How to Hire a Social Media Marketer: A Complete Hiring Kit for Recruiting, Selecting, & Training

Looking to hire a social media marketer?

This hiring kit will give you the guidance needed to hire the right social media marketer the first time.

The term “social media marketer” can refer to a wide variety of roles and responsibilities. You might be running solo and looking to bring in someone to jumpstart your social media marketing initiative. Or, perhaps you have an expanding business and are looking to add talent to an existing marketing team.

(RELATED: Developing a Social Media Strategy)

This hiring kit includes:

• Job Titles and Descriptions
• Organizational Chart
• Job Posting Builder
• Interview Questions
• Where to Find Your Next Social Media Marketer
• Training Your Social Media Marketing Team Member

NOTE: You’ll get a downloadable version of the Social Media Hiring Kit at the end of this post. 🙂

Let’s get right to it…

Job Titles and Descriptions

It’s important to know what role you’d like your new hire to fill. A fully fleshed-out social media marketing team at a large corporation is often a part of a larger content marketing team. It will include most, if not all, of these roles while a small operation might include only one.

(RELATED: How To Build A Marketing Dream Team For Your Brand (Even If You Aren’t A Marketer))

We’ll begin with a high-level overview of each position:

Social Media Manager – The lead social media marketer responsible for strategic development and execution of all social content and campaigns to increase brand awareness, engagement, and traffic. They develop social media strategy, supervise its execution, then evaluate the results, as well as manage vendor relationships and strategic partnerships.

Social Media Analyst – Collects and analyzes data related to social media marketing campaigns, assists in identifying appropriate social media channels for social media efforts, tailors campaigns to each channel’s audience, tracks the performance of social media initiatives, and develops/implements changes to improve business results.

Social Media Specialist – Creates and distributes content across social media channels (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc.) to establish brand authority, manages company reputation, provides social customer care, facilitates partnerships with key influencers on the social web, and introduces offers where appropriate.

Social Media Coordinator – Monitors and updates social media channels, engages with the community in real-time, supports the social media team by managing the creation of engaging multimedia assets (including graphics and videos).

Graphic Designer – Assembles images, typography, and other visuals to make social content engaging and memorable while maintaining brand consistency.

Video Marketing Manager – Creates and leverages interviews, testimonials, demos, and other storytelling styles in video format to strengthen emotional connections, engagement levels, and marketing initiatives.

It’s important to note that the positions listed above are roles, not necessarily individual people with individual titles. If you are a smaller company, you might have one person who fills several of these roles.

In most cases, if you’re building a brand new social media team, hire the Social Media Manager role first. The right Social Media Manager can be a “jack-of-all-trades” who handles a myriad of roles and responsibilities. When hiring a one-person social media team, look for an individual with superb social media marketing skills. Keep in mind, though, any additional skills (live video or graphic design, for instance) will be enormously valuable to a budding social media team.

Your Social Media Manager is the foundation upon which your social media team is built. Add new members to this team based on the gaps presented by your Social Media Manager. For example, your Social Media Manager may be great at posting engaging social content and driving community engagement, but not so hot at creating attractive graphics and live videos. Use your next hire to close the video marketing and graphic design gaps.

Use the organizational chart below when you are ready to add specialists and expand your social media team.

Organizational Chart

Your organizational chart will depend on the size of your organization and the temperament, talent, and experience of your team members (among other things), but the configuration below is a solid starting point for many organizations.

Remember, if you’re just getting started with social media, begin by hiring the Social Media Manager role. Then, add other roles as the need arises. Once your social media and content teams are fully fleshed out with multiple hires in the same roles (multiple social media coordinators, video marketers, etc.), start looking to add a Chief Content Officer to direct and coordinate both the content and social media teams.

(NOTE: Want a step-by-step plan for tracking, measuring, and monetizing social media? You can with DigitalMarketer’s Social & Community Mastery Specialist training and certification program. Click here to learn more!)

Job Posting Builder

The following section is designed to build a custom job posting appropriate for your unique circumstances. The makeup of your job posting will depend on the skills needed by your company, salary available, and availability of talent.

A thorough job posting has six components:

1. Position Summary
2. Roles & Responsibilities
3. Skill Requirements
4. Education & Experience
5. Benefits & Salary
6. About the Company

Step 1: Choose a Position Summary

Hiring a Social Media Manager? Analyst? Coordinator? If you’re not sure, make your best guess now and adjust as your thoughts clarify later in this process:

Social Media Manager

The Social Media Manager is responsible for providing the primary voice of the company across the social web, including Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.

The right candidate has experience in social customer service and a deep familiarity with a variety of social media platforms. They can work with members of the social media and content teams to coordinate social marketing initiatives while giving direction to the social media team regarding voice, sentiment, and the overall experience of the intended audience.

This position requires 2-4 years of experience designing and implementing a social media strategy that supports the organization’s social marketing initiatives while increasing brand awareness, engagement, and traffic.

