Google Sidewiki turns corporate websites into social platforms

19 nov 2009

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Everywhere on the internet, something can be posted about your brand or organization that may have an impact on your overall reputation. Since recently, even your own corporate website is no longer a safe haven. It has been transformed into a social medium owing to the advent of Google Sidewiki. This article describes the dangers and offers some pointers for corporate communication.

What is Google Sidewiki?

Google launched this new service, which has been integrated into Google Toolbar, on 23 September 2009. Essentially, this tool enables every internet user to make comments about any web page, even this one (have a look at the Sidewiki on this page via the Google Toolbar). You may ask yourself whether this function is actually a ‘wiki’ or whether it’s simply a new way of posting comments. Either way, Sidewiki allows anyone to make a posting on your corporate website, and all the persons’ comments will immediately appear on their own Google profile page or they can be easily sent on via Twitter, Facebook or e-mail. The video below gives an impression of how Sidewiki works.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CsjJOsx84MA&feature=player_embedded

Social toolbars: here to stay?

Fleck In itself, Sidewiki is nothing new, because there have already been a variety of comparable initiatives, such as Fleck in the Netherlands. With Fleck’s software, you can provide any page with comments, which appear as a layer on top of the website. They are similar to digital post-its that other users can see as well. What makes Sidewiki different is Google’s power to obtain critical mass. This greatly increases the chances of success for this phenomenon. Its use is still limited at present and most of its activity takes place on e-commerce sites, such as Apple and Amazon and blogs about innovation and marketing, such as Techcrunch and Buzzmachine by Google follower Jeff Jarvis. Whether Sidewiki will really become a success remains to be seen. However, it’s unlikely that social media giants like Facebook, Twitter and possibly Hyves will let this opportunity pass and perhaps they will launch their own social toolbar. If the use of this type of social commenting catches on, then there’s a good chance that this will happen on corporate websites too. Which raises the question: what are the consequences and what can you do with it?

The consequences for corporate websites

As mentioned before, the launching of Sidewiki has far-reaching consequences: every page on the internet now has a social character and can display visitors’ opinions (both positive and negative ones). What does that mean for corporate websites?

1. ‘No’ more control

Essentially, anyone can post a message on your corporate website. Think, for example, of interest groups, consumers, but also competitors. There’s a real danger here that critical messages or even advertising will be among the postings. It’s almost as if someone is spraying graffiti on your front door without your being able to intervene.

2. Barely any influence on the order of displayed comments

Once a comment has been posted, it remains visible on your corporate website. As an organization, you have no influence over which messages can be immediately seen. Google claims to have developed a special algorithm that allows the display of not the most recent but the most important messages. However, how this algorithm precisely works is Google’s secret. Furthermore, Sidewiki works with a social feedback system. As a company, you can only hope that readers will more frequently mark positive and constructive messages as ‘useful’. Which of course can give a company a helping hand.

3. Impact on search engine results

It’s important to realize that comments in Sidewiki may also have an impact on search engine results. It’s not clear whether comments impact the overall score of your page or website, but that is to be expected. Individual comments do appear separately in the search machine results, however.

The future of social toolbars

It is likely that opportunities for using social toolbars will be expanded at some point. For example, in the future Google could distil sentiments from the comments and display them with the search engine results. If others are positive, then it must be a great company, right? This would have even more relevance if your social network were to be coupled to these kinds of social toolbars. You would prefer to see comments posted by people who are kindred spirits or have the same sort of profile. And finally, Google could start using Sidewiki for relevant links and possibly even adwords or advertisements in order to draw your attention to other websites and pages similar to the page that a visitor is viewing.

What to do as an organization?

Don’t take a wait-and-see approach – rather, set the tone yourself: be the first to publish and indicate what you expect from visitors when they post comments or where they can post their comments. Think, for example, of a reference to your own feedback system for collecting suggestions for your website, corporate blogs, your own communities where discussions are being conducted about your business operations, product range, innovations, etc.
Register your website at Google Webmaster Tools. As a website owner, this gives you the right to the top Sidewiki result. Whatever others say, you will have the first word.
Scan your pages regularly. Unfortunately, a system that does this automatically is not yet available, but that’s only a matter of time in light of the API that Google has launched. This enables third parties to develop software that can be coupled to Sidewiki. Social monitoring tools like Radian6 and Buzzcapture will certainly create solutions in the future to make monitoring manageable.
Keep an eye on developments. With the emergence of new players, a greater adaptation of the technology and new technologies, both the opportunities and threats can change in a short period of time. Like all social media technology, it’s the users who ultimately define its use. Just as Twitter became a far larger and different kind of success than its creators ever could have anticipated.
And finally, don’t set to work without a plan. Bear in mind that Sidewiki is only one of the social media types available. Plan a strategy for dealing with social media and consider which processes, roles and responsibilities are needed to ensure success. For people in organizations who work with online reputation management, Sidewiki is still a place where people can enter into dialogue with your organization.

You would need a crystal ball to predict how this technology is going to evolve. But one thing is certain: corporate websites will never be safe havens any more! Your ‘own’ corporate website could become prey to users too.