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16 Interview Questions for Social Media Roles You Need to Practice Before Interviews
So, you've submitted your social media marketing resume and received an interview invitation. Hooray! But before going there, make sure that you're well-prepared.
Social media is one of the main platforms for brands, businesses, and companies to showcase themselves to a wider audience. Since it is an accessible, widespread form of advertising, the demand for social media professionals is increasing and is projected to grow by 6%, which is much faster than the average.
As skills in social media marketing are becoming highly sought after, roles in social media are becoming increasingly popular and more competitive. Therefore, knowing how to stand out during the interview process is key to securing a role as a social media professional.
In this article, we're going to go through the top 16 questions you could be asked in an interview for a social media role and give example answers for you to learn from.
We've collected some of the most common interview questions for social media roles. Use our sample answers as inspiration, and reflect on ways you can personalize the answers for your interviews.
1) What inspired you to become a social media manager?
To answer this question, make sure you mention your prior experience in social media and state how you want to step up into the role of a social media manager. Make sure you clearly communicate that you have experience and understand what it takes to work in a managerial position.
"I've been working in various digital marketing and social media roles for over 2 years, and during this time, I found that I really enjoy organizing everything needed for a successful social media marketing strategy. Since social media platforms have changed so much in recent years, especially with short-form videos, user-generated content, and influencer marketing, I find developing a social media campaign is now a complex and intricate process. I personally enjoy the process of brainstorming, organizing, and developing a campaign, as it involves both creativity and analysis. Although I really enjoyed my roles as a social media specialist, I now feel ready to step up and take on a more managerial role and help my team develop strong, successful social media campaigns."
2) What social media certifications do you hold?
This is one of the most frequently asked interview questions because hiring managers want to know if you have the technical skills to succeed in the role. You should mention any certifications you have, not just your formal education. Use the full name of the certificate or course when you mention it, and also describe the purpose of each certification you took:
"Besides my Bachelor's of Marketing, where I learned fundamental marketing concepts, including digital marketing, I also have taken a few certification courses to supplement my marketing skills and stay up-to-date with market trends. I have completed the Facebook Blueprint course, which allowed me to understand how to run a successful campaign using Facebook; Hootsuite's Social Media Marketing Course, which taught me key skills in organizing social media strategies, like planning a campaign and how to schedule posts, and also independently completed Google's Digital Marketing and E-commerce certificate, for running online stores. These courses allowed me to develop skills across a variety of different platforms, and I use skills learned through these certificates daily."
3) How would you describe our brand’s social media presence?
This question directly tests whether you did your research on the business before attending the interview. Prior to the interview, you should take a look through the business' social media platforms and try to understand what their goals are. This is especially important if you are interviewing for a social media specialist position, as you are expected to know and understand the brand. You should provide an honest but polite description of the business' different social media platforms and evaluate some strengths and weaknesses in your answer. Even if the company has poorly managed social media, still maintain a polite perspective:
"I quickly had a look at your social media channels prior to our interview, and I believe your business is aiming for a modern yet professional presence online. I appreciate how bold your branding is, and how strongly and confidently you present yourselves online. I also believe you are culturally aligned with the mindset of your target audience, as reflected by your choice of visuals and wording. I think since you offer such a specialized and niche service, the business could probably make its messaging more specific and targeted to your target audience. It seems as though you are applying best practices for social media to your posts on Instagram, which is great but is slightly generic and might not resonate as strongly with your customer."
4) Who do you think our brand’s competitors are on social media?
Social media managers are meant to be on top of the current trends and competitors in their business niche. An interview question like this aims to test social media marketers on whether they are capable of doing competitor analysis and also if you, as a candidate, understand the company's work, brand, niche, or industry. To prepare for this question, you must do some research into both the company you are applying for and some of its competitors. Try to research both large and small competitors and take a look at their various social media platforms as well.
"Since the company is in the natural beauty space, I took a look through some other companies in the same space. I came across the brand Naturally, a vegan healthcare brand with a very strong social media presence, especially on Instagram. I also came across a smaller competitor called Plantface, which is also very active on Instagram, specifically on reels. One thing I noticed whilst doing my research is that the preferred social channels for beauty brands are TikTok and Instagram; additionally, their social media marketing campaigns involve many reviews and influencer sponsorships. I noticed that your brand is not as active in making video content, which I believe should be prioritized in your social media campaigns."
5) What kind of content would you recommend for our brand’s social media accounts?
The previous example answer gave some recommendations for improving a brand's social media marketing campaigns. If you are directly asked for content recommendations, you can use both this example answer and the previous one to inspire your answer. As a social media manager, you will often be required to pitch new ideas for content in order to improve brand awareness and sales. To answer this question, you need to prepare by researching more into the company's brand and social media platforms. You also need to show that you understand the importance of creating engaging and relevant content for your customers, as well as the variety of social media tools you can use to create content:
"Based off my research, I believe that the beauty niche relies heavily on video content to drive brand awareness and sales. I recommend that short-form videos, such as those on Reels and TikTok, be prioritized in social media campaigns. Videos can include unboxing videos, first impressions, reviews, and testimonials from customers. Video content can be easily edited using tools like Canva or Capcut, or we can even employ a freelancer to edit the first batch of content for us."
