Social Media Specialist

☛ How do you energize the community?

☛ How would you handle user/customer complaints?

☛ How do you personalize a large scale social presence?

☛ What’s the difference between targeted and large audiences? Which is better? Why?

☛ How do you monitor comments and brand mentions on social media sites?

☛ How do you identify brand advocates?

☛ How would you use Google+ communities?

☛ How do you define engagement?

☛ What is Web 2.0?

☛ What does Web 3.0 look like?

☛ What’s the “next big thing?”

☛ What is the difference between social media and social networking?

☛ What do you think of social media consultants?

☛ What’s the scariest part of social media?

☛ What’s the most exciting part of social media?

☛ What social media blogs do you read? What research do you follow?

☛ Who’s your favorite social media expert?

Every content marketing piece should benefit readers in some way while maintaining their attention. Look for examples of storytelling, humor, or educational information that go beyond selling products.

Believe it or not, online social networking didn’t start with Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. Plenty of social media professionals have experience that goes back to online bulletin boards, forums on CompuServe, Prodigy, and AOL, and online forums. Look for professionals who have been building online relationships for more than five years. Most social media professionals will be willing to share links to their profiles and it would be a good idea to look them over for professional activity. If your social media “expert” spends more time talking about their Friday parties and drops F-bombs frequently, think twice…

Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube may be the juggernauts right now but remember the days of AOL, CompuServe, MySpace and eBay? Would you hire a social media professional who pitched engaging your customers on Prodigy? Probably not. My point is that social networks come and go, and your social media professional should be constantly evaluating new platforms and making recommendations on whether you should explore them.

The most important thing is to have a solid plan and strategy before making the first post. I do extensive research to be sure that I have an intimate understanding of the product, the market, the company’s followers and the desired results. Once the campaign has begun, I use analytics to track results and make small adjustments as necessary to optimize the campaign’s effectiveness. I also leverage each social media platform to drive traffic to the others, increasing overall exposure. However, none of that matters if the content falls flat, so I make sure that it is engaging, encourages interaction and is highly shareable.

“Yes, I’ll get you 1000 links and 20,000 clicks”. See number 7, first action.

“Yes, that I’ll work my butt off for you”. I like it.

“No, because we’re marketing to people, and it’s hard to say what they’ll like/not like, or what might happen in the world that will affect behavior”. Also good.

Social media engagement doesn’t end when you publish your Facebook page or launch your Twitter account. Heck…creating those channel profiles is often the easiest part of the process. The community engagement/management process that follows is the more difficult (and more expensive) element. It’s important that you know how your social media professional approaches community management and what strategies and tactics they will use to interact with the members of your community (a.k.a your customers, members, employees, etc…)

LinkedIn is one of the most important business-oriented platforms for social media. Knowing how the company can leverage existing LinkedIn profiles and groups to create a successful marketing campaign shows you possess the practical skills needed to handle a social media management position. (Extra Tip: Make sure that LinkedIn Profile Picture is up to snuff before the interview.)

In a recent survey by Social Media Today 34 % of Facebook users admitted that they spend less time on the network. Despite Facebook’s declining popularity, the popularity of social media, especially those used on smart phones, will continue to rise as humans are social by nature. Relevancy and SOLOMO (social local mobile) will remain important in social media. In addition, there is likely to be an increase in the use of technologies such as augmented reality and products like Google’s Glass technology, which we have already started seeing.

This one forces them to explain what they perceive to be your business goals. Are you selling product or services? Are you attracting members to your professional organization? Your social networking approach should be tailored to your business goals and your activities should be measurable. They might not be hard metrics in terms of sales or conversions, but there should be some measurement involved, even if its the increasing the number of positive online interactions and reducing the amount of negative chatter around your brand.

I am a strong proponent of social media management platforms like Hootsuite. In previous positions I have used Hootsuite to plan campaigns, schedule posts and track results. The ability to have all your projects on one interface makes it easy to keep track of what is happening. To manage my time efficiently, I prioritize more important or time-sensitive tasks and tackle them first thing in the morning, and schedule as many posts as possible in advance to keep unforeseen occurrences from threatening deadlines. I have also found that updating my calendar with key dates, deadlines and reminders helps me juggle multiple campaigns.

Every business and organization is not the same, so a one-size-fits-all social media strategy is generally a bad idea. If you’re in non-profit, you might want to look for a social media professional with experience in that sector. If you operate in a regulated industry such as pharmaceutical, tobacco, alcohol, finance, insurance, or a host of others….it would be a good idea to find a professional who has significant experience in your industry and understands any limitations or restrictions.

A successful community manager needs good judgement, strong communication skills, a 24/7 attitude (which is a feature of the social media lifestyle), the ability to manage multiple platforms and track feedback. This person needs to have an analytical mind and be capable of sharing information with superiors. The person should be adaptable, calm, and be able to solve problems. As a community manager, you have to eat, sleep and breathe the brand. You also require people skills, and have to be outgoing, friendly and relatable. Finally, you need to be comfortable interacting with people offline as well as online.

Facebook EdgeRank is the algorithm Facebook uses to determine where posts show up in a user’s news feed. It is important every Facebook post has the highest EdgeRank possible. How can you use affinity, user interactions, and timeliness to increase a post’s EdgeRank?

“I auto-follow 20,000 people on Twitter”. If you’re OK with it, kick them in the groin for me. If not, nod politely and move on.

“I follow interesting, relevant people on Twitter, comment on relevant blog posts and try to get into the conversation”. Home run. Try not to weep with joy.

“We need to figure out the campaign first”. Good answer. Give them a hypothetical campaign to be sure, but clearly you’re on the right track.

Candidates must be able to define what “success” is when it comes to generating content. As they respond, you should hear the words “traffic,” “repeat visitors,” “retweets and likes,” and “search engine ranking” to show their understanding. Even better if they provide details about their own successes in those areas.

“It doesn’t”. Slap them and tell ’em that’s from Ian.

“It builds links”. That’s half the answer.

“It builds relationships that turn into links later”. HIRE THEM NOW.