Social Media Interview Questions

During an interview for a Social Media Manager or Social Media Specialist position, your potential employer will be looking to gain an understanding of your previous social media work, as well as your social media skills and knowledge. They will also be assessing whether you would fit in with their company culture.

Here are a few tips to help you prepare for a Social Media Manager or Social Media Specialist interview.

• Review the company’s work and social media: You have likely already researched the company to write your cover letter and resume. Now, you will want to take a deeper dive into their work and social media accounts. Some companies may ask you specific questions about how you would improve their presence on specific social media platforms. Be prepared with a few content or campaign ideas you would implement.
• Know your metrics: Companies are looking for results from their social media efforts. You may be asked to define key performance indicators and metrics for various platforms. You should also be ready to share your own results. Review your greatest social media successes and the quantifiable impact of your work.
• Brush up on your social media knowledge: Interviewers may ask you to explain social media strategies, tools, or concepts. Review your knowledge and research future social media trends.
• Practice answering questions: You won’t know exactly what questions you will be asked, so the best way to prepare is by practicing common Social Media Manager interview questions. Consider asking a friend or peer to do a mock interview with you.

To help you get ready for any social media interview, we have compiled a list of frequently asked interview questions for Social Media Managers and Social Media Specialists.

Employers will want to know more about your social media experience and expertise. They want a candidate who is knowledgeable about all things social media—and who can articulate their understanding.

Your answers should also indicate not only your expertise in digital marketing best practices but also your overall understanding of how they fit in with overall business goals and a broader marketing and communication strategy.

Here are two examples of skills-based social media interview questions and how you can answer them:

Question: How do you make something go viral?

Answer: No one has an exact formula for creating a viral video – but there’s a lot you can do to help make content more shareable. Explain to your hiring manager how important it is to release content at the right time for the target audience, how viral videos typically have a hook in the opening few seconds, and how you target relevant influencers to increase the potential spread of posts.

Question: Tell me about SEO and how search engine optimization relates to social media.

Answer: If you’re a candidate for a social media job, you’ve almost certainly worked within a larger digital marketing team at some point in your career, and you understand how the various components of a marketing campaign work together to boost businesses’ overall brands. Your answer should cover the interconnectivity of SEO and social, and talk about how creating social content that links to and from websites, incorporates valuable keywords, and is posted with a complete profile can help meet SEO goals and boost overall brand campaigns.

• Please define social media marketing.
• How can a business benefit from social media?
• Tell us about some online communities you have managed in the past.
• For our business, which social media channels do you recommend? Why?
• What are the best metrics for tracking social media ROI?
• When you see negative comments or a brand reputation crisis, how do you respond?
• What’s your approach to stay on top of the latest updates, innovations, and new platforms in social media?
• Tell us about a campaign you’ve led in the past. What went well, and what could you have done better?
• Please provide some different methods to measure social media success.
• What is your approach for successfully fostering an online community?
• What do we use a hashtag for?
• When should you not respond to a customer on social media?
• Tell us how social media, SEM, and SEO should work together for a successful brand campaign.
• In your opinion, which marketing metrics are the most important to track?
• What do you think is the best time to post on social media? Does it change for each platform?

Though it’s a marketing role and not highly technical, you can still expect interview questions that test your technical social media skills, including:

Question: What tools do you use to manage social media accounts?

Answer: Social media management tools can help you schedule content, analyze engagement, create compelling visual content, and conduct thorough social listening. Some of the industry-standard tools worth mentioning in a job interview include Hootsuite, Buffer, Later, and Sprout Social. Organizational platforms like Trello, Google Sheets, or Airtable often come in handy for social media experts, particularly as they coordinate with marketing, development, and PR teams. Familiarity with Google Analytics is also a must and is worth mentioning in your interview.

• What strategies would you use to generate leads?
• Google has just devalued an SEO technique you have used successfully in the past. What do you do next?
• What do you think we could improve about our current social media strategy?
• What’s your approach to track mentions of our brand online?
• If you’re unfamiliar with an industry, how do you write compelling content?
• Should a Social Media Marketer have a separate strategy for each social media platform? Why?
• What is your process for building social media platforms from the ground up?
• Take us through your process to create a social media calendar.
• How can social media be used as a tool for customer service?
• Hypothetically, we have a crisis on one of our social media channels. How do you respond?
• Please provide a couple of examples of social media experiments you’d like to run with our business.
• Tell me a story. What makes a good story?
• Tell us about your strategy for improving Facebook organic reach.
• Give us a strategy for gathering more retweets.
• Take us through your process for designing optimal social media experience for our customers/users?
• Explain your approach for leveraging the benefits of both LinkedIn Groups and LinkedIn Pages. How do you measure the ROI of a specific social media campaign?

