Niche wikis are pretty rampant in this day and age, but in terms of their having large or even long-term effects on anything larger than themselves, it’s pretty difficult to pawn much value from them, unless you’re a rabid member. As Mark mentioned the other day, niche wikis are somewhat caught in a web 2.0 twilight zone where they provide a lot of value to some, but are difficult to monetize or incentivize in terms of user activity and generated content.

WetPaint is one of the larger wiki networks out there, and has managed to present itself as a tool for marketing purposes, whether it’s the necessity of finding a community for target marketing, or for conducting a bit of marketing research. So when I got a note in my inbox telling of a WetPaint wiki that had enough effect as to help revive the Jericho television series, I wasn’t entirely surprised. You’ll see similar results occurring through rallies held on Facebook groups, demanding change from a larger entity that may otherwise not be swayed.

What I’m particularly interested in, after seeing the impact WetPaint’s Jericho wiki had on CBS, however, is the potential for market research that may not be taken advantage of, especially when it comes to wikis. Should there be a more systematic way in which wikis and other interest groups are utilized by larger brands? Could this in fact present some sort of incentivization of user interaction, if dealing with a brand, with a wiki network acting as a conduit?

It’s particularly relevant with this Jericho example, because of the turmoil going on within the television industry, and broadcasters’ need to turn to online sectors in order to distribute and monitor the activity that’s occurring in the space. As we’ve seen with Nielsen, content owners are quite anxious to discover how consumers interact with television clips in the home, both on the TV as well as the PC. It’s all part of the larger effort to better monetize content. For the larger brands, that means finding better ways to make more money than ever, without increasing their own costs. Could such WetPaint wikis lend themselves towards this front?

I think so. There are groups and mini-wikis that manifest within larger groups that are dedicated to larger media sectors, such as television and film content. These networks are being snatched up by the likes of Comcast, as an effort to collect data from users and disseminate information across its user base. Aside from the ad network potential that these sites hold for Comcast’s benefit, they will also provide necessary tools for garnering decent research, which content owners are anxious to get their hands on right now.

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