Old monkey, new tricks...
But what is a wiki? Here's a hint for you: A wiki is a website,
which can be modified by its visitors even though they don’t
master any particular IT skills. The concept is not that new
in fact. The first wiki ever to be created appeared in 1995.
But it’s only now (10 years later) that the enterprise world
is getting interested in them. Wikis are ideal for complex project
management with short-term visibility. Quite a few large enterprises
are now experimenting with wikis (e.g. Nokia, Michelin, Walt
Disney,…) not to mention research-centres such as France’s
IRCAD; even SMB’s are now investigating them.
A few ideas for turning wikis into marketing
tools
However, one would still have to invent the ways in which wiki
webs will be able to help marketers. For instance, a wiki could
be used by sales people to document their on-going work with
their clients or the status of their current negotiations, if
that wiki is installed on the Corporate Intranet. Marketers
could also use wikis in order to collect and retain feed-back
from their costumers in a focus-group session for instance.
If one chose to link a wiki web to a call-centre, that wiki
could be used to collect feedback but also online discussions
from customers and users who would use the wiki as a community
dynamic website. A wiki can also become the backbone for collaboration
between members of the same marketing team who are working on
cross-functional product-ranges.
Market status
The market is already buoyant in America with giants like SocialText
(www.socialtext.com)
or Jotspot (www.jot.com);
but wikis are not as developed in continental Europe. Companies
that use wikis internally are at the forefront of the new management
approach known as ‘open company’. This approach claims
that sharing information openly is seen internally as a competitive
advantage.
Further reading
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About Jérôme
Delacroix
Jérôme
Delacroix is a journalist and consultant who specialises
in new technologies and their impact on Society. After
a few years as a management consultant he decided to focus
his work on communications and the writing of books and
articles about technology. He is a regular contributor
to visionarymarketing.com.
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