Top 20 Social Media Interview Questions

Written by Lauren Burger, via Simplilearn

Social Media Marketing is a well-established field despite its relative youth. Over the past decade, social media has evolved from a fun diversion into serious business. Whether you’re a start-up or the President, you’re probably using some form of social media today.

Between Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr, Pinterest, Snapchat, and others, marketers have been forced to rethink entire marketing strategies that best reach the audiences of each platform. And, of course, that means a specialized skill set.

We’ve put together a list of interview questions that you are likely to encounter if you are interviewing for a social media marketing position.

Basic Social Media Interview Questions

Oftentimes, an interviewer will start out with questions that are fairly simple to answer. This technique can help you relax since the answers will be easy.

1. What is social media marketing?

Social media marketing is a practice that consists of using social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and others, in order to promote products or services to gain traffic and customers.

2. How does social media benefit a business?

Social media benefits businesses in a variety of ways, the most important of which is establishing a dialogue with customers. Social media enables customers or consumers to communicate directly with brands, forever changing the way organizations must operate.

3. Describe one strategy that will help you succeed as a social media marketer.

Authenticity is key. No matter the type of company you’re interviewing with, whether their audience is businesses or consumers, it’s important to be genuine. By doing so, brands can establish their trustworthiness to their audiences. 

The question is most commonly asked during an interview for a social media manager.

4. On which social media platforms should my business establish a presence?

The answer to this question can vary, depending on whether the organization is a B2B or B2C company. Prepare yourself to answer based on the type of company you’re interviewing with.

5. Describe the process you use to create a social media calendar.

This question is designed to help sort social media enthusiasts from social media managers. Be sure you understand and can describe a variety of social media marketing best practices.

6. Why should we hire you over other candidates? 

To answer this social media interview question correctly, you should have sound knowledge of the company's work. Tell the interviewer about the value you can bring to the company, highlight the unique skills you possess, and mention how you plan the company's growth. 

The question is most commonly asked during an interview for a social media manager.

7. What was the most significant thing you accomplished in your previous job? 

Answering this social media interview question is just like storytelling. Be specific when you talk about your accomplishments. Mention the problem you solved and how you did it in depth. It will help the interviewer understand your attitude towards work.

Advanced Social Media Interview Questions

Depending on the seniority of the role you’re interviewing for, the questions you may encounter are likely to increase in difficulty. These are the most common questions asked in social media manager and specialist interviews.

8. Which marketing metrics are the most important to track?

Unsurprisingly, this question can vary depending on the type of organization you’re interviewing with. Research their business and social media presence, and answer this question with your recommendations based on what you’ve learned about their organization.

9. How do you get more retweets?

Some of the most common ways to inspire people to retweet include learning the best times of day to tweet, connecting with more Twitter users, including images, and ensuring you leave enough characters for retweeters to respond (this should be much easier to do now that Twitter allows 280 characters).

10. Based on what you know about our company, how would you recommend we use LinkedIn for marketing?

By using LinkedIn Groups, most companies can help establish themselves as thought leaders in their field. 

11. How should a company measure social media marketing success?

The answer to this question depends on the organization. You can answer this question in a general way by describing a variety of scenarios, including:

• If the goal is conversion, track content downloads, online sales, webinar registrations, online lead generation form submissions, and so forth. These metrics help you understand how many people took action as a result of each.

• If the goal is engagement, learn how many people participate in the conversation: how many comments, replies, reposts or retweets are the posts generating?

• If the goal is awareness, look at reach, volume, and exposure to learn how widely your message is spreading.

• If the goal is driving traffic to the website, track clicks, URL shares, and conversions, along with the path people are using to enter various pages on your website.

12. Suppose I am a potential customer. How would you approach me?

To answer this social media interview question, you should have a sound knowledge of all the company's products and services. Your answer will determine how much you know about the company and its USPs. 

Open-Ended Social Media Interview Discussion

This next set of questions don’t have definitive answers; however, you should be prepared to discuss these in an interview.

13. How did you grow traffic in your previous roles?

Be prepared to share actual numbers. Let your interviewer know whether you are describing a scenario where you were able to grow traffic by yourself, or whether you were a contributor to a team.

14. Which channels were the most effective in your previous roles and why?

This answer depends entirely on your previous experience. Be prepared to provide your interviewer with specific examples of what has worked well in the past. Start out with a summary of the type of company or brand you were working with so that your interviewer has the right context.

15. Of all the content you’ve seen recently, what is your favorite and why?

Here is another question that depends on you. You might describe a piece of content you wrote yourself or one you saw online that caught your eye. What made it your favorite? Was it the design? The information it provided? 

16. Which techniques or technologies do you use to measure the quality of your social media campaigns? How do you use what you’ve learned when strategizing future campaigns?

There are a lot of tools that companies can use for social media marketing. You should know how to use the most common ones, and be aware of other tools. For example, tools used by a company with just five employees might be different than the tools a large corporation might use. You shouldn’t need to know every feature of every tool, or every single technique—just describe what you know.

Pro tip: Ask your interviewer what tools they use, so you’ll know what you need to learn before you start the job.

17. Describe the most successful social media campaign you’ve run. What did you learn?

This question is a variant of the popular “what is your proudest accomplishment” question, and is almost guaranteed to be a question you’ll face in an interview. Be ready for this one by outlining the basics of the campaign. If you can’t memorize all the details, bring some notes to refer to.

18. Describe the least successful social media campaign you’ve run. What did you learn?

With this question, your interviewer is looking to learn how you handle failure, whether or not it was your fault directly. Sometimes a small mistake that was overlooked—a broken URL in a call-to-action, for example—can spell disaster for social media. This question is another that you’ll most likely encounter, so prepare your response in advance.

19. Have you checked our social media channels? What did you like and don't like about it? 

When you are applying for social media positions in a company, you must know about their social media game. Check out all their channels thoroughly before your social media interview. It is also essential to derive insights and create a list of feedback based on your observations. This will help the interviewer understand your experience. 

20. What are our competitors doing on Social Media?

Competitor analysis plays a huge role in defining brand strategy and growth. You should know who the competitors are and what they are good at. If you answer this questions well, the interviewer will get to know about your research skills and how well prepared you are for the interview.