26 Social Media Manager Interview Questions to Ask When Hiring in 2026

Hiring the right social media manager is essential for staying competitive and ensuring your brand thrives in what could be a challenging economy in 2026. 

The right social media manager does more than schedule posts — they craft strategies that align with your business objectives, build meaningful relationships with your audience, and leverage data to drive ROI.

Whether you’re hiring in-house or outsourcing to an agency or freelancer, these 26 social media manager interview questions will help you uncover a candidate’s skills, strategic thinking, and ability to navigate the ever-changing world of social media.

Let’s dive in and ensure your next hire is ready to lead your brand successfully in 2026.

Quick Overview: Summary table of social media manager interview questions 

Now, let’s take a closer look at the questions to ask when interviewing a social media manager.

26 social media manager interview questions

1. What online communities have you managed in the past?

Creating profiles and pages and then posting content to them isn't the job. Most people can do that.

The ability to build and engage a community across multiple social media platforms is the qualifying test for whether someone is a social media manager or a social media user.

🟢 Green Flag: Discusses community building, engagement strategies, and fostering brand loyalty.

🔴 Red Flag: Only talks about posting content and creating profiles. 

2. Which social media platforms do you recommend for our business and why?

This answers two questions at once:

1. Has the candidate done the research on your company ahead of time?
2. Do they know which platforms you’re already on? 
3. Do they have thoughts about others you could be on? Like TikTok, and maybe coming off X (fomerly Twitter), for numerous good reasons. 
4. How well-versed are they in various social media platforms?

Pay attention if they mention the target audience, demographics, style, or frequency of messaging, and overall social media strategy. 

🟢 Green Flag: Shows research on your company, mentions target audience, demographics, and strategy.

🔴 Red Flag: Generic answer with no company-specific research.

3. What goals should we set for each of our social media accounts, and what does success look like?

If their answer is to get as many likes and shares as possible, it may be time to end the interview politely.

The path from likes to conversions is more like A to K than A to B, so they should be able to explain what that path looks like for different platforms. For most companies, conversions are always the main goal.

The candidate should also be able to help you define success at both strategic and tactical levels to support your broader marketing and business goals. Candidates that understand the importance of social media KPIs. 

🟢 Green Flag: Focuses on conversions, strategic and tactical success metrics aligned with business goals.

🔴 Red Flag: Says "get as many likes and shares as possible."

4. What strategies would you use to generate leads?

This question moves from the more general and abstract into the meat of the matter. They should be able to outline two or three specific strategies that will feed leads into your sales funnel via social engagement.

Social media lead generation is now a key component of the modern marketing armoury.

🟢 Green Flag: Outlines 2-3 specific strategies to feed leads into sales funnel. 

🔴 Red Flag: Vague answers with no concrete lead generation tactics.

5. Tell me about SEO and its relationship with social media

There are several techniques for improving SEO through social media. In the last 2 years, AI in search and the use of AI to create content has changed SEO more than the previous 10 years. 

Social media is now an integral part of SEO, and for millions of people, search is starting in AI apps and in social platforms (especially TikTok). Social media managers need to know how to use this knowledge to make your social posts search and AI-friendly.

 At the same time, accessibility is more of a concern than it was, so that needs to be factored into the creation of social media posts. 

🟢 Green Flag: Understands that SEO is A LOT more than it was a few years ago: It’s social, AI-centric, and you’ve still got to adhere to most (ever evolving) SEO rules, alongside new Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) rules. 

🔴 Red Flag: Doesn't see the connection with social media, or has outdated knowledge (no understanding of GEO, AI, etc.). 

6. Which social media tools do you use?

Leave this question open-ended, just as it is phrased above.

Your company may already have a social media management tool 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 X (formerly Twitter), it's not a good sign. 

Ask them why they like or don't like different tools and which features they use most. It’s also good to see how they use tools as part of a social media content plan.  

For example, if we were hiring a manager at Sendible, we would expect them to know about our client connect feature that allows us to onboard clients securely.

