Communication Director

This question shows that you're not afraid of critical feedback -- in fact, you welcome it. Interviewers tend to make note of red flags -- whether it be something on your resume or something you said -- to discuss with a colleague following the interview. This question gives them the green light to ask about any of the things that are holding them back from being 100% on board with hiring you.

Do they take the time to go out? Do people bring lunch but eat in groups? Do folks normally eat at their desks because they're too busy to socialize? Asking this question serves as a great way to find out a little bit about the company culture. Plus, this is a more lighthearted question that might relax a stiffened atmosphere or lead to a conversation about shared interests.

A question like this indicates that you're already envisioning yourself in the role and thinking through a plan of attack, should you land the gig. It's also a sign that you're well aware that no job comes free of roadblocks. It shows that not only are you not afraid to deal with those challenges, but you're also prepared for them.

I like this question because it addresses expectations in concrete terms. Beyond stock descriptions of good communication and analytical skills, what does excellence look like for that position?

Coming up with new and effective ways to market a product in such a tight economy is a tough challenge and these days customers have more power than ever. It is getting more difficult for marketing initiatives to effectively meet these new customer demands. Keep these and other factors in mind when tackling this question, relate your personal experience of the challenges you have encountered and discuss the creative ways in which you handled them.

Leave it to them to decide whether or not to tell you how they overcame the failure or if they learned anything from it. A good interviewee will jump on an opportunity to turn the negative into a positive.

A good response should mention social media, website, and story telling. Bonus points for considering video production and contributing to creative service planning.

Social media is an ever-changing landscape that requires constant and ongoing learning and adapt. Even the most experienced social media managers need to refine their skills. They update their strategies, learn and practice new techniques and stay on top of the latest changes to new and existing platforms.

Creating profiles and pages and then posting content to them isn’t the job – anyone can do that. The ability to build and engage with the community is the qualifying test of whether someone is a social media manager or a social media user.

Engagement, brand reach, lead generation, and conversions. These are the essential measures of social media’s return on investment (ROI). They should also be able to more specific in terms of Google Analytics, metrics from software they use, or metrics from a specific platform. Don’t make the mistake of thinking that engagement on its own is success either. Without conversions that can be tracked back to that engagement, efforts have been unsuccessful.

Important to know here is that there are positives and negatives in both. A doer might be someone who is a get-it-done at all costs kind of person. However, they might not be willing to share the ministry with others or might tend to over-work and burn out. A delegator might be good at sharing the workload, but might also be someone who is lazy or who tends to pass the buck. This is an important question to ask, but resist the urge to pre-judge the person based on their answer.

Leave this question open-ended, just as it is phrased above. Your company may already have social media management software in place or you may be looking for a recommendation. If they’re only familiar with free software that does nothing more than allow them to schedule posts to Facebook and Twitter, it’s not a good sign. Ask them why they like or don’t like different tools and which features they use most.

Everyone has failures, some larger than others. Of course, what you really want to know, is how they dealt with it. Gain insight into their coping skills and how they deal with negatives by seeing how the issue was resolved. Pay attention to what they did (or didn’t do) to ensure that the failure wouldn’t happen again.

This answers two questions at once. Has the candidate done the research on your company ahead of time, and how well versed they are in the various social platforms. Pay attention if they mention demographics, style or frequency of messaging, and overall strategy.

If they don’t know the answer to these questions, (a) it gives you insights to how serious they consider personal development and (b) you might want to have them take a test before the next step in the candidate process to see how they will fit with your team.

Do they persist until they find an answer? Do they research online? Do they get bogged down and depressed? Do they ask for help? Do they outsource the problem?

For some jobs, learning the technology or the internal company procedures is the most challenging aspect of coming on board. For others, it is about understanding the human network. Any guidance on how to speed up the learning process and make you effective and productive quicker can give you a significant advantage.

Your hiring manager’s job is different from the one you are interviewing for. However, insight into his or her challenges and favorites can offer a glance into the support and assistance you can offer.

Asking a question like this shows that you're goal-oriented and aren't afraid to be held accountable for those goals. You don't shirk accountability. You welcome it -- and will work hard to hit the goals you're responsible for.