With the world being online, social media marketing is booming.
82% of the US population (approximately 295 million users) are on social media.
It’s no wonder that businesses want to capitalize on this upward trend and expand their areas of influence.
And the increase in demand for social media managers is only too obvious.
So, how do you land that social media manager position with so many people vying for the role?
To make things easier for you, we have compiled a list of over 30 social media manager interview questions and answers that can help you get your dream job.
We’ve divided the questions and answers into three categories: introductory, team and work culture, skills and experience.
Let’s get going!
Introductory Interview Questions for Social Media Manager Role
These social media manager job interview questions with possible answers are designed so that the recruiters can learn more about you, your beliefs, and your motivations.
1. What inspired you to pursue a career in social media?
Being a creative person and an avid social media user, I like juggling with many things. I started to blog my thoughts that quickly escalated into a passion for working in this dynamic industry.
I have also helped small and new businesses set up their social media and run campaigns. This profession can push me to make full use of my creative and analytical skills to help brands achieve their goals.
2. What is your favorite social media platform, and why?
I believe different social platforms could serve different purposes. Personally, I enjoy using Instagram. There’s always a new feature update that can be utilized to boost engagement. I also like the platform since it receives active participation from a wide range of age groups.
3. As a social media manager, what areas would you say you’re better than most?
I believe in delivering strong ROI through optimized social media marketing campaigns. I am also proficient in lead conversion and sales using multiple marketing channels.
4. How do you invest in yourself?
With social media, there’s always something new to learn. Other than reading books, I attend seminars, masterclasses or workshops hosted by credible marketers in our industry. These training sessions help me stay updated with the latest industry trends and allow me to network with like-minded professionals.
5. Why do you want to work for this company / organization?
I’ve been following your brand’s social media for a while now. Not only do I enjoy the work that you put out, I resonate with your company’s core values. Yes, working with this company will provide wider industry exposure, but I also want to contribute to the company’s growth with my skillset.
6. How do you know that you will add value to our company?
As discussed earlier, I align with your company’s mission. I also have excellent problem-solving skills and can avert or diffuse crises situations in a short turnaround time. With your knowledge and experience in multiple domains combined with my skillset, I can work my way through all situations.
7. How has social media benefited your previous company?
Active use of social media has enhanced their brand awareness and connectivity with their audience, which led to better customer retention and increased sales.
8. What do you consider a good workplace and a bad one?
I believe that a good workplace allows and encourages open communication, unbiased support, career advancement and the opportunity to propose a change for substandard (unproductive) methods in the workplace. A place that lacks the aforementioned traits might make the work feel like a chore.
9. What will you do in your first month on the job as a social media manager?
It’s essential to understand the current status of the social media strategy and how it is implemented to meet with the social / marketing team to gain an understanding of how they work.
I’ll also check in with the client servicing team to get additional information about the clients and upcoming deadlines. Then, I will create a social media strategy by collaborating with the marketing manager and send it for approval.
Once approved by the client, I will create a POA to ensure quality work within the deadlines. The next step would be to discuss the POA with the team and delegate tasks. I will oversee the team’s work while monitoring the current social accounts.
10. What would you expect to happen if you underperform?
I expect a meeting with my superior to understand the reasons for my underperformance. We can come up with a performance improvement plan to address those issues.
Assessing Team and Work Culture
This social media manager interview questions and answers section is focused on examining your interpersonal skills and work ethics.
11. What would the definition of the “world-class employee” mean to you? Would you say you match this definition?
A world-class employee can be someone who delivers measurable results, continuously strives to be a better version of him/herself, and goes beyond the job description to improve the organization’s performance at large.
12. In what capacity was your team better with you being a part of it?
I was a social media manager at my previous company, where I handled a team of six employees. After I took over as the team leader, the team improved its TAT by 12% and witnessed a 15% rise in deliverables.
13. If you could build a team, what qualities and skills would you look for in candidates?
The most important skills for the ideal candidate will include excellent communication skills, market awareness, and expert knowledge of social media tools.
14. Tell me about a time when you had a conflict with a coworker or team member. What happened?
The conflict occurred because of a difference in opinion, and I resolved it by discussing it with that team member separately. I tried to understand their reasoning and matched my thought process to resolve it mutually.
15. How do you manage your team to derive maximum efficiency?
I create a POA to manage expectations first. It’s important to know what we’re working on before the tasks are delegated. I ensure that I’m available for support and oversee the team’s work constantly. I also arrange training sessions to keep them updated with the latest tools and trends in social media.
Skills and Experience
This is the most extended interview category about holistically reviewing your experience, industry knowledge, and specific skill set to ensure you are eligible for this position.
16. What time do you add posts to social media for maximum engagement?
The timings depend on the audience and country we are targeting through our campaigns. The social media platform also plays a role in deciding the timings. In my previous job role, there were two time slots that I observed worked well for the company. First, before office hours around 9 AM and second was between 5 PM to 11 PM.
17. Why those timings?
As per our research, the target audience of [previous company/brand name] was the most active during those times. We were able to respond to them within a few hours, resulting in better customer service. There was also an increase in likes and comments on the posts.
