Tricky Community Director Interview Preparation Guide

Download PDF

A major part of the community manager role is advocating on behalf of users, so this question should be a no brainer for anyone you intend to hire. This is also a good question to ask folks who might be transitioning in from another field, as there should be many transferable situations at top of mind ranging from defending younger siblings from bullies to helping a teammate get a promotion. Pay particularly close attention to how they describe the way that they went about pursuing a good outcome — this can be very telling, particularly in its absence.

Site Notifications are an effective way to share community guidelines and keep user expectations top-of-mind.

If I had a dollar every time I got this one… Make sure you’re not tweeting when your fans are sleeping! There is a myth that the universal best time to tweet exists. The truth is, there is a different best time to tweet for everyone. For example, Simply Measured, as a B2B company, hits its sweet spot during work hours on weekdays. However, for B2C companies, they may have a better chance at reaching their fans on the weekends. Curious when your sweet spot is? Here’s a few ways you can find it:

Truth be told, some things flop just ’cause. There isn’t always a quick fix. But, what you can do is give your content everything it needs to take off. Analytics are absolutely crucial in developing content that will not only get shared by your mom, but by your audience as a whole. Learn from past content’s performance, test different tweet copy, target influencers, and speak your customers’ language. These considerations are all crucial in packaging content. View our full breakdown here:

Let me just say, I think LinkedIn is underrated. On LinkedIn your brand voice can cut through the noise that exists on Twitter and Facebook. People following brands on LinkedIn are genuine fans of the brand or industry. Users following LinkedIn pages are extremely attentive and responsive. Additionally, LinkedIn Groups offer a unique opportunity to engage with users around a common, and often specific, topic. The appeal for a marketer is obvious, although many still haven’t jumped on the bandwagon yet. But it’s only a matter of time.

Both articles and ideas boost collaboration and strengthen relationships within your community.

Articles are structured documents perfect for capturing and sharing valuable information, such as business processes. Articles are an effective way to showcase expertise and can be up-voted or liked by others based on helpfulness.

A Community Manager who doesn’t know which metrics are relevant to their community and doesn’t know how to measure the success of their engagement initiatives will soon run into trouble. A star performer will have some ideas that are pertinent to your community by the time they meet you for an interview. It’s even better if they ask you who will be viewing the report and devise a custom answer based on that.

Here’s your chance to show off that you’ve done your research on the company and its community. You will be interacting with members on a daily basis, so show the hiring manager that you can get inside the mind of a member and understand why they are part of the community. Even better, back this up with theories from psychology and case studies.

Knowing that the candidate is active in online communities or has an opinion of their importance is critical information to know when hiring a Community Manager. Do they perceive them as a place to share and cultivate relationships or do they find online communities stale or strange? Understanding their comfort level with a variety online communities can be a clear indicator whether they are a top contender for the position. If the candidate gets through the first part of the question, hearing how they would put new plans into effect to foster and build a community is essential. This requires creativity, critical thinking, and strategy wrapped up in one answer.

Back to the nitty-gritty of routine community management; how will your candidate take to implementing a solid policy and set of escalation procedures, or write them up from scratch? Asking them for examples of situations they have experienced is useful too. I used to ask candidates in passing how taking the Tube made them feel; you’d be surprised at how many were quick to anger at the mere thought, which didn’t bode well.

A truthful answer will generally be “Not always.”. A reassuring answer would be “I made some mistakes, but here’s what I learnt:”. An enlightened answer is “Some things worked, some things didn’t, but overall I grew the community whilst increasing engagement because:”. A blank stare is worrying.

It’s a common misconception that a social media manager is the same as a community manager. However, being a community manager often involves creating content and interacting with users on social media accounts. Simply being a personal user of Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram is not enough to show that you can manage a brand or business social media presence, if that’s part of what the role you’re interviewing for asks for (many will ask for this, many will not– this is why you need to do the research).

A question like this not only tests their knowledge of popular (and not so popular) social networks but it will ask that they apply it to business. Since the responsibility of a Community Manager is to know how to apply social media to business this is an important discussion to have. Being a community manager goes beyond knowing how to post and onto what and why content should be shared with the community.

