1. Explain will this fix our clients business?
A “Yes!” here would definitely not be a great thing. Social media amplifies bad business as opposed to fixing it.
I hope so! And more importantly it is a well-designed well-visited blog?
3. Tell me what have been YOUR measurable results from using social media?
I.E: My business increased X Amount, I Had X PR Opportunities, Met X People, Recruited X People.
4. Do you know about SEO and its relationship with social media?
There are several techniques of improving SEO with the help of social media. Make sure that they understand the latest Google algorithm, what is rewarded and punished. They should also be aware of the latest social algorithms and policies. Google Analytics should be part of this discussion.
5. Tell us what do you personally use social media for and why?
More than sharing funny photos of the keg stand in college, a good consultant shows how they use/have used it for business.
6. Do you know what are relevant metrics for tracking ROI on social media?
Engagement, brand reach, lead generation, and conversions. These are the essential measures of social media's return on investment (ROI). They should also be able to more specific in terms of Google Analytics, metrics from software they use, or metrics from a specific platform. Don't make the mistake of thinking that engagement on its own is success either. Without conversions that can be tracked back to that engagement, efforts have been unsuccessful.
7. Explain me which social media channels do you recommend for our business and why?
This answers two questions at once. Has the candidate done the research on your company ahead of time, and how well versed they are in the various social platforms. Pay attention if they mention demographics, style or frequency of messaging, and overall strategy.
8. Tell me what interactive public relation specialist is and what are segments of interactive PR?
An interactive PR is a process that uses the internet as a mean to communicate messages to the public. The various segments comprising of interactive PR includes
☛ Search Engine
☛ Social Media Marketing
☛ Online Press Release
☛ Podcasting
☛ Webinars
☛ Web 2.0 technologies
☛ Developing blogs
9. Explain me do I need a social media plan written down?
Hopefully the answer here is yes. With deliverables, goals, room for experimentation, and more.
10. How to deal with negative comments or a brand reputation crisis?
The way they define ‘crisis' can tell you a lot about how much experience they have. If they haven't had a real crisis in their own experience, they should at least be familiar with some famous brand reputation blunders. Dealing with negative comments or reviews properly is vital to this position, ask for examples.
11. Do you know what strategies would we use to generate leads?
This question moves from the more general and abstract into the meat of the matter. They should be able to outline 2 or 3 specific strategies that will feed leads into your sales funnel via social engagement.
12. Tell me how to use social media as a public relations specialist?
☛ Use twitter chats or #B2B chat on twitter every Thursday or #pr20 chat, which a weekly exploration of social media's exploration on public relations
☛ Use Pitch-engine, to create a pitch and share your release or news directly with the customers
☛ Use PRX builder, also known as Social Media Release is a simple tool that help you to write your content, add images and video, insert links, etc.
☛ Use CNW's Social Media Release, it gives online audience a platform to visit for multi-media content and conversation about your message
13. Explain me what is a social media press release should be like?
Social media press release should be like
☛ Main body should be the core of your press release, always write a press release in the third person
☛ Try to cover or answer for who, when, why what, where and how in your press release
☛ Try to avoid a sentence giving opinion
☛ Try to give a neutral viewpoint that delivers newsworthy content
☛ Try to limit your press release to one to two pages
☛ It's always good to put keywords into your content but should not exceed the limit
☛ Give a referral to the statistics or sources relevant to your press release
☛ It includes videos, RSS and visual links to images
14. Tell me do I need to be on every site?
If the answer is “YES” that could be a warning flag. The bottom line is you probably don't need to be on every site under the sun.
15. Tell us can you describe your biggest social media failure?
Everyone has failures, some larger than others. Of course, what you really want to know, is how they dealt with it. Gain insight into their coping skills and how they deal with negatives by seeing how the issue was resolved. Pay attention to what they did (or didn't do) to ensure that the failure wouldn't happen again.
Success is going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm. – Winston Churchill.
