Business Communication Today, 12e (Bovee/Thill)
Chapter 8 Social Media
1) One of your sales representatives has begun using social networks to aggressively promote a
new product line. As a manager, the best response would likely be to
A) encourage him to continue.
B) discourage him from using blatant “salespeak” since it is likely to alienate the audience.
C) enact a policy forbidding employees from using social networks on company time.
D) do nothing.
2) In the social media landscape, companies that ________ are likely to be ignored.
A) talk with customers, not at them
B) use a conversational approach
C) take a “we talk, you listen” approach
D) help customers gain a voice in the marketplace
3) When you’re writing content for social media,
A) write in a corporate voice.
B) write informally, but not carelessly.
C) write from an objective third-person point of view.
D) don’t worry about revising or proofreading what you’ve written.
4) Best practices for communicating via social media include all of the following except
A) thinking before you post.
B) getting involved and staying involved.
C) writing informally, but not carelessly.
D) using a “hard sell” to promote goods and services.
5) If a customer uses the comment feature to criticize your business blog, you should
A) respond promptly, honestly, and professionally.
B) ignore the criticism unless the critic is incorrect.
C) take verbal potshots at the critic’s integrity.
D) let blog readers know that you won’t tolerate criticism.
6) Effective headlines for social media messages are
A) clever and witty.
B) pithy and enigmatic.
C) brainteasers with a twist of irony.
D) concise, specific, and informative.
7) ________ focus on a particular function or a particular audience.
A) Private networks
B) Public, specialized networks
C) Public, general purpose networks
D) Personalized synchronous networks
8) Large and geographically dispersed companies can benefit greatly from ________ that
connect experts who may work in different divisions or different countries.
A) global peer groups
B) colonies of practitioners
C) communities of interest
D) dispersed social networks
9) A company can use ________ as a measure of how effectively it is engaging online
stakeholders in a mutually beneficial exchange of information.
A) brand socialization
B) brand standardization
C) brand management
D) brand equilibrium
10) By forming a virtual organization, a company can
A) monitor public opinion and target opinion leaders.
B) measure how effectively it connects with its stakeholders.
C) identify potential buyers and ask for introductions from shared connections.
D) supplement its internal talent pool with services from external partners.
11) The practice of content marketing involves ________, in order to build closer ties with
current and potential customers.
A) pitching your products and services at every opportunity
B) building up your company by tearing down your competitors
C) offering free information that’s valuable to community members
D) monitoring the Twittersphere for discussions about your brand
12) A colleague of yours has just published an e-book titled, “Ten Tips for Success.” She plans
to promote the book via social networking. What advice can you offer to her about promotional
efforts via social media?
A) She should use brand acceleration to engage with opinion leaders.
B) She should use a low-key, indirect approach when promoting her book.
C) She should promote her book aggressively on each social media platform.
D) She should alter her social media presence, according to the network she’s using at the time.
13) Each social network is a unique environment with its own communication norms. As you’re
adapting to the expectations of each network, be sure to
A) adopt a different persona for each network that you join.
B) let your feelings and moods determine how you present yourself.
C) maintain a consistent personality across all networks in which you’re active.
D) pay attention to what other community members are doing, and then go with the flow.
14) Companies can use a research technique called ________ to track social networks and other
media to take the pulse of public opinion and identify opinion makers.
A) cold calling
B) sentiment analysis
C) brand socialization
D) location-based networking
15) Social networks are a natural tool for bringing together ________, people who engage in
similar work, and ________, people who share enthusiasm for a particular product or activity.
A) private networks; public networks
B) virtual networks; brand societies
C) communities of practice; communities of interest
D) special interest groups ; word-of-mouth conclaves
16) Social networks used by the business community consist of
A) private networks.
B) public, specialized networks.
C) public, general-purpose networks.
D) all of the above.
17) You have decided to post a video on YouTube explaining how to use one of your company’s
new products. To be most effective, the video should be no more than ________ minute(s) long.
A) 1
B) 5
C) 25
D) 60
18) Community Q&A sites offer opportunities for building your personal brand. When you’re
responding to an individual’s question, keep in mind that
A) community Q&A sites are a fad, so responding to questions is a waste of time.
B) your reply to the question will only be relevant to the person who asked it.
C) material that’s posted on a Community Q&A site won’t be visible for long.
D) you’re responding in advance to anyone who has the same question and visits the site.
19) The Segway Social network, which connects owners of these unique personal vehicles, is an
example of a
A) specialized social network.
B) privatized social network.
C) location-based social network.
D) general-purpose social network.
20) YouTube, Wikipedia, and Twitter are popular examples of
A) general-purpose social networks.
B) user-generated content sites.
C) community macromedia outlets.
D) private-label social networks.
21) Starbucks Coffee, Animal Planet, and Turner Classic Movies offer their followers ________
via their branded channels on YouTube.
A) value-added content
B) interesting information
C) question-and-answer forums
D) annual reports and financial statements
22) Yelp has used a ________ strategy to become a major influence on the behavior of
consumers and businesses in large cities across the United States.
A) voice of reason
B) voice of the crowd
C) voice in the city
D) voice of the customer
23) RSS feeds let readers subscribe to updates from websites or aggregate feeds from many sites.
However, a drawback to RSS feeds involves the “fire-hose effect” of
A) having old messages purged by new messages.
