When you’re searching for something on the internet you’ll notice that a vast majority of the time the first or second entry on Google’s search engine results page will be a Wikipedia link. To date, Wikipedia boasts an impressive 16 million articles, of which 3.3 million are in English. Currently, it is one of the largest and most popular reference sites available on the net. A large network of Wiki editors review all articles that are submitted and use a group approval system to determine if content will be published, or in some cases, banned.

Because Wikipedia is a wiki, anyone with access to a computer and a Wikipedia account can make edits to posted entries. It’s important to remember that jus because you post an article, you don’t own it and updates and changes can be made by others at large.

Although writing a Wikipedia article seems like an utterly simple task you’ll need to know a few basics in order to prevent your content from being deleted. Before you begin make sure that you’re writing from a neutral point of view (NPOV). The best way to approach a NPOV is to make your entry mirror what it would look like if you were to read it in a traditional encyclopedia. The content that you submit should be unbiased, verifiable, noteworthy and not breach copyright.

Wikipedia is a social community and it takes the content that users submit very seriously. If you’re not able to draft an article that follows Wiki’s protocols it will more than likely be deleted. The other thing to keep in mind is that not every brand, service or product can produce an entry that acceptable by Wiki standards for the simple reason that vanity, promotion and opinion are not looked upon favorably.

Before You Begin

If you’re still feeling optimistic enough to craft a Wiki article you’ll want to do the following first:

• Search Wikipedia to confirm that an article doesn’t already exist.
• Use alternate search terms just in case your article is labeled under a different heading.
• Determine if your article is verifiable and noteworthy before you begin writing it.
• Create a user account if you don’t presently have one.
• Aim for an article that is a minimum of 1500 characters, but no more than 4,000 words.
• Practice entering your article with the Wikipedia Sandbox first.

Actual Writing

Building your first Wiki article does take a bit of planning. You’ll want to structure your article so that it reads in chronological order. Next, make sure to gather your references and credible sources that you can cite to support what you’re saying. As you write, reference other Wiki articles by including links to them. This helps to substantiate your article and it cross-promotes other reference material on Wikipedia.

When you’re ready to submit your article to Wikipedia, you might be surprised to discover that you’ll need to use Wiki-style codes to achieve specific text attributes like boldface, italics and bullet points. Check out the cheat sheet so that you have an understanding of what needs to be input to achieve your desired result on the user end.

Even though Wikipedia sounds like a marketing dream come true you’ll learn that it doesn’t quite work the same way that a brochure or brand website does. Wiki entries are not promotional landing pages for businesses or individuals. Entries are informational and neutral and quite the opposite of a marketing tool. Once you make that connection you’ll be able to assemble a solid piece that meets the criteria set forth by Wikipedia.

Word To The Wise

If you submit a Wiki entry and it gets deleted and then you make edits to the same entry and continue to resubmit in an effort to get it published, you run the risk of being permanently banned and blacklisted from Wikipedia. Instead of repeating the same mistakes read over the guidelines and look at current entries to get a better sense and understanding of what an entry should sound, read and look like.

So you’ve uploaded a snappy profile picture, crafted a swanky bio and officially launched your social presence on Twitter, Facebook and the works. You start to get a few fans and followers, but now what? You keep hearing that it’s important to engage in conversations, but where do you begin? Perhaps you’ve made a few attempts to connect, but without much success. Have no fear – with the small exception of spiders, absolutely hate them – here are a few quick and easy tips to move you toward a dialogue with your peeps.

1. Listen To What’s Being Said

Remember that if people are liking or following you it’s because you’re doing something right or creating something that they feel they can connect with. Do a little bit of reconnaissance work and check out what your audience is saying with your competitors. Look at the topics they’re discussing and pay attention to the language and words that they’re using. This can give you some good insight into what they want to discuss, as well as the tone and style that they’re more likely to respond to. Try to emulate a similar approach in your own interactions to get the ball moving and then tailor it to your own brand.

2. Be Open Minded

Depending on what your brand, product or service is all about some of your fans may share some extreme perspectives or questionable notions regarding it. Before you shy away or shut down the opportunity for a conversation, make an attempt to learn more from them. Great ideas can be found in unlikely places and some folks might have a tough time conveying their purpose in 140 characters or less. As challenging as it might seem try to be receptive and make an honest effort to interact with them.