6) What tools do you use for content creation?
As a social media marketer, you will need to be able to utilize many social media tools to create all types of content. Mention any tools you have previously used for content creation but focus mainly on tools you are confident in using. If you don't have experience with some tools, don't worry. Make sure you are honest and say you are interested in learning new skills. The best candidates in social media interviews are ones who are ready to learn.
"In my previous role as a social media specialist, I used tools such as Canva and the Adobe suite, specifically Photoshop, to create social media posts for a variety of social media platforms. I believe that high-quality visuals are key to creating valuable content that reflects the brand well. I am also capable of editing video using Capcut, and whilst I am not a professional video editor, I am very interested in learning more about video editing as well as being proficient in the right tools to produce video content."
7) How do you develop a social media strategy for a brand?
This social media interview question tests your knowledge of the organizational and technical parts of social media campaigns. Make sure you reflect on this question ahead of time so that your answer is logical and easy to understand. Also, mention all steps involved in creating a strategy, including goal setting, understanding business goals, and deciding on marketing metrics to track. Also, provide specific examples of times you have developed social media strategies.
"The first step to creating a strategy would be to decide on the social media goals for the brand, such as improving engagement, and align them to the business goals, such as increasing sales or brand awareness. Then, to align with our customers more, we could conduct some social listening to make sure we are answering their biggest needs, as well as look into some of our competitor's social media campaigns to see how we can stand out. From there, we can decide the profile of the ideal or potential customer we can target and create our strategy from that. We can then decide on what content we want to produce and what social media platform we want to utilize. We should also decide on success metrics and ways to track social media goals. After we decide on all of those, we can divide up our workload within the social media team and get started."
8) How do you stay up-to-date with the latest trends and updates on social media platforms?
Social media interview questions will always have a component about being on-trend, as social media moves fast, and brands need to stay on top of changing trends. Mention resources you use to stay on top of trends and why you choose to trust them:
"Since social media moves quickly, it is important to stay on top of trends as they occur. In my opinion, trends, and strategies go hand in hand, so I try to find resources that can help me implement both effectively. I often use news websites such as Mashable to allow me to stay on top of social media trends. I also often follow technology news sites, as many social media updates will be announced there."
9) What metrics do you use to track social media performance?
A large part of a social media manager's role is analyzing and evaluating the performance of strategies. Social media specialists will know what metrics need to be tracked and what they mean. These technical social media interview questions are testing whether you know how to evaluate and understand a social media strategy effectively:
"To evaluate a social media strategy, I make sure to choose metrics that will allow me to understand a campaign's performance effectively. For social media, I will choose metrics such as click-through rate, audience reach, and post engagement to see if our specific campaign was effective. For blogs, I will choose metrics such as website traffic, bounce rate, or reading time, as well as review our page ranking on Google to evaluate our SEO technique for blog posting. We can use tools such as Google Analytics to assist us in evaluating our social media campaigns."
10) How would you increase audience engagement on our social media accounts?
This is another question that is often asked in social media marketing job interviews. It is closely related to previous questions which asked you to evaluate the company's social media and offer your opinions as a social media marketer. You can use this question as an opportunity to showcase your important skills and own experience in social media to the interviewer:
"To increase engagement and generate leads on your social media, I would first focus on creating a stronger brand voice. We can do a group discussion and decide on a few core features of our brand to focus on. After this, we can use these features to develop cohesive strategies to improve engagement. For example, we can utilize influencer marketing to help us drive engagement and increase brand awareness. Likewise, we can also host a giveaway alongside this to encourage customers to follow our business on Instagram and interact with our posts more. We could host this giveaway across your current platforms, as well as on new platforms we haven't utilized, such as Twitter/X, to encourage our customers to follow us on our new platforms, boost follower counts, gain more retweets and interactions, and comments as well."
11) How would you handle a brand reputation crisis on social media?
Reputation crises and controversy are a part of marketing, and being able to handle these will is a key part of being a successful marketer. Brand reputation crises and controversy are something that brands want to avoid, and ending up in controversy is possibly the biggest social media failure a marketer could have. This is a relatively advanced social media interview question, as general social media teams will not often handle controversy. However, you can answer this question to show off your ability to deal with pressure, address failure, and understand the intricacies of marketing and social media management.