B) getting discouraged because subscribing to RSS feeds is so difficult.
C) receiving so many feeds so fast that it’s impossible to manage them.
D) publishers sorting articles into groups that range from the trivial to the essential.
24) As an alternative to newsfeeds, ________ involves aggregating (gathering) and curating
(sorting, categorizing, and presenting) information on a particular topic in a way that makes it
convenient for targeted readers.
A) blog rolling
B) media curation
C) hub syndication
D) virtual automation
25) Which of the following are media curation sites?
A) Vimeo and YouTube
B) Facebook and Google+
C) Pinterest and Scoop.It
D) Digg and Reddit
26) The business applications of blogging do not include
A) anchoring your social media presence.
B) recruiting potential employees.
C) enabling word-of-mouth marketing.
D) encouraging collaboration on writing projects.
27) Successful business bloggers pay close attention to
A) delivering new information quickly.
B) choosing topics of peak interest to audiences.
C) communicating in a personal style, with an authentic voice.
D) all of the above.
28) Writing in ________ is key to attracting and keeping blog readers.
A) a carefully scripted style
B) a personal, authentic voice
C) an impersonal corporate tone
D) an objective third-person style
29) Trying to manage incoming social media messages can be overwhelming. All of the
following except ________ can help you keep social media from turning into a source of stress
and information anxiety.
A) adding new sources of information slowly
B) collecting information simply because it’s entertaining or interesting
C) acknowledging that you can’t handle every update from every potentially useful source
D) remembering that information is an enabler, a means to an end
30) When you’re applying the three-step writing process to blogging, the planning step will
include
A) writing a concise statement of your blog’s purpose.
B) targeting the audience that you intend to reach.
C) narrowing the scope of subjects you plan to cover.
D) all of the above.
31) All of the items listed below except ________ are important when you’re completing
messages for your blog.
A) determining the scope and subject of your message
B) evaluating the content and readability of your message
C) proofreading your message to catch and correct errors and oversights
D) using your blogging system’s tools to post your message
32) You can make the material on your blog easier to locate by
A) opting out of newsfeed options.
B) tagging the material with descriptive words.
C) including long, complex headings.
D) eliminating links to other blogs and websites.
33) Many businesses now use blogs to
A) keep project teams up to date.
B) replace email in many cases.
C) inform employees and customers about new products and how to use them.
D) do all of the above.
34) If you do not have a constant supply of new information to post on a business blog,
A) your audience will appreciate not having to process information that changes constantly.
B) repost old material so your audience will not lose interest.
C) you should create a traditional website instead.
D) keep readers interested by adding daily comments on current events.
35) In the world of blogs, microblogs, and social media, word-of–mouth marketing is often called
A) we talk, you listen marketing.
B) virtual marketing.
C) community-driven marketing.
D) viral marketing.
36) A business should consider creating a blog or microblog account whenever it has ________
to share with an online audience.
A) a one-time sales opportunity
B) an advertising campaign
C) a continuing stream of information
D) a press release to announce something newsworthy
37) Retweeting is the practice of forwarding messages from other Twitter users. It is the
microblogging equivalent of
A) broadcasting to a list of contacts via email.
B) sharing other content from bloggers via media curation.
C) carrying on a real-time conversation via instant messaging.
D) conducting a keyword search on a general-purpose search engine.
38) Twitter followers consider ________ to be the most valuable type of tweets.
A) generic messages, such as saying “good morning”
B) messages that engage followers, such as asking them for advice
C) complaints from someone who’s stuck in traffic or having a bad day
D) random musings about a weekend at the beach
39) Microbloggers often send messages with ________ that provide links to more information.
A) teasers
B) suggestions
C) backlogs
D) innuendos
40) Rather than subscribing to a public microblogging service, some companies implement
________ that are intended for internal use only.
A) localized transmission systems
B) proprietary message protocols
C) internal micromessaging systems
D) corporate communication circuits
41) The business uses of microblogging include all of the following except
A) presenting tips on product usage.
B) offering coupons and announcing sales.
C) announcing headlines of new blog posts.
D) adding pages, subpages, or articles to a wiki.
42) The primary value of a wiki stems from
A) its revolutionary technology.
B) its unwavering focus on individual experts.
C) the collaborative efforts of its contributors.
D) its potential to replace popular online social networks.
43) If you’re creating a new wiki, ________ just as you would with a new blog or podcast
channel.
A) focus on short-run goals
B) think through your long-term purpose carefully
C) plan on developing polices and guidelines later, as you need them
D) don’t worry about your audience until the wiki is up and running
44) Before you add a page or a new article to an existing wiki,
A) remove any similar material that already exists on the wiki.
B) make sure that you’ve copyrighted the written material.
C) tweet your followers so they’ll know where to find what you’ve written.
D) determine how the new material will fit into the existing content on the wiki.
45) A wiki is an ideal solution when a company wants to
A) deliver new information quickly.
B) recruit new employees and business partners.
C) encourage participation in collaborative writing.
D) transmit the headlines of new blog posts.
46) If your company’s social media content draws criticism, it is best to respond promptly and
honestly.
47) Companies that are succeeding in social media use a “we talk, you listen” approach to
communication.
48) When you’re preparing an online message, you can assume that no one but your intended
audience will see it.
49) Writing for social media requires a different approach than writing for traditional media.