Best interview questions for a Social Media Manager

Social Media Manager Interview Questions

While this position is usually fairly entry level, it’s important that you can find someone with a responsible attitude. It’s important for them to also be:

Digital-savvy and have a lot of experience using many different social media platforms.
It will be beneficial for you to find someone who has a background in brand so that they will accurately reflect and understand your company values.
You should be focused on finding a candidate that is strategic and well spoken.
Remember that this person will be a big part of how your users and customers see you.

Interviewing a Social Media Manager

Are you searching for an excellent Social Media Manager? You’ll want to get to know your candidates better during an interview. With our Social Media Manager interview questions, your interview is prepared quickly and easily.

Please note: Our interview questions are suggestions for the earlier stages of the application process and for candidates with average work experience. They are therefore a little more general.

How to open the job interview

Interviews naturally breed nerves, so the first part of your interview should aim to make the candidate feel comfortable speaking with you, you’ll get much more information out of them and a better sense of the person they are if they feel like they can trust the environment they are in.

To do this you can ask some fun and interesting questions linked to the role, they should be open-ended and encourage conversation.

Job Description available

See our Social Media Manager Job Description here

For the interview

A positive opener to start

What do you enjoy most about your job?

What has been your journey so far?

Behavioral Questions

Which social media platforms are your favourites to use personally and what about them do you like so much?
The candidate should be excited about this question and find it easy to chat about, it will give you a good sense of personality and background.
What brands do you think have a great social media presence? Why do you like their strategy?
If a candidate is experienced in the industry they should have a handful of brands that they strive to be just like.
Can you tell me about a social media campaign that you worked on from start to end? What was your role?
This will let you know what they are like working within a team and if they are willing to become a leader.

Soft Skills

What do you think of our social media strategy now? What would you change about it?
Candidates shouldn't need to give an in depth answer here, but they should have done some research before the interview.
How often do you report on metrics?
Usually social media managers will keep an eye on metrics daily and keep track of their KPIs per post and how the platforms are growing week-over-week.
Have you had to work in cross-functional teams before?
Social media managers will need to work together with SEO managers and content creators, either external or in house.
How would you explain the technicalities and metrics to stakeholders that aren’t social media savvy?
This will show what their communication style and skills are like.
How can you keep other employees excited about promoting our company on their social media platforms?
This will give a general idea of their character, they should be passionate about their work and enjoy sharing it with others.

Hard Skills

Which social media platforms do you have most experience using?
How do you measure the success of the social media platforms that you run?
Both the questions above should give a basic outline of their general experience, the candidate should be able to give KPIs to measure success, and have knowledge across a variety of platforms.
How do you decide when and what to post?
This should give you an idea of the amount of experience they already have, ideally they should have worked on monthly calendars, and looked at past data to decide on changes for future posts.
Can you explain to me how social media and SEO can work together to create successful campaigns?
Social media managers should have a well rounded amount of experience in marketing in general, SEO is a very useful tool for social media and the candidate should be able to answer easily.

Operational / Situational Questions

Can you tell me about a time that you have had to deal with negative comments? How did you deal with that?
This could also be a behavioural question, since you’ll get a good idea of how the candidate will react on a personal level, but you’re also looking for the way they work under pressure and how they can problem solve.
How would you promote a company event on social media?
Promoting an in house event is a little different to promoting a platform, here you can get an idea of how they use their audience to advertise to and how they appeal to different audiences.
How have you managed to raise brand awareness using social media in the past?
Here you should be looking for specific campaign examples like using competitions, quizzes, upping comment engagement - any creative ideas.