SME

This is probably one of the first questions many social media employers will ask – they want to know that you’ve got passion and commitment to the industry, and asking you what attracted you to social media can be a brilliant way of working it out.

A good answer would be to state that it’s an up and coming industry with plenty of room to progress and enhance your skills. This shows that you’re in it for the long haul and you’re a candidate that thrives under pressure – they want someone who will actively seek out ways to improve themselves.

Use tools like the Conversion Measurement tool on Facebook and Optimized CPM. Your website will also often have analytics used to measure social media ROI. Lastly, some of the platforms themselves such as LinkedIn have their own analytics. The fundamental measures are the same as in other areas of marketing: clicks, likes, shares, purchases, change in attitude, etc.

If the expert answers ‘no’, that may be OK. Follow up with something like ‘Oh, you’re using Posterous instead?’. If they look at you blankly, end the meeting there. No sense wasting your time.

If the expert answers ‘yes’, get the address and go look. If they’ve been blogging for less than 2-3 years, and there’s no explanation like “I had to move my blog”, again, end the meeting.

Any social media expert has been somehow participating in the conversation for a long time.

Because EdgeRank is complicated, this question serves as a litmus test in social-media job interviews.

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.

The social media world can be a very dynamic and opinionated place, meaning that there are plenty of opportunities for something to go wrong. Your potential boss wants to know that you can keep cool in these situations and deal with it accordingly.

Make sure you state that you would stay calm and inform the correct parties if necessary – they want to know that you wouldn’t crumble under the pressure! So maybe bring up a previous occasion when something went wrong for you and how you resolved it – giving an example can be a brilliant way of proving you’ve got what it takes.

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.

Show that you know about the social media efforts of major brands. Glamour Magazine, for instance, is taking advantage of Google Hangouts to engage their fans in ways that print cannot. This Hangout campaign by Glamour features staff, online personalities, and brands, while cleverly and subtly advertising products.

There's no one right answer to this. The best answer will come from doing your homework. Research your potential employer's current activities across all channels. Then, produce a plan, with action items and metrics for success.

It’s ok to praise the competitors here if they are genuinely doing something good. Don’t go overboard and make it seem like you’d rather work for these competitors but don’t be afraid to be honest if you think they have a strategy that the company you’re interviewing for could learn from. Always be sure to explain why what they are doing is working (or not working). Mention specific social media campaigns if you can.

Talk about why the strategy inspired you but, more importantly, also detail how you would love to create an original strategy of the same caliber. Explain how you would do this and implement it in the context of the job you’re interviewing for.