15 Interview Questions to Ask Your Social Media Manager

Social media management is a critical part of doing business nowadays.

Seemingly, everything is happening on social media. A business that wishes to stay relevant and connected with its target market should have a strong social media presence in order to compete with other brands.

Here are 15 interview questions to ask your social media manager!

Some years ago, having a solid social media presence was just an option that business owners toyed around with. Today, that is no longer the case. If they are not on social media, they will lose so many opportunities to engage potential clients.

You need a reliable, highly skilled, and creative social media manager to do the daily work for you and your business.

Benefits of a strong social media presence

1. High traffic.

The variety and an overwhelming number of people on social media today make various platforms the perfect place to highlight the benefits of your brand. A skilled social media manager can come up with ways to encourage people to frequently visit your page. When they consistently visit, they become potential clients.

2. Direct engagement of your target market.

Being on social media gives you an opportunity to engage directly with your target market, which is a sure way to draw attention and develop brand loyalty. Platforms allow you to interact with people through the comments section.

3. Create collaborations.

You get the opportunity to be part of groups, create communities, and do collaborations with brands that complement yours. You can also partner with groups and organizations whose values and advocacies align with that of your brand. Social media is one of the best ways to see what these people and groups have been doing for the past months.

4. Increased popularity.

Naturally, your brand will eventually become well-known. This is the whole idea behind leveraging the massive reach of social media. You want your brand to become a household name and transform into the brand of choice of the majority of consumers.

5. Availability of analytics to help you make decisions.

You need analytics to understand the demographics of social media users who frequently check your page. You would also need to know which kinds of content appeal most to your audience and which ones solicit comments and shares.

6. Brand awareness.

In time, your brand will become more familiar to social media users. The other way to achieve this is to make sure that you are visible. This can be effectively achieved by asking your social media manager to consistently post daily content for you or your brand.

Read more: What’s the Best Time to Post on LinkedIn? (Hint: Not Monday)

What to Ask Your Social Media Manager Applicant During an Interview

When screening applicants for the social manager position you are looking for, it is vital to ask questions that will help you weigh their abilities and skills. Regular interviews look into the character, work ethic, and experiences. This time around, you would want to know more about skill sets to see how that person fits best in your business.

Remember that some of your primary objectives during the interview are to determine the capability of the applicant, see what they have to offer in terms of skill, weigh their experiences, and determine if they can be an asset to the organization long-term.

Feel free to add follow-up questions if the replies are too vague. It is important to get the right details and that you understand them clearly. Naturally, applicants will be on their best behavior and will highlight all their accomplishments as much as possible.

Be discerning. Look for someone you will be comfortable working with, someone receptive, teachable, and committed. This person will be crucial to your brand’s success.

Here are the 15 interview questions you should ask your applicant:

1. What do you think are the suitable social media platforms for our business?

This might be a no-brainer, but what you’re looking for here is if they did the groundwork and research before they went into the interview.

Usually, if they did, they would even give you suggestions on what’s working well or not.

2. Do you use social media tools? Which ones and why?

By asking them about their stack, you can get a glimpse of how they function. This is critical if you want to find out how they operate.

You can ask them to go through each and tell you how they implement it in their role.

Also, everyone has their own stack of tools that they use.

However, your organization might be using something else, and they might need the training for it, try to get this obstacle out of the way.

3. What brands/online communities or groups you have handled in the past?

This shows you their specialty and helps you assess their experience.

4. What kind of content do you think will boost our brand?

Mainly a creative exercise for you to see if they know what tone of voice you want your brand to convey.

You can link this with question 1 to check if they’re proficient in producing and leading content on different platforms.

5. What are your recommended strategies to generate new leads?

Social media managers might not always score a 10 on lead generation, but they should be scoring high 7s in your books.

If they know how to implement proper lead generation, then you’ve got someone worth your organization’s time.

If they can help strategize around your existing campaigns, then put them on the shortlist.

SMM ties in with your lead gen.

Also, ask them about how they will use social media to implement awareness, and consideration to nurture leads through your pipelines.

6. How do you respond to negative comments?

A social media manager is responsible for maintaining your brand image and part of that is being its voice.

They need to be able to know how to respond – or ignore – negative comments tactfully, in a way that also reflects the values of your brand.

Try to give them sample comments and see if they can respond in a way that diffuses the situation and doesn’t jeopardize the brand in general.

7. What is your crisis management strategy if the brand’s image is at stake?

Sooner or later, your brand will have a crisis and you need someone with a cool head and a strategy in place.

Propose a couple of scenarios and see how they’ll react to solve a crisis and mitigate disaster.

8. Have you ever made a major mistake in your social media work? Tell us a little bit about it.

While we’re on the theme of crisis management, we all know that everyone fumbles – even brands!

However, you want to see two things with this question.

1. How they handled the situation for their brand
2. How they handled the feelings of frustration – if any – that they had

This is where you’ll see their tenacity and if they know how to restrategize to get back on it.

9. How do you make sure to stay relevant on all social media platforms?

Social media platforms are dynamic and it’s often difficult to stay at the head of the game.

You need to make sure that you have someone that knows how to keep up and stay on top.

10. What is your normal breakdown of a social media budget?

This is where you can judge their resource management skills.

At the same ask them how they would manage their ad budget.

11. What tool do you usually use to communicate with other members of a team?

12. Can you show us examples of your social media projects?

Ask for their portfolio …and then some.

You might even want to ask how they self-promote their personal brand online.

13. Do you think TikTok suits our brand?

This question is a wildcard since not everyone can rock a TikTok account, but if you have a business that has no business being on TikTok, this is where you can see their creativity.

14. What is your topmost priority as social media manager?

This is a vision alignment question, you want someone who’s in the same boat as you.

15. What is your biggest accomplishment as a social media manager so far?

Takeaways About Interview Questions to Ask Your Social Media Manager

This is by no means a complete list.

But, these are enough to check if a candidate is quick on their feet and has a holistic view of your business.

Also, remember that there are two other things you should be checking when it comes to these questions.

1. Their experience
2. Your gut

These are the two things that have helped BAMF create a solid team over the past years.

Stay golden.