently become recognized as a reliable website given its open forum nature, it is in everyone's best interest to keep it unbiased and accurate instead of creating content for your client that is not even true. 

Since Wikipedia and other open forum websites can be edited by anyone, they give visitors a sense of trust since it could have been created and written by a peer. By practicing effective public relations, you can edit and monitor a site like Wikipedia as it pertains to your client, while still using the voice and language of a consumer.