As a Social Media Manager or Social Media Specialist, you will be representing the company’s brand, interacting with their customers, and working closely with other departments. Employers will want to make sure you have the right personality and passion for the role.

Here is an example of a personal social media interview question:

Question: How would you handle a negative customer review or comment?

Answer: Your employer will be relying on you to be the first point of contact for the brand in many cases. How you handle criticisms from the community will be a crucial point in considering whether or not you’re the right candidate. You should emphasize how a negative review or comment is even more important to you than a positive one, and how you try to resolve any issues as quickly and transparently as possible. When that’s not an option, you take the conversation offline so you can find other ways to make sure they’re satisfied

• What is the most important job responsibility for a Social Media Manager or Social Media Specialist?
• Give us some reasons why should we hire you over someone else.
• Please tell us about your preferred working style.
• Why do you want to work with us?
• Please tell us three of your strengths and three weaknesses.
• What brands give you social media inspiration?
• What is your favorite thing about working in social media?
• Where do you find creative inspiration?
• Do you follow any social media experts or influencers?
• What’s your approach to handle a customer crisis on social media?
• We would like our employees to be more excited about engaging with and sharing our brand on social media. What should we do?

A Social Media Specialist knows how to communicate with their team and lead marketing campaigns and projects. Be ready for interview questions that test essential leadership and communication skills.

Here is an example of a situational social media interview question and how to answer it:

Question: Rate your communication skills on a scale of one to 10. Give examples of experiences that demonstrate the rating is justified.

Answer: If you’re going to succeed in social, your communication skills should be at a 10. To really wow a hiring manager, try to find examples of your success across as many different types of communication as possible. Certainly, you will need to combine a flair for spotting eye-catching visuals with a gift for writing concise, memorable copy to succeed in these job roles, so find ways to show your multi-disciplinary skills in your answer.

• Please describe a marketing concept that is complicated but that you know well.
• Please tell us about a successful presentation you gave and why you think it did well.
• How important are communication skills to you?
• When explaining social media metrics to your clients, what sort of challenges do you face? How do you make social media metrics easy to understand for people from non-technical backgrounds?
• Think back to a time you took the lead on a team project. What was the outcome of the project?
• Please describe a time your idea improved the company in some way. How did you ensure it was implemented?
• Do you have any specific ways to motivate your team?

Employers want to know how candidates reacted to situations in their previous jobs because they can reveal important skills and traits about the candidate. To successfully answer behavioral interview questions, describe a specific situation, the actions you took, and the outcomes you achieved.

Here is an example of a behavioral interview question for social media roles are:

Question: Please tell us about your biggest social media failure.

Answer: Everyone makes mistakes – they’re just more public when it happens on social media. Whatever your answer, you should emphasize what you learned rather than focusing on the error itself. Maybe you were a minute too late to see the potential in a fast-rising platform, or you regret how you allocated your advertising dollars on a past campaign. Either way, show how you’ve learned from the mistake and clearly outline how you would handle such a situation in the future.

• Looking back on your career, what project or task would you consider as your most significant accomplishment?
• Tell us about a time you promoted products or services on social media. Did you spend advertising dollars on the campaign? How did you evaluate your ROI?
• Please tell us about a social media campaign you worked on from start to end. What was the objective of the campaign, what strategy did you use, and what were the results?
• Have you ever failed to convince a client to follow the social media strategy you recommended? If so, how did you handle it?
• What’s your approach for working effectively under pressure?
• Have you ever made an unpopular decision? How did you handle implementing it?
• Please tell us how you approach working with a team.

Here are a few of the interview questions that top tech companies (including Amazone, Apple, Google, and Microsoft) ask when interviewing a social media job candidate.

• Describe a project you were proud to work on.
• Take us inside a specific campaign or campaigns you have scaled on social media. What was the outcome?
• You want to reach specific target audiences. How do you use new social media platforms to do so?
• Please tell us about your best experience with professional collaboration.
• How do you stay motivated in your career?
• What’s your approach to building relationships?
• Tell us about a single project that you’re particularly proud of.
• In your current role, what’s the biggest compliment you’ve ever received?
• Describe a situation in which you had a disagreement with your manager.
• How do you ensure your skills stay current?
• Please tell us about one of your most difficult projects. What would you do differently?
• What is your approach for setting and meeting goals?
• How do you handle conflicts at work? Please give me a specific example.
• If a stakeholder is vague about a requirement, what do you do?