A few years ago, I wrote about 10 Questions to Ask When Hiring a Social Media Manager. I’ve updated the post every year and in doing so, I’ve realized that now there are even more helpful questions to ask when hiring the best candidate for your specific type of business.
I come from auto retail so I’ll be flavoring this post with concepts that apply to running car dealerships. But what I’ll share is applicable to almost all businesses. I’ve hired over 2,500 people in my career running dealerships and auto groups, and you my friend are about to get the benefit of my hard-won experiences when it comes to hiring a social media manager.
Social media manager duties and finding people who “want to work.”
First let me say that a social media manager can also be called a marketing manager, digital marketing manager, social media coordinator and even a marketing director. Whether you have a marketing team or just one person, the duties and responsibilities around effectively managing social media are the same.
Given that the labor market is tight right now, it’s even more difficult to hire people who “want to work.” I hear this almost daily from clients and associates. One key in getting people to “want to work” is providing an environment in which they can thrive, a place where they want to show up everyday. So, if you’ve got a culture that’s not conducive to that scenario, I recommend updating/improving your environment to attract more highly skilled and sought after employees.
Companies with happy employees outperform their competition by 20%. Happy salespeople produce 37% greater sales. Engaged teams generate 21% more profit than disengaged ones. Employers who increase their employees’ engagement by 10% can boost profits by $2,400 per employee a year.
FACT: Hiring a social media manager is a challenge.
During the hiring process, you’ll need to determine who measures up and who doesn’t. Many retailers and HR managers don’t spend a lot of time on social networks so it’s quite a challenge to figure out who the best candidate may be to handle the business’ reputation, social presence and social sales leads.
Add to that the challenge of having a sales team using social media (which I recommend) and hiring a social media manager becomes an arduous task.
In an ideal situation, where transparency and trust are crucial, integrating employees into the social media content can be very fruitful. Your social media manager needs to be able to address this integration with management and devise a plan that works for all involved.
Social media is complex and the hiring manager should keep in mind that not everyone who says they can do social media marketing have actually done it successfully!
Asking the right questions is key.
10 MORE questions to ask when hiring a social media manager.
1. Have you ever collaborated with employees on content creation?
[If so, please describe that experience and its results. If not, can you share with me your ideas on how to create a plan to incorporate employee-generated content?]
In hiring a social media manager, you gain control over your online presence. People (ie: your customers) are expecting so much more from auto retailers. They want to see content from you that means something and it’s very rare that an agency can achieve meaningful engagement with your customers.
I believe we are entering a time where it’s standard practice to own your social media.
The magic in social media content comes from employees. Why? Because employees know your customers. They’re on the front lines with them every single day and they speak their language. Example: you can post about a $199 lease special and no one will engage. Post about an employee’s anniversary or birthday, and you’ll get everyone to chime in.
What we’re talking about here is employee engagement. Each employee has their own unique expertise. They often bring great ideas to the content creation table and this is golden for social media. The content is richer, more well-rounded and generally met with much higher engagement.
If your candidate has a plan for employee engagement, and has experience in it, that is a huge advantage over other candidates.
2. What are your top three social media content ideas for us to pursue?
This question will give you insight into the candidate’s creative process. I’ve had candidates go off on tangents, which is a sign of a highly creative person…and it’s good. However, it’s best to limit them to three ideas just to keep the interview concise.
The answers to this question will also give you insight into how creative they are and if your “creative philosophies” align.
3. What was one of your most successful campaigns?
Effective social media campaigns connect with your audience both on a surface level — through a follow, comment, or a “like” — and on a deeper level — through a relatable post that gets them feeling a certain way about your brand or products.
Listen for indications of the following in their answers:
- Important metrics (higher engagement, website traffic/VDP views, follower growth, etc)
- Return on investment
- Business impact
4. What tools do you use to manage social media?
What you’re looking to know more about with your candidate is a social media management process. Tools help facilitate a process and can give you an understanding of how their process works. Here are the main areas you’ll want to hear about:
- Scheduling
- Monitoring
- Analytics (both Google Analytics and social media analytics)
- Photo editing
- Video editing
5. Have you ever worked in the car business?
[This question is something you can use for any industry].
It’s advantageous to hire someone who knows about your business or industry because they will likely understand your customers better, which is key to social media success.
It’s not crucial to hire a car business specific person but it could help. The one thing you don’t want to do is hire a car business person without any social media experience. I recommend hiring for social media manager experience, skills and knowledge over having car business experience because if the candidate is adept at branding, customer relations, and online reputation, they can learn the car business while on board.
A good social media manager without car business experience will or should already know something (through research, not anecdotally) about dealership customers (and yours specifically) when they arrive for the interview.
6. What is your process for handling negative comments, including negative reviews?
You should have a social media policy in place that governs how to handle online negativity. If not, now would be a good time to make a policy. (Note: at Kruse Control, we offer one with our assessments).
You likely already have a policy for handling unhappy customers so it’s a matter of applying that to online interactions. Key points that you’d like to hear from a candidate would be:
- When to respond to negative comments and when not to.
- When to delete comments (when possible) and when not to.
- How to handle trolls.
- What to say and how to escalate.
- Never argue with anyone because you have an audience watching.
- If possible, respond to every online review, not just the negative ones.
- Know when it’s time to take it offline so you can possibly rectify the situation.
7. How do you stay up to speed on social platform changes, trends, and innovations?
With so much “information” available today, it’s difficult to determine where to go for consistently good advice. Your ideal candidate will have a curated list of podcasts, social media accounts, industry leaders, newsletters and even forums that they consistently rely on to keep them informed.
8. What do you think about our current social media presence? What would you do to improve it?
This might present an awkward situation for your candidate since they will be cautious not to offend. I encourage you to be open at this juncture to criticism. Why? Because you’ll learn about how your candidate thinks and the answers they provide might be the one thing that puts them ahead of all your other candidates.
9. In what marketing areas would you say you’re better than most?
This is a great question because you learn about what they excel at and that can lead you to learning where they’re not that strong.
Social media manager is a difficult job because it requires both left brain (analytical) and right brain (creative) aptitude. Most people do not possess both (if you find one, hang onto her/him). Left brain skills are used in the analytics and data. Right brain skills are used for creativity and social interaction.
When you determine your candidate’s skills are by asking them what they are better at, it helps you manage them more effectively.
10. What brought you to social media?
A great question to get the candidate talking freely. Pay attention to verbal cues, facial expressions and body language.
Have you ever asked someone how their day was, and they say something like, “It was great!” But then you see their fatigued eyes as they literally drag their feet to walk past you? We instinctively know that their day was not “great.”
An ideal social media manager has authentic enthusiasm for the medium. They have a genuine desire to connect with others and grow your business. Without that, you’ll only be able to go so far with your campaigns and community.
Would you like to learn how to market yourself on social media? Get my FREE Guide: 20 Automotive Social Selling Techniques for More Leads and Sales