16. Do you know what is Pitch letter?
Usually, a press release is written in the third person while a pitch letter is directly addressed to journalist. It starts with a striking opening that alerts journalist to take immediate interest in the topic.
17. Tell us what is the difference between Advertising and Public relations specialist?
Public relation specialist:
☛ The role of PR is to get free publicity for organization or person
☛ You have no control how the media presents your information. They are not obligated to show your event or press release on your demand
☛ Whatever you sent to the editor, it will be published only for once
☛ Third party will look at the ad differently and create a great amount of credibility for clients product
☛ In public relations, you have to look for news and be able to generate business through that news
Advertisement:
☛ The company pays for ad space, and you will know exactly when that ad will publish
☛ You have total control how you want to present your ad
☛ Since you are paying for the ad, you can request for your ads over and over
☛ When target audience read the ad, they will see your ad as business oriented
☛ You get to exercise creativity in creating new ad campaigns and materials
Social media is an ever-changing landscape that requires constant and ongoing learning and adapt. Even the most experienced social media managers need to refine their skills. They update their strategies, learn and practice new techniques and stay on top of the latest changes to new and existing platforms.
19. Explain me which social media tools do you use?
Leave this question open-ended, just as it is phrased above. Your company may already have social media management software in place or you may be looking for a recommendation. If they're only familiar with free software that does nothing more than allow them to schedule posts to Facebook and Twitter, it's not a good sign. Ask them why they like or don't like different tools and which features they use most.
20. Tell me do I need to stop my other marketing/advertising?
If they tell you “Yes!” right away, that is warning flag. Every business is different. Traditional advertising still could be a big component. Other forms of marketing such as events, etc. can be amplified and integrated with social media. Plus social media is ONE component of the online marketing world (other important ones include SEO and maybe pay-per-click campaigns depending on the client/goals.
21. Tell me how you can optimize your PR distribution using Social Media?
☛ Post in Twibes groups (Twitter groups)
☛ Post on Facebook corporate page as well as other relevant pages
☛ Post in relevant professional blogs
☛ Post in relevant LinkedIn groups
☛ Post in corporate Twitter Account
☛ Post in Digg, Del.icio.us and other sharing groups
22. Tell us what skills are required by public relation specialist?
☛ Good communication skill
☛ Ready for travelling
☛ Person who are enthusiastic, confident and understanding
☛ Willing to work according to client or organization schedule
☛ Good judgement
☛ Outgoing personality
☛ Creativity
This is a hypothetical question, but it's also something guaranteed to happen at some point as it has happened before. This position requires a thorough understanding of these kind of changes and strategies for dealing with them when they do.
24. General Social Media Interview Questions:
☛ What are some of the challenges explaining social media to non-technical executives? How do you overcome objections about social media?
☛ If you were working at a firm which blocked employee access to Facebook, Twitter, and other social sites, do you think this is a good policy? If not, how would you convince the executive team to open up access for employees?
☛ What is the difference between moderating something and facilitating something?
☛ What are your strengths in social media?
☛ What are your weaknesses in social media?
☛ Which social bookmarking sites do you use?
☛ What social media tools do you use?
☛ What is your biggest mistake you've made in social media? How did you fix it?
☛ Have you ever held a live event in the social space? How would you market a live online event? How would you structure the event?
☛ How do you manage an online reputation? If one of our executives had a bad online reputation (bad press, etc) and wanted to fix it, what would you recommend?
☛ If we had a business crisis, what social media channels would you use to communicate through? How would you manage the messaging?
☛ What areas of social media would you recommend outsourcing?
☛ What are the risks with becoming involved in social media?
☛ Which is the best social check-in site?
☛ Are you the mayor of any place?
☛ What do you do offline to increase your online knowledge?
25. Company Based Social Media Interview Questions:
☛ For our business, would Twitter or Facebook be more effective?
☛ Why would we want to continue using MySpace?
☛ Why should we use social media?
☛ What would be the first thing you would do if hired for this position? What would your goal be for the first month? The first year?
☛ Would you use Facebook Like or Facebook Recommend on our site?
