If you are currently a digital marketer or a social media marketing professional, you have most likely heard someone say “well I use Facebook, I could ‘Do’ social media” or “How hard could it be, it’s just social media.” While offensive to those of us that have worked hard to become credible professional in the social media industry, these questions also have me worried for companies looking for help with their social media.

Companies understand the importance of social media, but they often need assistance developing and implementing a strategy, so they look to hire a social media manager to grow their brand on social media sites. Unfortunately, when companies post a job listing for a social media manager it seems like everyone and their mother applies, making it difficult for companies to find good and trustworthy talent. More often than not, companies end up hiring someone who does not understand or have any experience in social media marketing.  This situation will typically result in more problems for the company because unqualified applicants are managing profiles and pages that are a public faces of the brand.

How do you weed out the social media flops from the experienced social media managers that can actually help you grow your business? Asking the right questions during the interview process is the easiest way to find the best talent. However, most companies are hiring a social media manager because they don’t understand how to best use social media and they don’t know which questions they should ask. The following are eleven questions that an experienced and qualified social media manager should be able to confidently answer on the spot. In addition, if you are interested and committed to making social media marketing your career, these are just a few of the  questions you will want to be able to answer at length and in great detail.

1. What social media monitoring, analytics, and publishing tools do you use?
2. How do you use and leverage the benefits of both LinkedIn Groups and LinkedIn Pages?
3. How do you measure the success of a social media strategy? What KPIs (key performance indicators) do you measure for each social media platform? (just having a lot of followers is not enough!)
4. Does social media affect SEO? If so, how?
5. Explain the value of both targeted and large audiences on social media. Is one better than the other?
6. What is your approach to monitoring comments and brand mentions on social media sites?
7. What social media pages or profiles have you managed in the past? How were they successful?
8. What is Facebook EdgeRank, and why is it important?
9. What do you think of our company’s current social media efforts, and what sites do you think we should be on that we are not? (shows that they have done their research!)
10. How do you identify brand advocates?
11. How do you stay current on all of the latest shifts and innovations in social media?

What other questions do you think should be on this list? Leave a comment below!

By Brianna Smith