Social Media Analyst

The Social Media Analyst, under the direction of the Social Media Manager, collects and analyzes data from all social media marketing initiatives across a variety of social channels. They help identify appropriate social media channels for achieving specific business objectives and tailor messaging for the target audience in each channel.

This role requires expertise in a variety of social media management tools, collecting and interpreting data from those tools, and reporting on the findings.

This position requires experience creating, executing, monitoring, and reporting on social media initiatives.

Social Media Specialist

The Social Media Specialist creates and schedules brand content across a variety of social platforms, drives social interactions with fans and followers, and supports specific content marketing initiatives, all while providing social customer care.

This role requires expertise in creating, editing, publishing, and sharing content on multiple social channels. Applicants must understand the unique requirements of each channel and be able to maintain the organization’s voice in each.

This position requires 1-2 years of social media and digital marketing experience.

Social Media Coordinator

The Social Media Coordinator is responsible for coordinating with the social media and creative teams to create original multimedia assets (including graphics and videos) that support social marketing initiatives. They will also support the social media team by monitoring and updating social media channels as needed.

This position requires the ability to work with internal and external stakeholders to identify the graphics and media needed for upcoming initiatives, then collaborate with creative talent to manage their production. The ideal candidate is creative, detail-oriented, and a natural multitasker. 

This role requires experience in social media marketing, including the production of social media assets.

Video Marketing Manager

The Video Marketing Manager is responsible for the coordination and production of all video content.

The right candidate has experience in directing, shooting, editing, producing, and optimizing a variety of corporate videos. The Video Marketing Manager is a creative, out-of-the-box thinker specializing in the translation of messages into compelling visual stories that are consistent with the brand.

Graphic Designer

The Graphic Designer is responsible for the coordination and production of all images needed for the organization’s content team.

The right candidate has experience in a variety of design software and a proven ability to produce entertaining, educational, and/or inspirational visual content that is consistent with the brand’s “look and feel.”

Step 2: Choose Roles & Responsibilities

In this step, you will add detail to the role this new hire will play in your organization. Keep in mind, it’s unlikely you’ll find a candidate who fits every role or responsibility listed below. For example, you’re unlikely to find a candidate with proficiency in social strategy and video.

Consider creating a job posting that lists the roles and responsibilities you feel are absolutely necessary and list others as “nice to have.”

Now, choose the roles and responsibilities for which you want to hire. Common job titles associated with the roles are noted in parentheses.

Key:

• (SMM) Social Media Manager
• (SMA) Social Media Analyst
• (SMS) Social Media Specialist
• (SMC) Social Media Coordinator
• (GD) Graphic Designer
• (VMM) Video Marketing Manager 

Overseeing the Social Media Team and support team growth, development, and implementation of new initiatives. (SMM)

Developing and maintaining a social media strategy that actively addresses listening, networking, influencing, and selling on the social web. (SMM)

Identifying authoritative and influential individuals and brands on the social web and implementing a social networking strategy to facilitate and nurture strategic partnerships. (SMM, SMS)

Monitoring and responding to customer service and reputation management issues on the social web using social listening tools. (SMM, SMS)

Establishing authority on the social web through the distribution and sharing of valuable content produced internally and externally. (SMM, SMS)

Generating leads and sales from existing customers and prospects on the social web through the distribution of appropriate offers. (SMM, SMS)

Monitoring discussions and trends as they pertain to the company, products, and brand. Identifying and reporting on trends in sentiment and advising on potential opportunities for content and product creation. (SMM, SMA)

Monitoring and measuring the success of social media strategy (e.g., increased engagement, customer acquisition, website traffic, etc.). Identifying, analyzing, and reporting on social media trends to internal team. (SMM, SMA)

Collecting and analyzing the appropriate social data/metrics, insights, and best practices for ad hoc analysis and regular reporting. (SMM, SMA)

Assisting with the identification of appropriate social media channels for achieving specific business goals and tailoring the message to those channels. (SMA)

Planning, creating, and implementing paid social media campaigns on social media networks with appropriate audience targeting. (SMM, SMA, SMS)

Maintaining an active, well-rounded personal presence in social media, demonstrating a command of each network and their best practices, and easily adopting the brand voice in each. (SMS, SMC)

Generating, editing, publishing, and sharing daily content (blog posts, original text, images, and/or video) that builds meaningful connections and encourages community members to take action. (SMS, SMC)

Sharing curated content to build community, drive engagement, and build brand authority. (SMS, SMC)

Performing social listening, customer care, and reputation management in line with the brand’s moderation policy, reporting on findings, and providing feedback to appropriate internal stakeholders as needed. (SMS, SMC)

Going the extra mile to engage customers. (SMS, SMC)

Working collaboratively with marketing, content, and creative teams to create social assets that are appropriate for specific social channels and brand initiatives. (SMS, SMC)