☛ What social sites should our company have a presence on?
☛ How would you integrate social media into our site? What buttons or widgets would you recommend?
☛ What percentage of our referral traffic would you think our site should get from social media sites?
☛ Give our company a grade on our current social media efforts.
☛ How would a social check in site benefit our business?
☛ What tabs should we have on our company Facebook page? Which one should be default?
☛ How do you define social media reach? What is the current social media reach our of our company?
☛ What are 5 things you would recommend to us to do immediately in the social space?
26. Social Media Analytics & Marketing Based Interview Questions:
☛ How do you measure success on social media?
☛ What metrics do you use to measure the effectiveness of social media?
☛ How would you tell that a social media campaign has failed?
☛ What key performance indicators would you recommend to report on social media efforts?
☛ Write down a table of contents for a social media strategy.
☛ What elements should go into a social media marketing plan?
☛ Why would we want to pay for social media advertising?
☛ What are the best types of things to advertise on a social networking site?
☛ What analytics software packages have you used?
☛ Describe the most successful social media campaign you have ever seen. What made it so successful? Could you duplicate that level of success?
☛ Describe a social media campaign you ran from start to finish.
☛ Provide an example of a social media campaign you are current running. Show me what channels it is in. Describe the next steps for your campaign.
☛ What are the elements that make a video go viral?
27. Social Media Technical Interview Questions:
☛ Explain the difference between Facebook Like and Sharing on Facebook.
☛ If you're planning a vacation and will be out of touch and not able to get online for a week, what tools would you use to ensure social media updates are being posted?
☛ Write three headlines for news stories that you think will have tremendous success on social media. What makes the headline successful? Write a headline for a successful article about our company.
☛ How often should we update Twitter?
☛ How do you handle criticism of a company online?
☛ What would you do if someone started a parody account poking fun at our company?
☛ What is your policy for moderating comments?
☛ Would you pay a blogger to write favorably about our company?
☛ How would you show unique content only to fans on our Facebook page?
☛ Who in our organization should be blogging on behalf of the company?
☛ What is a “sneezer”?
☛ How would you perform competitive analysis in the social space?
☛ What do think about software applications that autofollow or try to get get large masses of friends on social network sites?
☛ What do the statistics look like for a healthy Facebook fan page?
☛ Explain what a retweet is.
☛ What is RSS? Why is it important?
☛ Have you ever gotten a piece of content onto the front page of Digg?
☛ How frequently do you update Facebook and Twitter?
28. Technical Social Media Interview Questions:
☛ Explain the difference between Facebook Like and Sharing on Facebook.
☛ If you're planning a vacation and will be out of touch and not able to get online for a week, what tools would you use to ensure social media updates are being posted?
☛ Write three headlines for news stories that you think will have tremendous success on social media. What makes the headline successful? Write a headline for a successful article about our company.
☛ How often should we update Twitter?
☛ How do you handle criticism of a company online?
☛ What would you do if someone started a parody account poking fun at our company?
☛ What is your policy for moderating comments?
☛ Would you pay a blogger to write favorably about our company?
☛ How would you show unique content only to fans on our Facebook page?
☛ Who in our organization should be blogging on behalf of the company?
☛ What is a “sneezer”?
☛ How would you perform competitive analysis in the social space?
☛ What do think about software applications that autofollow or try to get get large masses of friends on social network sites?
☛ What do the statistics look like for a healthy Facebook fan page?
☛ Explain what a retweet is.
☛ What is RSS? Why is it important?
☛ Have you ever gotten a piece of content onto the front page of Digg?
☛ How frequently do you update Facebook and Twitter?
29. Analytics & Marketing Based Social Media Interview Questions:
☛ How do you measure success on social media?
☛ What metrics do you use to measure the effectiveness of social media?
☛ How would you tell that a social media campaign has failed?
☛ What key performance indicators would you recommend to report on social media efforts?
☛ Write down a table of contents for a social media strategy.
☛ What elements should go into a social media marketing plan?
