Chapter 11 Quiz

Which of the following is NOT an example of reputation management?

• a) A company hires a public relations firm to attract news stories about the company so that its homepage ranks better on search results

• b) A company uses its customer service team to respond to negative comments about the company online

• c) A company hires a public relations firm to attract news stories about the company so that searches on the company’s name will bring up links to the positive news stories instead of negative links

• d) A company uses Google Alerts to monitor web mentions of its company and its top executives

A company like Apple generates so much online commentary that it would be too labor-intensive to monitor it all. But Apple still wants to be on the lookout for negative press. It should therefore:

• a) Monitor blogs only and ignore news sites, discussion forums, etc.

• b) Actively monitor crucial alerts like “Apple + fraud” and “Apple + scam”

• c) Examine Google Alerts once per month

• d) Look at 10 randomly selected results from Google Alerts per day

In general, the proper response to a negative review on an online review site is to:

• a) Understand the situation and take responsibility where appropriate

• b) Explain how the company is not at fault

• c) Ignore it

• d) Send discounts or coupons in recompense for the failure

How many responses are optimal for negative reports on scam reporting websites?

• a) 0

• b) 1

• c) 2

• d) 3 or more

Who is liable when false information is posted online?

• a) The web hosting company that maintains the website’s servers

• b) Practically nobody

• c) The company that maintains the website on which the false information is posted

• d) Google and any other search engine that links to the false information

Which is NOT one of the three T’s of negative publicity?

• a) Transparency

• b) Take down

• c) Training

• d) Timeliness

A nonprofit organization has generated a following of people who have created websites about the organization. Most of these sites are positively-inclined toward the organization; only a few are negative. The organization begins to buy up some of these sites (mostly the positive sites) and redirecting these URLs to their own home URL. What is the downside of this strategy?

• a) Search engines view redirects with suspicion, and having multiple redirects could generate a manual penalty from Google

• b) Redirecting websites is never a good idea, because it creates extra copies of content that damage search engine rankings

• c) By redirecting the URLs, those URLs will no longer rank independently on search engines, moving other (potentially negative) sites up higher in the rankings

• d) Redirecting the URLs to the nonprofit organization’s URL will weaken the organization’s URL and prevent it from ranking well on search engines

Which of the following is NOT a good example of a website to promote as an alternate result for a branded search?

• a) A copy of the main website at a different URL

• b) Corporate blog

• c) Product microsite

• a) Social media profile