Wikipedia is a free multilingual online encyclopedia written and maintained by a community of volunteers mostly used for personal branding and biography. Having a personal profile on Wikipedia will increase the credibility of your professional profile as it ranks among the world’s best professionals. Here are a few tips on how to create a Wikipedia page about yourself;
1. Study the Wikipedia community guideline before creating a page
When you try to create a Wikipedia page, you will need to be a registered user. Wikipedia doesn’t trust unidentified intruders or users. So, if you start making edits without signing up you wouldn’t gain enough credibility. You would need to be at least 4 days old as a user and would have edited up to 10 other articles before you can start thinking about how to create your own personal Wikipedia page.
You can edit an ample number of existing articles to build credibility. Once your credibility is established, other editors would find it worth their time to visit your page. Otherwise, whatever you choose to write might be unacceptable. References and citations are required on the page to increase your credibility; references include other Wikipedia articles and journal-based articles, press releases, or corporate citations are also needed to convince the big community of readers and editors that the information you are providing has been derived from reliable and trustworthy sources.
2. Get many editors involved in your page building
On Wikipedia, one is not allowed to create a personal profile by himself. This can rather be done by a string of editors who have the liberty to delete your article if it is not adequately referenced, visited, and edited by other users. If you are the only person putting updates on the page, there is a probable chance that an editor might erase your existence from the platform. Hence, it is mandatory to engage multiple people who keep updating information about you on the platform.
You can ask your colleagues on Wikipedia and other Wikipedia writers to edit your page once in a while. You can find some Wikipedia writers, build a network and edit each other’s pages. The most authentic way to do this is by working on building an audience that will edit the page on their own with your information. Pages that are visited frequently on Wikipedia stand to last longer.
3. Create audience-driving content
A larger community of editors and readers would have to verify your content for it to last. Think clearly about what you want to write. If you are writing about yourself, what impact have you taken that deserves a Wikipedia page to communicate it to the world? You can’t pick up a topic from scratch. It would have to be something that has already been talked about in peer-review journals or by academic scholars. There should be a sufficient number of credible sources that ensure that the topic is one of widespread social interest. What you view to be a matter of social significance may not seem to be the same to Wikipedia editors. So, make sure that you gather enough credible and reliable sources to make your story convincing.
4. Engage more readers and editors involved
Those people who are visiting your personal Wikipedia page are likely to be part of your big story. They are there because they love what you do and want to know more. You can make the readers feel more involved in your journey by updating your profile frequently. It is essential to build faith in the readers in your integrity. Any increase in your career or achievements should be updated on the page. You could add some bits about your personal life too because the readers will want to know more about your background and schooling. This will make them feel more involved and they will visit your page more often or share it with their friends and families.
It can be difficult creating a personal Wikipedia page but, in this article, we’ve covered a few steps on how to create a Wikipedia page and also the important things you will need to implement to get your Wikipedia page active. The time to have your page is now! Follow the guidelines above and I believe it will guide you through the process of getting your own Wikipedia page.