Academic Writers

☛ Why do we invest in producing content that we give away for free?

☛ How do you think people discover our content?

☛ What's the importance of voice for a brand?

☛ How would you go about giving voice to a brand?

☛ If I told you you need to make 50 pieces of content per week what would you say?

☛ How many pieces of content do you think you could deliver in a week?

☛ How would you go about prioritizing one piece of content over another?

☛ What new content would you recommend for our marketing operation?

☛ How do you go about improving SEO for content?

☛ What's the value of an infographic?

☛ There can be a considerable amount of repetitive work - how would you stay motivated?

☛ How do you maintain attention to detail?

☛ How do you approach proof-reading material?

☛ What would you expect from us as your employer to keep you motivated?

☛ Tell us how your background and experience makes you a fit for this role?

☛ What do you know about this company?

☛ Who are our customers are and where are they located?

☛ Where would you ideally see yourself a year from now and in three years from now?

It is imperative to know about the basic qualification of the person you intend to hire. If he/she is a graduate in English literature don't be too happy about it because they might not be able to write creative contents. Read through their resume and find out if they have been involved in writing or editing their work related documents. Sometimes this skill will help to know that they would be accurate in pinpointing grammatical errors. Besides, they would have an eye for reading each sentence word by word. Anyway, it is best if the writer is a graduate and has worked for few years.

Copy is sales-oriented, while content is value-oriented. Copy is the stuff you'd find in a brochure, while content is what you'd find in a bona fide newsletter. A good writer should know the difference between the two.

Yes, it sounds asinine. But I see this mistake All. The. Time. And I know at least some of those errors are the work of allegedly professional content creators. A good writer knows that a spellcheck program can only get you so far.

This question is a bit tricky to get to know about the way the writer writes their content. Also you would come to know whether the writer is aware of the importance of using keywords. It would also help to know about the knowledge level of the writer especially the usage of appropriate words that is mostly in use. You would need to get them to speak about their examples and how they utilize their language skills. From such aspects it will help to know whether they are updating themselves.

Why it's important to ask this: I certainly want a content marketer to have an opinion about what works and what doesn't work. however, it's also important that they are able to accept critique about their work and make changes as necessary.

What to look out for: Attention to to detail and an understanding of proper usage of the english language is key elements of quality content. (Did you catch the three mistakes?) Follow-up questions could include:

What are some of your greatest "pet peeves" when editing someone else's writing?

Which style guide(s) do you depend upon?

☛ Mediocre Responses:

► My manager tells me what I should write about and gives me an outline.

► I look at what's trending and pick an interesting topic.

☛ Great Responses:

► I keep a backlog of keywords that people are searching for in Google related to my target topic, and create posts based on the backlog.

► I set up Google News alerts and a feed reader to look at which topics are trending in the news that relate to my topic area. I come up with spins on those topics to newsjack those stories.

► I regularly ask the sales team what questions their prospects are asking, and use the responses as fodder for my next post.

This question would help to get in contact with writers who are well versed in writing different styles. When we say style, it means the way the writer writes and the technique the writer uses mainly the word choice, the syntax, the tone. Sometimes, it is also considered as voice that readers listen when they read the content work. Get to know whether the writer uses descriptive style, narrative style, argumentative style or persuasive style. From that you would get to know how they put use of their words, structure their sentence, whether logics are used. Each writer creates their own niche.

A Content Writer is expected to be grammatically correct and international clients will expect nothing but the best written material which they won't require to proofread after having paid anything between $ 8-15 per article. So any reputed company is likely to test your grammar skills before going to the second round. Most of the grammar tests focus on punctuation, verb and conjunction usage and few other topics. So brush up, or more correctly, dust off the cobwebs by going through that family heirloom called Wren & Martin.

This is the most common interview question which will almost certainly be asked to any candidate. While it seems a pretty straightforward question many find it the toughest as it's quite open ended and people fumble when required to speak about themselves rather than about their work and/or skills. But fear not friends. The question is asked merely to know more about your personality than actually seeking your personal details. The best way to approach this question is to start with your high school, go up to graduation/post graduation and move towards your work experience. If the interviewer seeks family details only then you should provide it, otherwise it's not necessary.

Why it's important to ask this: Your content marketer will need to express a unique voice and opinion in their work. However, they also need to adapt their own style as a function of your company's needs, the audience, format of the content, person they're writing for, and so on.

What to look out for: Look and ask for specific examples of how they modified their style, as well as asking them to identify why this is important.

Most of the writers do use the common social media tools to get help with writing. Each writer would have specific flair for topics of their interest. Those writers would have books or magazines related to the topic. There could be some who are tech savvy and depending on the type of articles they would know where to get access to reference subjects. This question will allow you to know whether he/she will be referring to the right site or will be able to bring out genuine or relevant contents. You could also make sure of their capability to handle topics assigned.