The StyleSheet - For businesses that use the internet

Wiki Your World: Starting a Wiki for Your Business

Posted July 15, 2008 By Sarah Buser |

Since Wikipedia has become ubiquitous, people are starting to realize that that a wiki is a valuable tool that can benefit any business. A wiki is basically an online, searchable encyclopedia that can be edited by any number of users.  Here’s why you should create one for your business:

• It’s free and easy to create. Type “free wiki” into any search engine, find the one that looks the best and follow the steps to get started. Once it’s established, adding an article takes just a few clicks.
• It makes information on anything you want immediately available. Wikis are a great place for company policies, procedures, help files and more. It’s especially helpful to new employees, because they can consult the wiki instead of asking coworkers how to do things. Also, since it’s online, it’s accessible from any computer, not just an internal network.
• It’s searchable. You can look up articles by category or by keyword. It will bring up a list of possible articles so you can find the one you’re looking for.
• It’s easy to organize. You can categorize each article so you can access all of the articles on human resources or billing procedures all at once.
• Anyone can update it. This means that if someone is reading an article and sees old information, they can update it. You don’t have to worry about multiple versions of documents floating around. If you want to make one for your business, it’s probably a good idea to give your employees their own logins and privileges.
• It’s a living document. Unlike a printed employee handbook, you can make changes whenever you like. It keeps your information up to date and saves paper.
• It’s private. Or it’s public. It’s up to you. Want all of your employees to contribute to the wiki? Want a wiki where your clients can view help files? Want to start a wiki for your Wham! fan club that the whole world can see and edit? With a wiki, you can make it as private or as public as you want by allowing different types of users different access.
• Make it for posterity. Maybe you think that your small company doesn’t really need a wiki. But as you grow, wouldn’t it be nice if you have a record of your daily operations? TradeMark documents most of our procedures, from how to make a conference call on our telephones to how to set up Google Analytics. Everyone can benefit from having that kind of information available.

Not sure if a wiki is for you? Browse around on Wikipedia and wikiHow to get a feel for how it all works. Convinced? Give it a try and leave a comment below to share your experience.

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