🟢 Green Flag: Mentions experience with advanced social media management tools, specific features they use and why. 

🔴 Red Flag: Only knows free basic scheduling tools for Facebook and X. Little or no Instagram, TikTok, or Threads experience, even personally.

7. What are the relevant metrics for tracking ROI on social media?

Engagement, brand reach, lead generation, and conversions. These are the essential measures of social media's return on investment (ROI). Social media managers are comfortable talking about specific terms in Google Analytics (GA4), the software they use, and the data they can get from each platform.

Don't make the mistake of thinking that engagement on its own is a success - without conversions (e.g. site visits, reviews, downloads, leads), it means little and should be improved.

🟢 Green Flag: Discusses engagement, brand reach, lead generation, conversions, and GA4 metrics.

🔴 Red Flag: Focuses only on engagement metrics without conversion tracking.

8. How do you deal with negative comments or a brand reputation crisis?

The way they define 'crisis' can tell you a lot about their experience. If they haven't had a real social media crisis firsthand, they should at least be familiar with famous brand reputation blunders. 

Dealing with negative comments or reviews properly is vital to this position. Ask for examples.

🟢 Green Flag: Provides specific examples, understands the meaning of a social media crisis, and has proper response protocols.

🔴 Red Flag: No real examples or dismisses importance of crisis management.

9. Can you describe your biggest social media failure?

Everyone has failures, some more 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 listening to how the issue was resolved. Pay attention to what they did (or didn't do) to ensure that the failure wouldn't happen again.

🟢 Green Flag: Explains what they learned, how they resolved it, and prevented future occurrences.

🔴 Red Flag: No failures to share or blames others without reflection.

10. How do you check and stay on top of the latest updates, innovations, and new platforms in social media?

Social media marketing is an ever-changing landscape requiring constant learning and adaptation. 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.

🟢 Green Flag: Specific resources, continuous learning habits, adaptation strategies.

🔴 Red Flag: Says they'll "figure it out" or has no learning routine.

11. Imagine: Google has just devalued an SEO technique you have used successfully in the past. What do you do?

While you're not employing an SEO expert, it's good to see whether your candidate has a broader understanding of these kinds of changes and strategies.

Considering the vast changes we’ve seen in SEO in the last couple of years, you need a SMM who understands social’s role in SEO. 

At the same time, you also need someone with a clear working knowledge of how to adapt posts for generative engine optimisation (GEO), AI in search, and accessibility. 

🟢 Green Flag: Shows adaptability, broader strategic understanding, and taking a modern, proactive approach. Most importantly, knows the importance of adapting to AI in search. 

🔴 Red Flag: Resistant to change, doesn’t understand GEO, and would prefer to stick to old, outdated tactics. 

12. What are your thoughts on TikTok?

Even though TikTok has exploded and changed how we approach digital marketing, it's still tricky to make it work for every business. This is why it's worth asking your candidate their thoughts on utilising TikTok for your business.

• What are the best practices?
• Are your competitors on it?
• Is there a trend you could hop on as a brand, and how?

TikTok is here to stay. It’s vital that brands that can and should use it actually do. Here are the most recent TikTok stats (end of 2025, early 2026):

TikTok has 1.9 billion active users globally.

• It’s the world’s 5th most used social media platform.
• The United States has the largest TikTok audience, with over 135.79 million users
• In 2024, TikTok’s revenue was $23 billion, a strong 42.86% increase over the previous year.
• In the USA, people spend an average of 53.8 minutes per day on TikTok.
• TikTok has 45.5% female and 54.5% male users globally.
• The majority of the TikTok creators are aged between 18-24 years.

🟢 Green Flag: Discusses best practices, competitor analysis, brand fit, and specific trends.

🔴 Red Flag: Either dismisses it entirely or thinks every business needs it.

13. Have you much experience using AI to create social media posts? 

Anyone can use AI to create social media posts. We have an AI assist feature, so we would encourage social media managers to know how to use AI. Most of the time, people save themselves a bit of time, making them more productive. 