3. Keep It Real

Be sincere and genuine when you take part in an online conversation. When someone has a gripe or a problem with your brand then it’s up to you to address it. Put your excuses in a box, lock them up and throw away the key. Instead, opt for an honest to goodness exchange that reflects your personality in a friendly way. Just remember that with online conversations you can’t see one another or hear one another and sometimes intention can get lost in translation. Consider what you want to say before you say it and think about how it will be interpreted on the receiving end too.

4. Show Some Gratitude

It’s unfortunate that negatives seem to garner more attention than positives in our society. So, when people tell you that they love your latest blog post or when they share an experience that your recent article reminded them about, use it as an opportunity to thank them. If you receive a thumbs up or get a pat on the back don’t hesitate to show your appreciation. Reciprocation is a super conversation starter.

5. Stay Positive

No one likes a Debbie-downer. People are more likely and more willing to connect with someone who is optimistic. All of us experience bad days and we’ve all had an occasional rough patch, but letting those low-points trickle into your conversation is a big no-no. Put on a smile, swallow your happy pill and give your online conversations a positive angle. In case you need reminding, don’t forget what happened between Nestle and Greenpeace when negativity consumed the online dialogue via Facebook.

When you break it down, having a conversation through social media, commenting or other online outlet, isn’t really that much different from engaging in a face-to-face chit-chat. Politeness, empathy and lightheartedness will not only help you begin a conversation, but they’ll also help you sustain them moving forward.

After you’ve had your website up and running for a bit, or once you’ve been blogging for awhile you’ll want to start thinking about your online ‘community’. Your community is an important, if not integral, component to the success of your online presence. By building a solid brand, creating great content and interacting with your audience, you’re working toward developing a passionate online following that will promote and support you with others.

Build It

Make your blog/site an original, meaning, try to take a fresh approach to the subject that you plan on covering. A great example of an outstanding and custom brand blog is Southwest’s Nuts About Southwest. Instead of spewing a mouthful of corporate hum-drum Southwest has assembled a blended blog that reflects the diversity of its audience and they’ve peppered it with fun and interactive content.

Another super example is the Sharpie blog. Beyond simple blog posts, the Sharpie blog has incorporated a bevy of images and videos that showcase their products in action with everyday folks and artists. The result is a visually entertaining blog that is both inspiring and entertaining.

Take a cue from Southwest and Sharpie and find a unique way to position your blog/site  that’s right for the audience that you want to capture.

Promote It

Make it easy to pass along and share what you’re creating. This means including social share buttons to increase viral opportunities. At a bare minimum, you should feature  Tweetmeme and Facebook Share buttons that can be used to attract others to become a part of your online community. People want to be able to send links and information in quick and simple ways. Integrating social share buttons is a near guarantee that they’ll be able to do so.

Ask For It

You have to ask people to visit, comment and share. It’s a very simple way to remind and ensure your audience that you want them to invite others to take a peek and converse about what you’ve created. Communities aren’t built overnight, but asking others who appreciate your perspective, style and message to find and include others is an ideal way increase growth. Like-minds attract like-minds and you’ll discover that asking people to spread the word about your community is as easy to say as it is to do.

Get Involved With It

An online community can’t grow on its own. You need to take an active role in fostering relationships with your members. Encourage contributions through commenting and be prepared to seek out potentially interested people to invite to the community. This doesn’t mean that you need to launch a spam campaign or make a commitment to stalk anyone into joining. Be yourself, be authentic and tell people that you’d love for them become a part of what you’re putting together.

Repeat It

Whether your online community has 50 followers or 15,000, you need to continually work at adding new members. A stagnant community is also a flailing community. By continually adding new members you’re increasing the chances that better dialogues will form, more interesting questions will be asked and novel ideas will be exchanged. These actions in themselves make your community more attractive to others, which will increase your subscriber base. The goal isn’t to have a blog or site with the largest quantity of followers. It should be to have the best quality of content and relationships with the people who are supporting what you’re creating.

There are many other tips that can be used to build a strong online community. What are some that you’ve used to enhance your own blog or site? Fill us in.

Over the past few years local search has been dominating the search engines. Google, Yahoo and Bing are seeing droves of people turning toward the internet to conduct searches for brands, products and services within their local areas. Just to give you an idea, published numbers indicate that more than 10 billion local searches are conducted each month. Clearly, local search marketing has enormous potential to attract a large share of customers to your website and business.

