I remember a guy saying that while we all love sausage, we don't necessarily want to know how it is made. This article, about social media, Wikipedia, and PR people, is a little like getting an up close and personal look at how sausage is made, or, in this case, how plain facts get twisted; how the truth gets ground up; how marketing-speak tries to keep all things nice and neat like the way casings made from pig intestines helps make sausage appealing enough to actually swallow.

This excerpt very aptly summarizes the main point:

Are there rules of engagement for using Wikipedia in PR or marketing for a client? Constantin Basturea, a PR practitioner and director of social media strategies at Converseon, reminds us that although Wikipedia is "the encyclopedia anyone can edit," this applies to anyone except PR practitioners.

Why? "Because Wikipedia considers creating or editing an entry for a client a conflict of interest," he says. In fact, it is detailed in the site's conflict of interest behavioral guideline. That means a lot of people inside and outside an organization are not allowed to edit an entry about that organization.

Now, if you bother to examine the article - it comes to you by the way courtesy of LinusInsider and is written by Angelo Fernando - you'll see several excellent examples of how various well-known companies and their sponsors have attempted to burnish the facts.

I speak from long-experience in the PR business when I say this is absolutely true. PR people get paid to put the very best face on things. As such, some of the not so great facts and figures go through a process of selective reduction. To not do this is to risk getting fired by the client. Yet, to do it paints everything we PR people say or do with a coat of gloss that ordinary people in today's social media world have become skilled at detecting and resenting and dismissing. That's why, in my opinion, social media is here to stay and why the traditional PR profession must change or face the distinction of extinction.

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