☛ What was the biggest lesson you learned from your previous job?
☛ What quality or skill gives you a special edge?
☛ What’s the most effective project you’ve worked on? How did you know it was a success?
☛ When was the last time you quit a project or responsibility and why?
☛ What have you done recently to make someone else happy?
☛ What’s the best introduction between two people that you’ve ever made?
☛ What’s an opinion you hold that most people disagree with?
☛ What’s the best book or article you’ve read recently and what made it great?
☛ If we’re sitting here a year from now celebrating what a great year it’s been for you in this role, what did we achieve together?
☛ What would you change about our community to make it better?
☛ What do you think makes a strong community?
☛ Can you give me an example of a thriving community and tell me what they are doing so well?
☛ What are some of the most important metrics you consider when tracking results from community management?

☛ What’s your experience with HR software?
☛ What do you know about EEO laws/FMLA/etc.?
☛ What KPI’s do you use to measure the effectiveness of the HR function?
☛ If you have to use three words to describe the role of an HR Director in a company, what would those be? Why?
☛ How do the company’s HR needs influence strategic planning?
☛ What do you do to ensure the HR department’s objectives are aligned with strategic goals?
☛ What is company culture to you? How would you maintain it as the company grows?
☛ What can HR do to influence the company culture?
☛ What steps would you take to ensure diversity in the organization?
☛ How do you stay current and ensure compliance with employment laws?
☛ What is your role in assisting other departments in improving their people practices and adhering to policies?
☛ Let’s assume you encounter a problem but there are no official guidelines for solving it. What is your course of action?
☛ If one of the managers under your supervision made a serious mistake, what would you do?
☛ Imagine one of the stakeholders is asking you to implement a policy while you think it will not benefit the company in the long run. How do you handle this?

☛ How do you provide feedback to individual singers in a group context?
☛ When working with a chorus, what is the most difficult (irritating) thing for you and how do you deal with that?
☛ Give an example of a challenging situation you have faced in a rehearsal or with a choir and how you resolved it.
☛ How would you interact with a volunteer who has offered to take on a task but hasn't followed through? How do you determine how much responsibility to give them? How do you decide when it is appropriate to step in, take over and make sure the task gets done?
☛ Describe your experience working with a non-profit board and/or committees? What would be some of the challenges of being the only paid staff within an organization of volunteers?
☛ How do you manage stress in a work or personal setting? How do you manage conflict in relationships?
☛ How do you recognize and deal with burnout in yourself and chorus members? What is your level of comfort in delegating responsibility as a leader?
☛ Describe your ability to work on your own/ self-initiative. How do you balance offering strong leadership while working with a staff team?
☛ Describe your experience working with a board of directors in a non-profit setting.
☛ Describe your experience working with financial statements and budgets.
☛ Describe your experience working with diverse populations and flexibility in working with a diverse group of volunteers and personalities. Maybe prompt for GLBT connections if they don't go there: also cross-cultural situation, singers who are blind or with other disabilities…
☛ Experience working with diverse populations…
☛ The Chorus utilizes other arts mediums (dance, collaborations, etc) as a way of making our choral music accessible to a wide variety of audience members, and particularly audience members who may be less familiar with choral music. Are you comfortable working with a choreographer and/or with other community collaborations?
☛ What would you identify as the primary challenges of a position like this?
☛ What are your hopes in working with this organization? Where would you like to take it in a year? In five years?
☛ What do you need from a supervisor? What have previous supervisors said about your work?
☛ Describe your ability to work evenings and weekends, flexible schedules during performances.
☛ Are there any other skills we haven't touched on you'd like to share with us?
☛ What uniquely qualifies for this position? What do you want us to remember when we consider you as an applicant?