"Handling brand reputation crises should start with having a plan to reference should these circumstances arise. If the company does not have a reputation crisis plan, the first step would be to create one, including general steps to handle the main controversy, as well as templates for responding to crises, so that we can promptly address the controversy in time. If the brand is in the middle of a crisis, we first must directly address the issue, for example, remove or delete the offensive content or respond directly to the negative feedback we receive. After we understand the issue at hand, we should promptly and publicly address the issue and apologize tactfully. After we have handled the main part of the issue, we can begin to read through any negative comments on our posts or in online communities and take in their feedback. We can then update our brand messaging, posts, and guidelines to reflect this. We can then take the conversation offline and discuss internally how we can improve and avoid a similar crisis again."
12) How do you prioritize and stay organized as a social media manager?
A social media manager is required to handle and direct many other marketers in their team, making sure all strategies align with each other across all social media channels. Social media manager interview questions are often focused on organization, communication, and ability to meet goals, so if you are interviewing for a manager role, keep that in mind. You can use social media interview questions like this to showcase your communication skills and project management abilities. Most companies will have their own tools they like to use for organization, but it's okay if you use something else. This type of job interview question is just to see if you are independent and organized.
"Social media management requires strong organizational skills, and to help me ensure I stay organized, I utilize tools such as a social media calendar and project management software for my team to update their progress on. I also utilize Google Sheets for smaller projects such as to-do lists, as I can access them from anywhere and update them easily."
13) What interests you about our company?
This is a general job interview question, but it also tests whether you did your research prior to the interview. By researching the company, you can align your answers with their mission, which will make you stand out as a candidate. You can mention anything about the company, including its product, mission, goals, successes, or company culture. Your answer to this social media interview question can reflect many of the points you would have mentioned in your cover letter.
"I am drawn to the social media manager role at this company due to the uniqueness of the service and brand. I am a big advocate for mental health, so when I saw that this company was a mental health and wellbeing brand, I was instantly interested. I also reviewed your social media, and I am interested in your digital marketing strategy, as it is unique from your competitors. I want to develop my career, and I appreciate that professional development is a part of your company culture. Overall, I believe I can grow both as a marketer and a professional at this company, and I also am very aligned with your company and mission to make mental wellness accessible."
14) Can you give an example of a piece of content that performed well? Why do you think it was successful?
This question asks you to showcase your most significant accomplishment as a digital marketing professional. Although you should mention ways you have succeeded subtly throughout your interview, interview questions like these ask you to be very upfront about your success. To answer an open-ended question, you can use the STAR technique, which is often used for behavioral interview questions.
"In my current role, I am mostly an SEO blog writer. My blogs are used as ways to generate leads onto the company's business site, and are also shared on social media like Facebook, Instagram, and even in Linkedin Groups. I have been utilizing my skills in search engine optimization for a while, so my strategy for planning and researching keywords for blogs is very developed. As a result, my blogs for the past 6 months all ranked on the first page of Google and have been a great driver of traffic and sales. I believe my SEO content performed well since my understanding of SEO and tools such as Ahrefs are very developed. Additionally, my communication skills are very strong, so my content is clear, concise and drives conversions."
15) How do you collaborate with other departments (e.g., marketing, PR)?
Social media jobs involve collaborating with many other people and departments in your company. Depending on the size of your company, you could be working with over 20 people daily, such as marketing, design and PR. Since you are required to collaborate with others in developing a social media campaign, a social media specialist must possess very developed communication and planning skills. Use this social media interview question as an opportunity to showcase your skills in these areas:
"As a social media professional, I am familiar with collaborating with many other people and departments. To ensure we have effective communication, I make sure we all use a central project management platform, as well as a central calendar we can all use to reference. Additionally, I make sure we regularly check in, with a once-weekly meeting, so everyone can update each other on any progress. I make sure that all of our collaboration platforms are updated frequently, and as a manager, I encourage my team to talk directly with me if they need any help."
16) Have you ever led a team or project? What was the outcome?
These types of interview questions will be asked more frequently in a social media manager interview. You can answer these questions by referencing a project or social media campaign you led and reflecting on the successes and challenges you experienced. Interview questions about leadership experience are used to evaluate whether you can handle projects, deal with stress, and collaborate effectively with a team.
"I previously led a campaign for a new product launch in my previous role. I was tasked with leading ideation, organizing, and delegating tasks to my project team. I made sure to assign tasks based on people's strengths and regularly offered support and advice to my team. As the leader, I was tasked with updating our manager on progress, taking note of any important changes we were required to make, and making sure our team was working effectively. Our product launch was very successful, as we met sales goals and increased our brand awareness by improving engagement on our posts on social media."
Conclusion
Questions for social media interviews often ask you to reflect on your experience as a social media professional and showcase how you can provide value to a brand. Social media specialist interview questions will be different from social media manager interview questions, so make sure you read the job descriptions in detail. You will be required to do your research on any company you interview for, as it is likely some interview questions will be about providing feedback to their brand. As social media jobs are so competitive, even just landing an interview means you are skilled at your job! Use our social media interview questions to practice, and make sure you do research before your interview.
Have you ever done a social media interview? Were the social media interview questions similar to ours? Let us know, and have fun preparing!
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— Originally written by Bronte McNamara —
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