However, we need to be careful with our use of AI. Over-reliance on AI could harm your brand, put customers off, and make your social media campaigns look cheap, inauthentic, and unappealing. 

The term “AI slop” or “AI-generated slop” refers to exactly what people don’t want to see: fake images, videos, and poor-quality posts. 

Social and content platforms, including YouTube, are taking active steps to reduce the impact and reach of any videos that are overly AI-generated. We expect other social platforms to do the same. Please take this into account when interviewing social media managers. 

🟢 Green Flag: Takes a balanced view of AI as a tool, maintains authentic voice, and knows the limitations. 

🔴 Red Flag: Either an over-reliance on AI or complete rejection of it. Neither is good, and that’s not what you want from a social media manager these days. 

14. Can we run a free contest on our Facebook Page, where fans can win by liking and sharing our regular posts?

Knowing the rules and guidelines for each platform is absolutely necessary. Mainly to implement best practices but also to avoid violating the terms of service, getting suspended, or being kicked off.

The short answer is “no.” Facebook fights against clickbait posts that encourage liking and sharing, but you can still run a real contest and give additional points to those who engage on social media.

Here are Facebook’s guidelines in full on this: 

• If you use your Page, group or event to announce or administer a promotion (a contest, giveaway or sweepstakes) you must ensure that your promotion complies with applicable legal and regulatory requirements (ex: providing entrants a copy of the promotion’s official rules, disclosing offer terms and eligibility requirements, and registering your promotion with the relevant authorities). 
• You must also require participants to (a) fully release and hold Meta harmless from liability, and 
• (b) acknowledge that the promotion is in no way sponsored, endorsed, administered by or associated with Meta. 
• Your promotion must not require or incentivise participants to share, repost, tag others or in any other way publicise your promotion. 
• Note that Meta will not assist you in administering a promotion. Should you use our services to administer your promotion, you do so at your own risk.

🟢 Green Flag: Says "no" and explains Facebook's rules, suggests proper contest alternatives.

🔴 Red Flag: Says "yes" without understanding platform guidelines. You could end up having your company Page banned from Facebook, and potentially Meta’s other platforms, and it’s simply not worth the risk. 

15. Can we see some examples of the social media projects you've worked on?

The results should speak for themselves.

If they can’t or won’t show you their marketing portfolio, then they either don’t have the experience you need or they aren’t very good at what they do. 

Would you try to sell a product to potential clients without being able to show it to them?

🟢 Green Flag: Has a strong portfolio with measurable results and diverse examples. Ideally, examples in your sector and with similar brands and businesses. 

🔴 Red Flag: Refuses to share work or has no tangible examples.

16. How would you allocate our social media budget?

Specific metrics and KPIs should be discussed, as well as where each should go percentage-wise.

For example, a decent percentage can be allocated to Meta platform Ads - a medium-sized company can spend as much as $1,500 monthly on paid advertising. Human capital, social media tools, and training are also essential for achieving high ROI.

🟢 Green Flag: Discusses specific percentages for ads, tools, training, and human capital with KPIs, like ROAS. 

🔴 Red Flag: Random percentages with no strategic rationale.

17. How would you communicate with the rest of the company, or other freelancers or agencies?

Social media management must support other marketing and customer service initiatives in the business.

Your future employee will need to be informed about most other aspects of the business and will need co-workers' buy-in to achieve true success. The roles and responsibilities of each cog in the machine (your business) should be defined as clearly as possible.

🟢 Green Flag: Understands cross-functional collaboration, supporting other initiatives, buy-in strategies.

🔴 Red Flag: Works in isolation, doesn't see need for company-wide communication.

18. What are our competitors doing on social media?

Again, this helps identify if they did effective research before the interview.

While a full answer is not necessary in advance, it should show how your business's social activities compare with those of your competitors.

When hiring a social media specialist, you want them to be aware of what’s going on in the industry, and a true professional will have this covered.

🟢 Green Flag: Shows research done, compares your activities to competitors, and industry awareness.

🔴 Red Flag: No knowledge of your competitors' social presence.

