Because of my long-term gig with Moreno Law, I’ve been spending more time than usual following Legal Marketing Blogs (and whoa, are there ever a lot). Most are either alright or good, a few are great.. and then every now and then you get something like this…

Carolyn Elefant, writing on Nolo’s Legal Marketing Blog, says that a firm should consider using Wikipedia as a marketing tool.

Still, is a Wikipedia entry worthwhile for solo and small firm lawyers? For starters, what kinds of information would you include in the listings? Many large firms with long histories describe the firm’s origins and provide bios of firm founders and well-known alumni. But solo and small firm lawyers might not have enough background material to include. A smaller firm might also link to reported cases or cross-reference practice areas described on Wikipedia. For example, a bankruptcy lawyer could cross-link to the entry on Bankruptcy in Wikipedia, thus providing a good resource for clients with basic questions. Likewise, lawyers could cross-reference the city where they practice or hobbies they enjoy.

No… no, no… no, no, no.

Apparently someone forgot to read the Wikipedia editing guidelines:

Wikipedia is not…
4. Self-promotion.
It can be tempting to write about yourself or projects in which you have a strong personal involvement. However, do remember that the standards for encyclopedic articles apply to such pages just like any other, including the requirement to maintain a neutral point of view, which is difficult when writing about yourself or about projects close to you. Creating overly abundant links and references to autobiographical articles is unacceptable. See Wikipedia:Autobiography, Wikipedia:Notability and Wikipedia:Conflict of interest.

5. Advertising.
Articles about companies and products are written in an objective and unbiased style. Article topics must be third-party verifiable, so articles about very small “garage” or local companies are typically unacceptable. External links to commercial organizations are acceptable if they identify major organizations associated with a topic (see finishing school for an example). Wikipedia neither endorses organizations nor runs affiliate programs. See also Wikipedia:Notability (organizations and companies) for guidelines on corporate notability. Those promoting causes or events, or issuing public service announcements, even if noncommercial, should use a forum other than Wikipedia to do so.

And, instead of a massive uproar of “you’re not supposed to do that sort of thing,” Larry Bodine of LawMarketing Blog reblogs the idea…

A Wikipedia entry can help your law firm generate new business…
Most major law firms already maintain pages on Wikipedia.

So… Because it might be good marketing, we’re supposed to ignore Wikipedia standards about self-promotion, advertising, original research, notability, and autobiography. It even breaks the Ignore All Rules rule, since a shameless advertisement (no.. I know… not an advertisement, just a “profile”) cannot possibly contribute to the quality of the encyclopedia.
And.. just in case all those individual guidelines don’t gel together to help you realize that Wikipedia doesn’t like you writing articles about yourself, there is even a page called, “List of bad article ideas.”
Guess what item number one was?

Yourself or your organization – including a band of which you are a member or employee, even if either is notable! See Wikipedia:Conflict of interest.

Notice, the behavior of writing about your own company is so stupid and juvenile, that it is included on a list that also tells you not to write articles about your college dorm, the street you live on, or the “The New Great Thing you made up in school today.”

(Let’s not even get into the “Don’t Stuff Beans Up Your Nose” rule, which lawyers have been breaking for centuries)

And you people are lawyers… great.

Two bloggers, supposedly on the vanguard of Social Media / Relationship Marketing, should understand that abusing the communities we move in is a bad idea. Whether it results in public outcry or just bad karma is irrelevant.

Bootstrap that, biz-atches.