IF YOU HAVE A WEBSITE, YOU MUST LEARN ABOUT “SideWiki”!

If your business has a website, it is at risk from Google‘s latest “free gadget”!

Most top executives in major companies and professional firms are aware of the growth in social and online media, but are too busy to get excited about developments like Twitter – and maybe don‘t see things like Facebook or LinkedIn as being particularly relevant to their business.

But now there is a new development, Google‘s “SideWiki”, that cannot be ignored.

Google‘s “SideWiki” allows anyone to comment on anything on your website - and have that comment displayed in a pop-out window – on your website - for all to see.

While Google is naturally pushing the positive aspects of this development, the clear and present danger to organisations‘ reputations is obvious and can‘t be ignored.  Even Microsoft hasn‘t been able to stop negative “SideWiki” comments being posted on its website.

What should you do?

• Make it someone‘s job to open a Google “SideWiki” account (it‘s free);
• That person should then use their “SideWiki” account to visit every page of your website on a regular basis, to see whether others have posted damaging comments;
• Meanwhile, this is the moment to review every page on your website to ensure that content is accurate and up-to-date – “SideWiki” critics will be quick to demolish ambitious claims, etc.
• A web-service has created a formula for blocking “SideWiki” comments on websites:  you need to add the code below to the pages on your website that you want to protect:
<script type=”text/javascript” src=”http://www.sidewikispam.com/sidewikispam.js”></script>
• If you cannot block “SideWiki”, you can neutralise its thrust by making your website more openly interactive, allowing visitors to comment and provide feedback, without the need to resort to “SideWiki”.

And, while this is a potentially serious threat to your reputation, you should also see it as a potentially positive opportunity.  As with other social media, “SideWiki” allows you to communicate directly and immediately with your public.