19. Do you have your own blog, or do you regularly publish content on your personal social media platforms?

This will show you how well-balanced they are across all aspects of the position and also what kind of a content creator they are.

It's perfectly fine to outsource content, but they should have a good grasp of creative writing, design, and best SEO practices. If not, how will they assess the quality of the outsourced material?

🟢 Green Flag: Demonstrates content creation skills, understands SEO, GEO and UX design principles. “Bloggers” have mainly become influencers, so you should expect to see a well-maintained and growing Instagram, Threads, and potentially TikTok presence, too. 

🔴 Red Flag: No personal content presence and poor grasp of creative fundamentals. 

James Clear makes for a great example of what a personal blog looks like when done right:

20. What is the most important thing a social media manager should be doing?

This helps you understand what they think social media marketing is and how it should be done.

The best answer will involve ‘listening to’ or ‘monitoring’ your audience and your competitors. The old saying about two ears and one mouth is especially relevant in social media management.

🟢 Green Flag: Strategic thinking, monitoring trends, competitors, creativity, and creating posts and campaigns. After launching campaigns, checking the analytics and learning from what works and what doesn’t to keep iterating and improving the content and campaigns. 

🔴 Red Flag: Focuses only on posting content without audience insight.

21. How does customer service fit into your strategy?

Providing customer service on social media is becoming increasingly important for businesses with an active online presence. Offering support and posting on social media are two different parts of social media management. 

Both require a different approach and, seldom, a separate channel. First, they should recognise this fact. Secondly, they should know how to approach each type of conversation - an endorsement, mention, or complaint.

🟢 Green Flag: recognises different approaches for customer support vs. posting, separate channels when needed. 

🔴 Red Flag: Doesn't see customer service as part of social media management.

22. Tell me a story

You have already asked about content creation and seen their writing abilities (if they have them).

This question is designed to get the candidate to think on their feet. Assess how clearly they can communicate ideas and emotions and how compelling they are. If someone in a social media role can’t tell a story, it will be very difficult to work in and succeed at social media marketing.

🟢 Green Flag: Communicates clearly and compellingly, engages emotions, and thinks on their feet. 

🔴 Red Flag: Struggles to communicate ideas or tells a boring, disconnected story.

Social media marketing has come a long way from publishing pretty pictures and posting pushy promotions. The audience had a lot of time to refine their taste, recognise the value of their needs, and reposition themselves from mere spectators to persons with a voice and power to influence brands. This is why the art of storytelling on social platforms has become so important.

Today's users need to relate to the brand's story and values. And so, if your social media specialist can't translate them into captivating and timely posts, you won't be able to get the ROI you're looking for.

23. Why should we hire you over someone else?

This can be used in every hiring situation. Anyone should be able to tell you why they're better than their competition and why they're the best fit for your company. This allows them to highlight the best aspects of their skills and experience.

🟢 Green Flag: Highlights specific skills and experience relevant to your company.

🔴 Red Flag: Generic answer that could apply to any company or social media role. 

24. Explain something complicated but that you know well

This is similar to the storytelling question but from a more technical aspect. The "something" can be anything.

They may know how to rebuild a car engine or explain social media to their grandparents. The point is that they should be able to comprehend a complex subject and articulate it in a simpler, understandable form.

🟢 Green Flag: Simplifies complex topics clearly, and shows excellent communication skills.

🔴 Red Flag: Makes simple things sound confusing or can't break down complexity.

25. What project or task would you consider your most significant career accomplishment to date?

According to recruiting expert and author Lou Adler, this is the only interview question that matters. It's also the single best question for determining whether to hire someone. Lou spent 10 years studying and making this determination, so he deserves credit.

🟢 Green Flag: Specific, measurable achievement with clear impact and personal contribution.

🔴 Red Flag: Vague accomplishment with no measurable outcomes.

26. Pitch my company to me as if I were a potential customer

This will show you how much they know about your company and what their level of passion is for your product, service, or industry. It will also tell you their initial impressions without the insight of working for you (yet). They probably won’t be prepared for this, so it can also show you how quickly they work on the fly.

