16 Great Interview Questions to Ask When Hiring a New Social Media Manager

Your reasoning for wanting to hire a social media manager is obviously to manage your business’s social media accounts. However, the skills and responsibilities of social media managers can differ depending on things like the size of your company and your amount of visibility on social media.

Therefore, before you begin the recruitment process and interview suitable candidates, you should determine the precise role and responsibilities that the position will require.

You can then ensure that you ask the right interview questions to find the right person for the job.

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For instance, you may need to employ a social media manager who knows how to create and execute a strategy that will support your company’s goals, keep up to date with all the latest social media trends and adopt ones that make sense for your specific brand, and respond to public-facing and private customer concerns.

To help you get started in finding the best interview questions to ask so that you can hire the right social media manager for your business, here are sixteen great examples of questions that you could utilize.

Different Interview Formats to Consider

Before we delve into the interview questions to ask when hiring a social media manager, it is worth mentioning that you should spend time considering different types of interview formats.

Depending on your company’s specific needs and location, you could hold interviews in person or remotely.

If you hold interviews in person, you will need to determine whether the interview takes the form of a one-on-one format or whether it is better to use a panel to interview candidates.

If you intend to hold interviews remotely, you could conduct them via telephone or Zoom.

You also have the opportunity to conduct asynchronous video interviews, which involves giving applicants the opportunity to pre-record their answers to your Asynchronous video interview questions.

You would simply send a video interview link to candidates and give them a time limit to answer those questions via a webcam or phone camera. You and your team can then review candidates’ answers and find the right applicant for your position.

Regardless of the interview format you decide to use, consider asking some or all of the following questions for assessing social media managers.

How did you first get started working in social media management?

By asking this question, you cannot only find out what skills and experience a candidate has. You can also find out how passionate an applicant is about social media and social media management.

If someone speaks passionately about his or her love of social media, the candidate will probably be a better fit for your company than another applicant with the same skills and experience but who lacks the same passion.

What social media accounts have you managed before?

While this information should be on any applicant’s resume, it can be helpful to ask candidates about their previous experience to discern more about them and their previous roles than you can discover by reading about those positions on paper.

You need to know which social platforms the candidates have experience with and which industries they have worked in.

You also need to know whether they are used to managing social media accounts that have small or large follower bases to determine how well they would fit into your company and into the specific role of the social media manager.

Why do you want to manage social media for our company?

This straightforward question enables you to know what brought applicants to your company.

And, seeing as every company runs social media accounts differently, you can find out what candidates know about your existing social media management and why they want to work for your company rather than a competitor.

Answers to this question can go in all sorts of directions, so it is a good one to ask in order to get to know applicants better and discover how well they would fit into your company.

What is your preferred tool for post scheduling?

Social media managers need to have experience in using social media management tools for doing things like scheduling posts, but there are lots of different tools on the market, so it will be very helpful to know which social media management tools candidates like using the most.

You may need to ensure that an applicant has experience in using the tools you already have in place. Alternatively, you might be open to the person you hire using his or her preferred management tools, if the applicant can make a good case for using one tool over another.

When describing the best tools for post scheduling, candidates should talk about the features they find most beneficial, such as interfaces, data analytics, and content management tools.

How do you transform data into actionable recommendations?

You will need to hire a social media manager who goes beyond reporting on data trends. You need someone who can look at data and transform it into actionable recommendations.

The more that a prospective candidate can demonstrate a data-driven approach to improving performance, the more likely it is that he or she is the right person for the position; as long as the candidate meets your other requirements and expectations.

What improvements would you make to our company’s recent social media campaigns?

Any serious candidate for your social media manager position will have done his or her homework by looking up your different social media accounts and examining your recent campaigns.

So, by asking this question you can sort the wheat from the chaff.

If it becomes clear that a candidate has not looked at your social media accounts, or has not looked at them in detail, you can be sure that that person is not the right choice for your position.

Those candidates that have spent time looking at and analyzing your social media accounts should be able to answer this interview question by highlighting the things that have been done effectively and then stating the ways in which they would improve your content and social media strategies.

What would you do differently on our different social media platforms?

This is a good question to ask after the last one, as it naturally follows on. By asking applicants what they would do differently on your different social media platforms, you can get a good understanding of how well candidates understand how to utilize different channels effectively.

After all, the strategy your company uses on TikTok might not be the same strategy that you use on Facebook.

