SMM Interview Preparation Guide

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Use various tools to check the site optimization, the parameters to check the success of social media success are

☛ Rise in the number of followers
☛ Increase in the number of leads
☛ Number of Inbound links to your site through social sites
☛ Number of bloggers comment, social shares and traffic generated
☛ Increase in the total sales made online
☛ Number of Posts published
☛ Conversion- Number of subscription
☛ Account Creation
☛ Query form submission

Ask your candidate to define the difference between the two.

☛ Social marketing environment calls for a more conversational approach. Most social media conversations don’t revolve around sales. Your candidate should be able to recognize where someone is in their purchase journey and guide them to their destination.

☛ Social customer service environment requires empathy, patience, and the ability to resolve conflict. Your candidate must be able to recognize situations that may call for an escalation to management. Remember: they’re not just responding to that one customer, but for an audience of future customers!

Social media is a great tool for customer service since you can converse with customers directly, use analytics to see how they’re responding to content, and find influencers to chat with and bring over to your network. Some of these influencers might even be customers. Most social media employers stress the power conversation so have examples of how you’ve reached out to customers. Social media is also a good indicator of overall company vitality and analytics.

Always use hashtags and mentions! Doing this will mean more people see your tweets and retweet. Some of these people might have big followings or clout that will benefit your company. Twitter is a great tool for conversing with customers so make sure to reply to their tweets as much as you can. Use hashtags to connect the conversation with other conversations in related topics.

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.

The amount of followers isn’t the only sign of success in social media. A social media manager should be able to help you define success on a strategic and tactical level, in order to support your larger marketing goals.

If a social media manager has a limited view of success, or is unable to explain performance measurement beyond the volume of audiences, they won’t be able to provide you with higher level strategic solutions.

If a social media manager does not know the answer to this, then move on. Its imperative you find someone who knows the rules and guidelines of each and every social platform and who will not have your business in violation of any Terms of Service.

As a heads up, on Facebook you have to use a third-party app to host the contest and cannot use the ‘Share’ button, ‘Like’ button or require a comment in order to be entered to win. Ensure you meet Facebook’s guidelines while running Facebook contests in order to avoid getting your page shutdown.

A social media manager doesn’t operate in a vacuum. They will need to be in the loop with your other marketing activities. You’ll also need to provide any necessary resources and wider marketing information or materials. A social media manager should have clear guidelines for their role, and yours as a client. This should typically be communicated to you prior to establishing a working relationship.

Or, "Which aspects of our business are you passionate about?" You want to hire someone who's both qualified and has the desire to do the work. Otherwise, why would they work for you instead of the company next door?

Part of their answer will lie in their body language and enthusiasm. The other part will lie in how concrete their answer is. Get at the details by asking a follow-up question, like: "Let's say you're at home, kicking around, and doing something related to marketing. What is it that you're doing?" Perhaps they're reading their five favorite marketing sites, or analyzing traffic patterns of websites for fun, or writing in their personal blog, or optimizing their LinkedIn profile. Whatever it is, you want to be sure they're deeply passionate about the subject matter you'd hire them for.

Show the hiring manager that you are able to react quickly and face a crisis with self-confidence and efficiency. You may use examples of famous brand reputation crises to tell what you think was done well and what not.
(There are many examples to analyze!!)

Google+ communities are a great way to find conversations around your industry and begin engaging with users in that community. These communities are great places to find new customers and introduce them to your brand or product. Brands should be active in these communities, but as always, they shouldn’t post only about themselves.

Share the facts! Talk about successful strategies you have used in other projects. You may also describe strategies you think could be useful to their company in particular.

Social media is always evolving and effectively marketing on social platforms can be a bit like trying to hit a moving target. Google+, for example, had become a commonly used tool for 40% of marketers within only a year of launch. That is a huge gain in such a small space of time. This is just how social media works.

New blogs and social sites come and go within the blink of an eye. A good social media manager should stay on top of these changes, which means a lot of reading. They should be able to list multiple reputable social sites and explain why it is they follow them.

A social media manager should be able to describe a plan for how best to allocate your advertising budget and how they would know if it’s successful. Specific metrics and KPIs should be given, analysed and reported. The choice of advertising platform will also allow you to gauge their perception of where they think your business should be promoted, in what format and to what audiences.

A good social media manager will manage your expectations and let you know what results you could achieve. Remember that social media managers are not psychics. They should act on your behalf using the best practices of the industry, but there is a lot that is out of their control.

They should be able to give you a rough idea of what they bring to the table based on their previous results and experiences. If a social media manager cannot communicate this effectively to you, then they probably don’t have the level of experience you need.

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.

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.

When you answer this question, spend the most time talking about the platform you’re most skilled with and explain why this is the case. However, you should mention all the major platforms and details their strengths. Talk about how Twitter is best for conversations, Facebook is great for advertising, LinkedIn is best for recruiting and sharing career-related articles, and how Google+ is an underrated tool that is actually valuable for creating a social media community.

You can promote your blog or content on the social media site using Co-Schedule.

☛ Social Sharing Schedule can double your traffic
☛ Use different title for same blog and schedule the blog post
☛ Schedule posting differs for different social sites, for example, you cannot promote same post to Facebook twice in one day than is on Twitter
☛ It allows you to create social messages at the time of post creation
☛ Plan out your blog post promotion with simple strategy with a simple Timeline

Social media manager implements the company’s social media marketing. The Job role includes-

☛ Developing company’s content strategy
☛ Creating relevant content
☛ Blogging
☛ Community participation and leadership
☛ Promotion strategy on social sites
☛ Monitor, listen and respond to users in a “Social” way while cultivating sales and leads
☛ Develop and expand community or blogger outreach efforts
☛ Create, design and manage promotions and social ad campaigns
☛ Identify threats and report notable threats to appropriate management
☛ Respond to social media crisis or negative comment scenario
☛ Define strategies to enhance or build the follower fan base

Few tricks that can drive more traffic to your blog posts are

☛ Promote your content or BlogPost across a wider variety of Platforms like
☛ ☛ com
☛ ☛ Tumblr
☛ ☛ com
☛ Create a 6-second preview of your post with app(iPhone) like Vine and post it on tweeter with a link to the blog post
☛ Give a short presentation of content or blog on Slide-Share and provide link to the content or to any relevant content
☛ Pin your post to Pinterest contributors board by choosing attractive image, title of your blog post, adding keywords and hashtags
☛ Use Instagram to share the image or title of your blog post. Share your blog post images to Tumblr, Facebook, Flickr, Twitter and Foursquare

Ask them to describe the “personality” of your company brand in 3 words. They should have done research on your company and your customers before assessing the potential across today’s social media channels. Facebook, Twitter, your company blog, Instagram, Pinterest, and YouTube are awesome channels and each has different marketing tactics.

This is another question where there is no right answer. Be prepared to explain why you picked your sites though. If you don’t follow any blogs, try browsing a few so you’ll at least be prepared for this question.

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.

Contrary to popular thinking, ROI can always be measured in social media. But it can be perceptual. What are your goals? Were they achieved? If so, then you had a positive ROI. Did your campaigns help your business in any way or have any positive effects? If they did, then you were successful.

Social media ROI is not always tied to tangible business benefits. Ask the social media manager which factors can be measured and how they will be reported to demonstrate the value they bring to your business.