☛ Why would we want to pay for social media advertising?
☛ What are the best types of things to advertise on a social networking site?
☛ What analytics software packages have you used?
☛ Describe the most successful social media campaign you have ever seen. What made it so successful? Could you duplicate that level of success?
☛ Describe a social media campaign you ran from start to finish.
☛ Provide an example of a social media campaign you are current running. Show me what channels it is in. Describe the next steps for your campaign.
☛ What are the elements that make a video go viral?
30. Facebook Based Social Media Interview Questions:
Sure, almost everyone and (quite literally) everyone's mom is on Facebook now. Although we may all know how to share a selfie or a photo of our soon-to-be-devoured dinner, that doesn't mean everyone is blessed with the coveted knowledge of how to leverage Facebook for recruiting advantage. Ask these questions to ensure your interviewee holds that knowledge.
☛ Ask for a portfolio that shows their most recent successful content (if they have not created company content, accept personal content.)
☛ How do they organize their content (have they used a content calendar)?
☛ What is their philosophy for content distribution on Facebook?
☛ Do they know the difference between likes, reach, and engagement?
☛ Can they give you an example of a creative recruiting campaign they have run on Facebook?
☛ How do they measure success?
31. Instagram Based Social Media Interview Questions:
Instagram is the newest social media site, and early-adopting companies have only started to take advantage of the platform's active user base. Your new recruiter should know what, how, and when to post awesome images to promote your employer brand. Ask these questions to test your job candidates ‘Insta' knowledge.
☛ Do they know about Instagram updates and which images get the most views/traffic? How would one acquire these images?
☛ Do they understand the value and necessity of hashtags on Instagram?
☛ Have they used and promoted a company hashtag? Did employees regularly use it?
☛ What creative ways have they used Instagram to attract and/or engage talent?
32. LinkedIn Based Social Media Interview Questions:
As the largest professional social network, LinkedIn should be one of the most familiar platforms to your candidate. Your new social recruiter should know the best (and cheapest) ways to connect with LinkedIn members. Posting on LinkedIn can be tricky so ask your interviewee these questions to find out if they know their stuff.
☛ Do they know what is free and what costs money?
☛ Do they have experience writing copy for the free promoted posts on LinkedIn?
☛ How do they decide when and when not to use a paid media campaign?
☛ What do they think about hashtags on LinkedIn?
☛ What do they think about volume of content on LinkedIn?
☛ How have they engaged with employees in a LinkedIn campaign?
☛ Have they ever trained staff or other recruiters on how to effectively use LinkedIn for branding, advertising, and/or sourcing?
☛ How do they know whether LinkedIn is successful in hiring?
33. Twitter Based Social Media Interview Questions:
Twitter is the perfect way to share information about your company quickly. A great social recruiter knows how to work the hashtag, utilize the character limit, and write a great tweet. Ask your candidate all about their Twitter experiences- you just might learn something new.
☛ Do they know how many characters are in a tweet and why?
☛ Do they understand the value of hashtags? Ask them what they are for and how they use them to draw traffic?
☛ Can they give you an example of a Twitter campaign they ran?
☛ How often should a company tweet out recruitment engagement posts?
☛ What do they think about job distribution on Twitter?
☛ Do they understand the value of having two Twitter accounts (one targeted for content and one for job distribution and SEO)?
☛ Do they understand what's trending, and how and when to wrap into it? Ask for an example.
☛ How are they measuring success-qualitatively, quantitatively, both?
34. Basic Social Media Interview Questions:
☛ What is Web 2.0?
☛ What does Web 3.0 look like?
☛ What's the “next big thing?”
☛ What is the difference between social media and social networking?
☛ What do you think of social media consultants?
☛ What's the scariest part of social media?
☛ What's the most exciting part of social media?
☛ What social media blogs do you read? What research do you follow?
☛ Who's your favorite social media expert?
35. Tell me how long ago did you start using social media and why?
Hopefully they were an early adapter and understood the importance early on or caught on quickly.