When candidates provide answers to this question, be on the outlook for people who talk about changes they would make that would be noticeably different from your current social media strategies for different platforms.

Do you have experience working with some social media channels more than others?

You do not necessarily have to hire someone who has a lot of experience handling accounts of all the different social media platforms out there, but you do need to ensure that the person you hire has the experience that matches your needs or can easily be trained to manage unfamiliar social media accounts.

Though, of course, it can also be beneficial to hire someone who has a wealth of experience across numerous social media channels.

By finding out which platforms candidates have the most and least experience of, you can better ascertain which candidates are potentially the right ones for your open position.

How would you manage multiple social media accounts simultaneously?

Following on from the last interview question, by asking this question, you can discern how well a prospective candidate will handle all of your different social media accounts.

The right person for the job will have the right skills, experience, and time management to give every one of your accounts the same level of attention and be able to create unique content for each of your channels.

What does engagement mean to you?

This is an interesting question to ask because there is no one right answer.

By asking candidates what engagement, in terms of social media engagement, means to them, you can find out how much they understand the importance of connecting with a target audience.

Which companies’ social media accounts do you admire and why?

You can get to know applicants better, in terms of how they view and manage social media content, by asking them about which companies’ social media accounts they admire and why.

Good social media managers always keep an eye on the social media accounts of different leading companies, and you need to make sure that the person you hire has excellent knowledge of the ways other companies utilize social media content.

And by finding out why applicants admire certain companies’ social media strategies, you can learn more about those candidates and determine whether they would be suitable for your company.

Can you tell us about your most successful and least successful social media campaigns?

When you ask this interview question, you can get to know the skills, experience, and character of an applicant much better.

Good candidates will be able to talk openly about how they have achieved success in the past and how they have handled unsuccessful social media campaigns.

You can also find out what the candidates would do differently if they had the chance to start their unsuccessful campaigns from scratch.

Have you ever had to handle a social media crisis?

Social media crises can involve things like platform crashes and online trolls.

While crises cannot always be averted, you need to know how prospective candidates have handled social media crises in the past.

You can then learn how good applicants’ problem-solving skills are and how they respond in stressful high-pressure situations.

What metrics were you expected to meet or exceed in your prior positions?

You can drill down into candidates’ suitability more by asking this question.

In addition to asking if an applicant met or exceeded set metrics in his or her previous employment, you should ask the candidate whether he or she had trouble meeting metrics and discover why.

By getting a good overview of how successful candidates were in meeting or exceeding targets, you can better understand their experience and find the right people for your shortlist of potential hires.

Do you have experience working with brand ambassadors or influencers?

Many companies partner with other brands and influencers. If your company does that, it could be helpful to hire someone who has experience working with brand ambassadors or influencers.

You should also ask prospective candidates how they would find brand ambassadors and influencers and how they would work with them and manage them.

It can certainly be helpful to hire someone who has experience collaborating with different brand ambassadors and influencers, but that does not mean you should discount applicants that lack experience in this area if they tick your other boxes.

How do you handle stress and prevent burnout?

Social media managers can be prone to stress and burnout due to the fast-paced and public-facing nature of the role, so it is a good idea to ask candidates how they manage stress and burnout.

It is easy for anyone to get stressed and burned out, but as long as applicants can demonstrate that they have clear methods of self-care that they put into practice, you can be more assured that they will stay on top of things without being overly affected mentally and physically.

Summing Up

The above questions are great ones to use when interviewing potential social media managers for your company. But, as mentioned in the introduction, you should look at what your specific company needs in a social media manager to ensure the person you pick is the ideal choice for the role.

Now, let us end by recapping the sixteen questions that can help you find the ideal social media manager:

1. How did you first get started working in social media management?
2. What social media accounts have you managed before?
3. Why do you want to manage social media for our company?
4. What is your preferred tool for post scheduling?
5. How do you transform data into actionable recommendations?
6. What improvements would you make to our company’s recent social media campaigns?
7. What would you do differently on our different social media platforms?
8. Do you have experience working with some social media channels more than others?
9. How would you manage multiple social media accounts simultaneously?
10. What does engagement mean to you?
11. Which companies’ social media accounts do you admire and why?
12. Can you tell us about your most successful and least successful social media campaigns?
13. Have you ever had to handle a social media crisis?
14. What metrics were you expected to meet or exceed in your prior positions?
15. Do you have experience working with brand ambassadors or influencers?
16. How do you handle stress and prevent burnout?