For a social media marketing manager who has been asked to interview candidates, the job can turn out to be a frustrating one. Many managers complain that almost all candidates tend to harp on the same performance metric: “driving engagement”. While it is true that engagement metrics play an important role in the bottom line of modern, always connected businesses, it is frequently seen that social media professionals are ignorant about what the company really wants from them.

Business of today

The role of today’s social media professionals has not evolved beyond metrics driven, goal focused marketing. Companies want to hire someone who can assist them to achieve tangible business results. The CEOs expect their company’s social media professionals to reinforce bottom line efforts.

It is clear that to succeed, you must be the “best” among all the candidates being interviewed. You need to standout so that the interviewer will be keen to extend you the job offer. The following questions can make your interviewer more interested in you.

How can I contribute to content creation?

Content is an important contributor to marketing, and is essential to social media. Even if the company has dedicated ebook writers and bloggers, the content must be customised to a particular social network. A lion’s share of a social professional’s role is to create and adapt content for particular networks. This may include placing content within 140 characters, creating images to go with the posts and creating post variations for each content piece. Tweaking content to suit individual networks yield increased leads and clicks. Do ask this question if you are creative and have copy writing and designing skills.

What does a marketing analyst do in this company?

As marketing functions become increasingly driven by data, a social media professional must be able to squirrel into data, analyse it and formulate practical and doable insights. This includes macro data like customer cases, overall reach, the generation of leads and nurturing of leads as well as micro-data, which includes specific experiments and positioning of content. Successful social media professionals can consistently make smart decisions from the data in hand. New strategies would be always tested, along with new campaigns. All these make for a more effective marketing strategy. Do ask this question if you are strong in data analysis, have the ability to conduct scientific experiments and data presentation.

Do you have a role for content curators in your company?

In social media, everyone talks simultaneously. The social media professional needs to be connected to its pulse. He or she must know what the people say, be aware of the changing industry and social networks. The professional is required to respond and react accordingly. This role is practically an extension of the public relations team and an individual must participate in wide coverage that may well extend beyond the existing reach. The social media professional must stay on top of the trends and is responsible for traffic increase to the website. Do ask this question if you love to curate and acquire new information all the time.

Does the company give due importance to community facilitation?

A significant portion of creating and maintaining a following is that individuals must talk to each other. Communities do not engage in conversations with the moderator or the company, but within themselves. If this is achieved, then a social media professional’s role is almost done. However, facilitating a community requires hard work. The nature of such hard work includes asking people questions to start a discussion and rejecting people who act as detractors to the effort. Do ask this question if you are resourceful and can stimulate any discussion.

Do you have a funnel marketing manager?

A social media professional can play a pivotal role in increasing the content reach, attracting website visitors, generating leads and nursing them so that they turn into customers. It means that content must be shared in such a manner that it will achieve all the mentioned goals. The social media expert must engage on a personalised basis with probable customers who are thinking to take a service or product, or simply require help. It is to be kept in mind that potential clients use a number of media platforms to consume information. With social media, it is possible for the company to engage with customers in a timely and efficient manner. Do ask this question if you understand funnels, the content knowledge per funnel stage and rudimentary sales skills.

When everybody does their jobs, the company must promote an employee who is more goal oriented than his/her peers. Working hard will enable you to reach the goals for which you are solely responsible. Every interviewer prefers a person who understands a job in its entirety than just blindly going through the motions. You have to show your positive approach, particular mind frame and excellent work ethic.

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