🟢 Green Flag: Shows company knowledge, passion, and a clear ability to think quickly.

🔴 Red Flag: Generic pitch showing little research or understanding.

If you need more ideas, here’s four bonus questions. 

4 bonus social media manager interview questions

1. How do you go about creating a social media campaign and strategy? 
2. Explain the difference between how different types of audiences use different social media platforms.
3. What is your favourite brand on social media right now? What do you think they are doing right regarding their social media campaign?
4. How would you delegate tasks if you were running a large social media campaign requiring you managing a social media team?

Below are three ways to improve your social media recruitment strategy, and some FAQs for more information. 

3 tips to improve your social recruiting strategy

Now that you have your social media manager interview questions in order, it's worth considering where to source your candidates.

Social media has transformed recruitment over the last few years. In fact, 79% of job applicants now use social media in their job search. So, how can you improve your strategy for hiring candidates over social media?

1. Take advantage of key features on social networks

Each social media platform offers different benefits, but key networks like LinkedIn, Facebook, X, and Instagram have plenty of features that make them the perfect place to begin your search for a new social media manager.

One of these features is hashtags. When posting job openings, you can use hashtags within the post copy to make posts more searchable and broaden their reach.

In the search for a social media manager, you can use hashtags effectively on LinkedIn, Facebook, X, and Instagram. Examples could include #SocialMediaManager, #Recruitment, or #Vacancy.

Being active in Facebook and LinkedIn groups is also a smart way to find candidates for a job role. Social media is heading in a more community-minded direction, and groups provide a ready-made, like-minded audience that understands the niche you are trying to appeal to.

When searching for a social media manager, join as many groups related to the social media field as you can to scope out the landscape before posting your vacancy to members:

2. Promote your company culture on social media

Social media channels act as a window to a business. That means, to attract the best candidates for your social media manager role, you should showcase the best aspects of your business on social media.

Give candidates an insight into what it's like to work for your business by showing some authenticity, for example, by featuring the faces of your employees alongside your company values:

Remember that a business's social media profiles are often the first place a candidate will go to scope out a company - particularly for a social media management role, so make your offering as attractive as possible to potential hires.

3. Encourage employee advocacy on social media

A company's employees are its most important asset. This is because they are a trusted, unbiased source of information you can leverage to strengthen your social recruiting strategy.

Content that employees share receives 8 times more engagement than content shared by brand channels, so encouraging your employees to share job openings on their personal social media accounts and to endorse their work achievements is a great way to raise brand awareness.

By tagging your business on social media, candidates will see a community of positivity and support - and who better to hear it from than the people who already work there?

Learn how to set up your own employee advocacy programme with our ten-step guide.

[Bonus] 60+ interview questions to hire the best social media manager

Social media managers should be highly skilled, and these 25 social media marketing questions are designed to bring the best out of your potential new hire.

But assessing their skill set, general social media knowledge, and experience is just the first step.

You'll need to test their problem-solving skills and cultural fit to ensure you hire a stellar social media manager who will help the brand evolve across all platforms.

This is precisely why we created this free, easy-to-edit template, which includes over 60 questions to help you identify the right person for your marketing team.

Social media manager interview questions FAQs 

What are the top 3 skills for a social media manager in 2026?

In our experience, the top 3 most important skills are: 

1. Strategic thinking
2. Content creation (including short-form video)
3. Data analysis. 

Social media managers need to plan campaigns aligned with business goals, create engaging platform-native content, and use analytics to optimize performance.

Do social media managers need design skills (like Canva)?

Yes. While they don’t need to be professional designers, social media managers should be comfortable using tools like Canva to create on-brand graphics, edit templates, and quickly produce visual content. It’s even better if a social media manager is able to create short-form videos, like for TikTok and Instagram. 

Should social media managers understand and know how to use social search?

Absolutely. Social search is increasingly important as users search directly on platforms like TikTok, Instagram, and LinkedIn. Social media managers should understand keywords, captions, hashtags, and trends to improve content discoverability.