I recently came across an article on socialmediatoday.com that suggested thatany company looking to hire a social media manager should ask themselvesthis:

How do you weed out the social media flops from the experienced socialmedia managers that can actually help you grow your business? Askingthe right questions during the interview process is the easiest way to findthe best talent. However, most companies are hiring a social mediamanager because they don’t understand how to best use social mediaand they don’t know which questions they should ask. The following areeleven questions that an experienced and qualified social mediamanager should be able to confidently answer on the spot.

I agree with 100%. Too many companies are trying to hire a social mediaguru/rockstar/ninja and they end up hiring someone who know absolutelynothing other than how to get more cows on Farmville.

So I decided to take those 11 questions and create an ebook of my answers foryou. Let me know if you have any questions…

Q: What social media monitoring, analytics, and publishing tools doyou use?

A: While there are many options, I use both Hootsuite (Hootsuite Certified Professional)and SproutSocial as my primary monitoring, analytics and publishing tools. It is also important to use the analytics tools of specific platforms as well as Google

analytics for tracking the impact of your social campaigns on your website traffic.

Q: How do you use and leverage the benefits of both LinkedIn Groupsand LinkedIn Pages?

A: The power of LinkedIn pages is that it gives companies the ability to converse with potential clients on a platform that is considered more credible due to its professional reputation.

While there are many valuable aspects to Groups, two that I finduseful are the ability to engage with your peers and with potentialclients. For example, I am a member of several social media groupswhere I am able to keep up to date with the lat est trends anddiscussions that are happening. I am also able to join groups thatcater to my market segments and I try to establish myself as athought leader in social media.

Q: How do you measure the success of a social media strategy? (justhaving a lot of followers is not enough!)

A: What you measure depends on what your objectives are at any given time. I focus my social media strategies on 3 areas; brand awareness, relationship building and conversion.

When working to build brand awareness, likes/followers are a primary measurement. But you also want to see other people

mentioning you in their social media postings as well. This shows that they are aware of you and hopefully, they like what you are sharing with them.

When working to build relationships, you want to see your followers engaging with your content. On Facebook you are looking for likes, comments and shares. On Twitter, the direct tweeting of your content or the ReTweeting of your post. On Pinterest, you want to see a lot of repins. On YouTube shares, comments and embeds of your videos. I think you get the idea.

Never forget that the ultimate goal of a social campaign is to drive people to your website and convert them to leads and eventually customers. This is where your CRM comes into play. It will tell you how many visitors come from the social side and get converted.

Q: Does  social media affect SEO? If so, how?

A: YES! At a basic level, social media helps your content get indexed faster by the search engines. High levels of social activity also show the search engines that your content is fresh, authentic and valuable to your readers. If this doesn’t convince you, then this new study will: SEO Ranking Factors – Rank Correlation 2013 for Google USA show that 7 of the top 8 factors for where you rank on Google are most highly correlated to social factors. These factors include:

� Google +1’s

� Facebook shares

� Facebook total

� Facebook comments

� Facebook likes

� Pinterest

� Tweets

Sites that had more of these factors than their competitors were more likely to be ranked higher than their competitors.

Q: Explain the value of both targeted and large audiences on socialmedia. Is one better than the other?

A: A targeted audience is a small, narrowly defined subset of a large audience. For example… say I am a real estate agent and I have a home to sell. I want to target my campaign to as many people as possible. However, if this home were on a golf course, I might want to target my posts ONLY to people on Facebook who indicate they like golf. This would save money and increase the chances of finding someone who has an interest in a golf course home.

Both types of audiences are important. You need a broad audience to build brand awareness and targeted audiences to improve ROI.

Q: What is your approach to monitoring comments and brand mentionson social media sites?

A: Social monitoring is a critical component of any social media strategy. I set up listening accounts for your brand and your industry. When you are mentioned or someone comments on your post, I either engage the person in an appropriate fashion or notify my point of contact at your company to do so.

It is critical to reply to these engagements in a timely manner. If someone asks you a question on Twitter, you cannot wait 3 days to reply. At that point, any chance of engagement has passed and you have created a negative sentiment with the person who posted.

Q: What social media pages or profiles have you managed in the past?How were they successful?

A: Client: Small Business (ongoing)

•Increased Facebook average post reach by 500% in one month

•Increased Facebook average viral reach by 4900% in one month

•Increased Facebook average post impressions by 437% in one month

•Increased Facebook average post engagement by 300% in one month

Client: Chamber of Commerce (ongoing)

•Increased Facebook average post viral reach by 15,000+% in five weeks

•Increased Facebook average post engagement by 155% in five weeks

•Increased Facebook average post reach by 376% over four months

•Increased Facebook post impressions by 85% over four months

Client: Small Business (ongoing)

•Increased targeted Facebook likes by 355% in 2012

•Increased targeted Twitter followers by 145% in 2012

•Generated 40% of business leads via Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn in 2012

Q: What is Facebook EdgeRank, and why is it important?

A: EdgeRank is the algorithm that Facebook uses to determine what stories end up on your newsfeed. They use three factors: affinity, weight and time decay.

Affinity is measured by the engagements and interactions a user has with other content creators. For example, if I frequently like, comment or share posts from the Keizer Chamber, then I will have a higher affinity score with the Keizer Chamber. This is not,

however, bi-directional. My frequent interactions with their content has no impact on them seeing my content.

Weight is affected by the type of story, for instance, whether it is a photo upload or a comment on another person’s status. Facebook tends to value rich media content(photo’s and video’s).

Time decay is the measure of how old the content is. The newer the content, the more value it has.

Q: What do you think of our company’s current social media efforts,and what sites do you think we should be on that we arenot? (shows that they have done their research!)

A: Obviously, this is not a question I can answer here. What I can say is that if you are doing a lot of product/service selling types of posts, you are not making any friends. In fact, many of your LIKES may have blocked your feed from their timeline. And no, you may not need to be on every platform. Each platform has its own unique persona and not all of them are a good fit for every type of business.

Q: How do you identify brand advocates?

A: The social media management platforms I use allow for the tracking of those who are engaging with your content. There are also stand alone software programs that will identify who your most active

brand advocates are as well. Or you could simply ask followers how likely they are to refer your brand to their friends and peers. Those that are tend to be great brand advocate candidates.

Q: How do you stay current on all of the latest shifts and innovations insocial media?

A: Keeping up with industry news and trends can literally be a full-time job. Not only am I following the latest social media industry trends, but I also follow platform specific trends and best practices as well. If that wasn’t enough, I also follow social media trends/best practices for each industry my clients are in as well. Each industry has specific nuances in how you develop a social media strategy. It’s good to stand out, but not for the wrong reasons.

I kept these answers pretty simple as some of them could be 10 page ebooksthemselves. If you have any questions, or would like to discuss these topics ingreater detail, please let me know.

Owner, Pinson Digital LLC

THANK YOU FOR READING

Email me: mpingree@pinsondigital.com if you have any questions orto get started on your social media plan.