☛ Describe a time you developed a new policy. What did you do to make it work successfully?
☛ Tell me about a time when you implemented an HR initiative, policy or program that didn’t stick. What should you have done differently to avoid that?
☛ Tell me about a time you were successful in driving positive change.
☛ Describe a time when a manager came to you with a problem they couldn’t solve. What did you do?
☛ Tell me about a time you had foreseen a problem with employees/union/vendors. How did you prevent it from escalating?
☛ What actions did you take to shape organizational culture in your past role?
☛ What do you think was your most important contribution to the workplace in your previous job?
☛ Describe me a situation where you had serious challenges and road-blocks in doing your job efficiently. What did you do about them?
☛ Tell me about a situation where you had to disagree with your superiors. How did you approach this and what happened?

☛ What about this position and our chorus mission interests you?
☛ Describe your conducting philosophy - especially working within a community choir setting.
☛ What are 3-4 primary elements that you would identify as central in teaching and demonstrating healthy vocal technique?
☛ Describe how you would plan and structure a 2.5 hour rehearsal with a community chorus.
☛ How does your music education and experience in choral conducting fit with the requirements that The Chorus is seeking? Give us some specific examples.
☛ Give some examples of working with singers that have varied music-reading ability and musical background.
☛ Have you worked with adult choruses that memorize their repertoire? Do you have recommendations regarding whether a chorus memorizes music or not?
☛ What is your experience working with and conducting world or global music? Do you have knowledge or know how to find resources in teaching music and pronunciation from a variety of cultures and languages?
☛ Describe your experience in coaching small vocal ensembles? What are the differences in coaching ensembles versus a larger chorus?
☛ Repertoire/Programming
☛ How do you shape and create a coherent and vibrant concert program? Describe a concert you programmed that was particularly strong.
☛ Our Chorus is unique in that it utilizes a Music Advisory committee which assists the Artistic Director in finding and reviewing concert repertoire. The final repertoire list for a concert is selected by the AD. How would you envision working with a committee in reviewing music? What might be the advantages and disadvantages for you as AD in working with this type of committee?
☛ The Chorus performs some music from Judeo/Christian traditions, but the vast majority of our music is secular or comes from a variety of global/spiritual traditions. Describe the musical genres you have conducted and how those experiences shape what you could offer to The Chorus programming.
☛ Is there a particular musical genre that you enjoy or specialize in?
☛ How do you help a choir to "peak" with you when it is performance time? What is your approach if a concert date is approaching and the chorus is still struggling to learn a piece?

This will tell you whether your candidate truly understands the reality of managing online communities. Technically, unless you close your branded community at set hours, life goes on 24/7 online so candidates need to appreciate they may be on call when needed. If they say 9-5, say thank you and goodbye.

I’d expect more than just a Twitter/Facebook answer here. A few niche examples suggest they are capable and aware enough to identify the right places to promote your own community and grow your audience. They are also more likely to have been exposed to different management styles which will help them craft something for your community, rather than blindly rehashing something they read in a book or blog (yes, including this one)

This is our first question referencing social media. This is a great one for probing for use of buzz words, generic statements about social media and kool-aid, fishbowl, echo chamber reactionism. We’re looking for an in-depth answer outlining the differences of each audience and why each platform should have its own focus and approach (engagement, attrition, monitoring etc), and what that would be. It’s also a good way to check whether the candidate has looked at your community eco-system before walking through your office door.

This question allows the interviewee to tell you about what communities they participate in on a daily basis and why they see themselves being a good fit for your role. This question will also draw clear lines between community folks and interviewees who are simply good on the twitters, can manage a support box like a pro, or can throw a fun party. It’s not that these skills are not important or relevant to being a community manager, but what’s more important is that there are true community skills supporting these efforts.

will be responsible for managing the company’s blog. Being familiar with the blogging community, various blogging platforms, and general blog writing skills will all play an important role in their day-to-day activities.

Right off the bat, this question can stump many candidates. I’ve heard a lot of vague answers about social media platforms that veer off on an incoherent tangent until they fall off a cliff. Keep it straightforward by giving a simple definition that explains what an online community is: a group of people who share a common goal, cause, or interest and gather together to collaborate and discuss via the internet.

Many community manager roles involve elements of customer service. After all, you’re interacting with people daily and will often encounter someone who is reaching out to you with an issue that needs solving. Let your interviewer see that they can trust you to be the face of and voice for the community.