Flipping through the Yellow Pages is a thing of the past. Web users are becoming more sophisticated with local search criteria. By including identifiers to make searches more focused to a particular location, the search engines are able to retrieve local information. As a business, if you’re not using local search, you’re losing out.

Use these local search marketing suggestions to promote your business and capture your fair share of customers.

1. List Your Business

If you want to be found you need to go where people can find you. That means including your business listing in the local directories with Google, Yahoo and Bing. In addition to the listing with the big dogs, you’ll need to expand your local listing circle and include your business with other sites too. This increases your online presence by making you more visible. Here’s a list to get things started:  Citysearch.com, Superpages.com, Insiderpages.com, Yellowpages.com, iBegin.com and Brownbook.com.

2. Stake Your Claim

After you’ve published your listing you’ll need to return to each site and claim your listing. This proves that you’re the site owner and helps reduce spam activity and fraudulent posting. It often requires nothing more than a simple email verification or PIN activation via automated phone call. Make sure that you claim each listing so that you can make edits and changes to your listings in the future.

3. Keep It Consistent

Every local listing should feature the exact same business name. For instance, if you own a coffee shop, let’s call it Beverly’s Coffee House, then that’s what each and every listing should reflect in the title. Don’t abbreviate and call it Bev’s Coffee on some and not on others. This is one instance where being exactly the same is a good thing.

4. Optimize-A-Go-Go

The SEO acronym has been tossed around more than a football during Superbowl. SEO stands for search engine optimization and it’s a component of internet marketing that utilizes several techniques and strategies to build awareness of a website and elevate its ranking with the search engine. When it comes to your local listings, including keyword optimizing the areas that you can (company description, bio, etc.) can make a difference in the local search results that are returned.

5. Build Links & Include Citations

Links are pretty much just that – links to your website that are featured or placed with other sites. Citations are nothing more than mentions of your business or site. Through the search engine’s eyes, links and citations are extremely valuable and heavily determine your ranking.

Two sites that every business should take advantage of are Yelp and Merchant Circle. These user review websites are highly in the top 100 ranked websites (not bad considering there are more than 233 million active websites and counting) and that means that the search engines have determined them to be credible. You can use these sites to fill-up your citation satchel and having yourself listed with them helps with linking.

6. Request Reviews & Get Rated

As often as you can, as your customers to leave reviews and share feedback regarding their experiences. Of course we’d all love glowing, five-star reviews, but that’s not always the case. There will be times when a disgruntled person will pop-up and express themselves. This is absolutely not a bad thing. Remember that while you can’t control what someone thinks or has to say about your business, product or service, you can engage in a conversation and ask them how you can make things better. This goes along way in showing other potential clients how you respond and remedy situations.

7. Picture Perfect

You don’t have to turn you local listing into a gallery at the Louvre, but including a few images and videos will spruce up your listings appearance. Although photos aren’t necessarily what drives search engine ranking, people tend to click on local listings with imagery much more often than those without. Share your logo, a snapshot of your storefront or any thing else that might help you stand out.

8. Categorically Speaking

Most local listing sites allow you to describe what you do be choosing two to five categories. Some sites have extensive category lists that feature every occupation and industry under the sun, and others have only a handful. Limitations can make it difficult to choose what category you should be in. If this happens, try not to drill down to a sub-category and stick with the primary. For example, if you’re a boutique shoe store, but you can’t find shoe category, post yourself under retail.

9. Local PPC

Good ol’ online advertising can supplement your local listing by featuring geo-targeted keywords. Pay per click (PPC) has incredible tracking and measurability that makes it easy to see what’s working and what’s not. The concept of PPC appears to be simple and straightforward, but it can be tricky to execute a good campaign. Do a bit of homework or consider seeking out the services of a professional to ensure that you’re maximizing your dollars and ad listing locations.

10. Stay Positive

Local search marketing is the place to be for any business. Unlike SEO which can take a considerable amount of time to generate high-ranking results, local search does it differently. There’s not nearly as much competition and result are based on your map location. Not impressed? Well, this might change your mind. Local map results are always at the top of the search result pages and that gives you the opportunity to be at the top of the pack and the page.

Do you have other helpful local search marketing techniques that you’re trying? Share with us. We want to hear from you.