18. Which is the top social media platform according to you?
This could differ depending on the brand offering and target demographic. Generally, Facebook, YouTube and WhatsApp have the most active monthly users, so it can be relatively easier to find new leads on these platforms.
19. How will you improve engagement on a chosen social media platform?
It’s essential to create content that the target audience can find useful or relate to. Initially, we can experiment with a variety of post types (text, visual content or polls) to see what the audience prefers most.
We can create a custom hashtag and encourage our audience to share their experiences. The next priority would be to engage with the audience in the comment box.
20. How would you deal with negative feedback on social media?
I’ve noticed that responding to negative feedback within 12-24 hours can help a lot. The more the customer waits for an acknowledgment, the angrier they can get. I’ll acknowledge the customer’s feedback with empathy.
If this situation can be resolved with a workaround, I’ll communicate the same. Negative feedback should be taken as constructive criticism and utilized to give better service.
21. Which social media platforms do you recommend for our company, and why?
I recommend Google+, Facebook, and Instagram as these can help with increased brand awareness and generate ROI based on your product offerings.
22. How do you keep up with the latest social media trends?
I like to stay updated by getting the news directly from the source. For this, I have bookmarked and created a dedicated news folder for social media platforms.
Additionally, I follow the official social media profiles of most channels, keep up with the blog posts and use LinkedIn groups to get the latest news.
23. Which social media gives you the best results in increasing business visibility?
This depends on varied factors, including the brand/product type and the channel where you’re most likely to find your target audience.
In my previous role, the target audience was primarily millennials and hence, platforms like Instagram, YouTube and TikTok worked wonders to increase their brand visibility.
24. Can we assist customer service goals with social media? How?
Social media can be a great tool to assist customers. Regardless of who your audience is, social media is most likely the preferred communication channel for people. With people actively following brands online, they have also started sharing their love or grievances on social media.
It’s essential that we have a dedicated service team monitoring our account and addressing customer concerns on our brand pages. It would also help to have a separate social media page just to provide quick customer service.
The teams should be well-equipped with the brand image, guidelines, and proactive systems to answer customer queries promptly. AI-supported chatbots can help in providing instant replies to general customer queries.
25. What skills help you be an effective social media manager?
The skills that have helped me become an effective social media manager were strategic planning, effective communication, domain knowledge about social media platforms, marketing trends, and creativity.
26. Which KPI metric / goal is most important for a brand to go after on social media?
Again, this can differ based on your social strategy goals. If you’re already doing well with engagement, you’re likely going to focus on acquiring new leads or increasing ROI. Every metric is equally important. We cannot ignore customer care metrics while we’re working on boosting the brand reach.
27. Define your process of creating a social media calendar.
The task begins with understanding the company’s goals and future plans. Once that is done, check the company’s social profiles, published content, and audience responses. I observe trends and then come up with a strategy that would be most beneficial for the brand.
My social media calendar includes the finalized topics, preferred social media channels for publishing, publishing dates, links and media. I also share the calendar with the relevant team members to ensure ease of work.
28. Does a smaller and more engaged audience offer you more value?
An engaged audience is definitely beneficial and loyal to companies as they actively respond to social media campaigns. But, they may only contribute to 10-15% of the company. This is why it’s important to design targeted social media campaigns to generate new leads.
29. Can you talk about the social media projects you have done and are proud of in your previous jobs?
Intent: To acquire in-depth knowledge of your expertise from the quantifiable results of your previous role
I have successfully conceptualized and executed three projects on Facebook and two on Instagram in collaboration with my team. These were competitive campaigns launching re-branded services and they did exceptionally well.
30. What steps did you take to increase social media (any important metric) in your previous job?
My previous company primarily focused on their positioning and didn’t include competitor analysis leading to the inflated product value. This led to decreased sales and lower customer engagement.
I reworked their brand positioning metrics to include competitor analysis. We were able to align the company correctly according to market demand and removed vanity metrics.
31. What are the first metrics you’d like to examine if you were recruited to learn more about our existing social media strategy?
I would start with examining the engagement metrics–followers, likes, and footfalls on all your social profiles.
32. Which network would you utilize if the clients want to attract a younger audience, and why?
I would choose Instagram and TikTok as millennials and Gen Z prefer using these channels because of their seamless interface and the ability to create authentic content quickly.
33. You’ve got a great concept for a new campaign, but your boss / client doesn’t grasp it. How can you get executives to buy in?
I will seek their feedback and suggestions to frame the new strategy accordingly. I will incorporate the required changes and put forth some previous campaign examples to highlight the benefits and present them again after some time.
On a Final Note
It is no wonder that the designation of a social media manager is so popular.
We compiled these social media manager interview questions and answers to help you simulate the interview experience.
You can use these Q&A as a reference to craft better responses and see how your work experience compares to the job requirement.
And to stay on top of your game, don’t forget to use SocialPilot. Its seamless scheduling, collaboration, analytics, and social inbox features make it one of the most amazing social media marketing tools for social media managers like you.
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