Creating and maintaining brand consistency through the use of the organization’s branding and style guide standards on logos, colors, typography, and other graphic collateral. (GD)

Designing engaging, creative images for use in a variety of digital assets including images for social media, written content, presentations, etc. (GD)

Collaborating closely with other members of the social media marketing team to brainstorm and plan upcoming social content by determining scope and realistic deadlines for various design content. (GD)

Creating accurate graphics, charts, graphs, etc., that visually support the context of given content. (GD)

Creating a video marketing project plan that aligns with organizational social media marketing goals. (VMM)

Producing and/or directing video content for social media channels. (VMM, SMC)

Managing the production of video content (shooting, editing, uploading, optimizing, and adding effects) for use on the organization’s video channels. (VMM)

Managing the production (shooting, editing, uploading, adding effects) of promotional or engaging video content for use in social media. (VMM)

Coordinating with the social media marketing team to distribute videos that support the social media and content efforts. (VMM)

Leveraging interviews, testimonials, demos, and other storytelling styles to meet the needs of the target audience. (VMM)

Strategically examining available platforms and apps to ensure video content is easy to distribute in social channels. (VMM)

(NOTE: Want a step-by-step plan for tracking, measuring, and monetizing social media? See DigitalMarketer’s Social & Community Mastery Specialist training and certification program by clicking here.)

Step 3: Choose Skill Requirements

In this step, you’ll choose the specific skills required for this position. As with the roles and responsibilities section, it won’t be possible (or necessary) to find a candidate that possesses all of the skills listed below.

Again, consider listing some skills as necessary and others as an added bonus. Also, list specific hardware, software, or applications your organization is using such as Adobe Creative Suite, Hootsuite, or Lumix GH5 cameras in this section. 

Choose which role you want to hire. Common job titles associated with these skills are noted in parentheses.

Leadership – Experience leading a team in a fast-paced, project-driven environment. (SMM)

Editing – Proven editorial skills including strong language skills and the ability to adjust content to remain consistent with the brand’s voice, style, and tone. (SMM, SMS, SMC)

Analytics – Experience collecting and analyzing the appropriate social data/metrics for the purpose of optimizing marketing strategy and tactics. (SMM, SMA)

Project Management – Experience coordinating with multiple stakeholders and teams to create social media assets supporting specific social marketing initiatives. (SMM, SMS, SMC, VMM)

Design Platforms – Expertise in Adobe Creative Suite, including Photoshop, InDesign, Illustrator, and Acrobat Pro. (GD)

Design Principles – Comprehensive understanding of design principles for desktop and mobile layouts. (GD)

Creative – Excellent creative and design skills with proficiency in typography, color, layout, composition, imagery, and video, as evidenced by a professional portfolio. (GD)

Organization – Demonstrated ability to manage multiple projects or initiatives effectively and efficiently while maintaining priorities, deadlines, and deliverables in a fast-paced environment. (SMM, SMA, SMS, SMC, GD, VMM)

Critical Thinking – Ability to identify trends and adjust strategy using analytical and quantitative problem-solving. (SMM, SMA)

Video Production – Demonstrated ability to create compelling visual stories for marketing and business objectives while maintaining creative, technical, and brand standards. (VMM)

Social Media Marketing – Proven experience using social media channels to distribute and amplify the organization’s content. Familiar with features, audience, and maintenance of key social media platforms. (SMM, SMA, SMS, SMC)

Social Customer Care – Demonstrated ability to handle a variety of customer service related issues on the social web. (SMM, SMS, SMC)

Communication Skills – Superior ability to communicate clearly and effectively with internal and external audiences. (SMM, SMS, VMM)

Step 4: Choose Education & Experience

The level of education and experience you require for the role will depend on the salary you are willing to offer and the availability of talent in the area you are recruiting.

Keep in mind that digital marketing is still a young vocation. While a veteran in more traditional professions (think accounting or human resources) might have 20+ years of experience, the equivalent in digital marketing might be half that.

Choose the level(s) of education and experience you’ll require for this position.

• Technical Training
• Bachelor’s Degree
• Master’s Degree
• 1+ years professional experience
• 3+ years professional experience
• 5+ years professional experience
• 10+ years professional experience

Step 5: Add Salary, Benefits, & Company Information

The last step in building a solid job posting is the addition of salary and benefits.

Are you offering health and vision insurance? What about 401k matching? Lastly, add a paragraph or two about your company.

Here’s an example from DigitalMarketer’s job postings:

DigitalMarketer is a research, training, and certification company based in Austin, TX, that focuses on sharing what’s new and what’s actually working in digital marketing with small businesses, agencies, and marketing professionals.

Our mission is simple: We want to help double the size of 10,000 small businesses by 2020, and we believe the best way to do that is to train a new breed of digital marketing professions so they’re able to leverage modern distribution channels to generate additional leads and sales for their companies.

We’re passionate about this mission, and we absolutely love what we do. If you would like to share in this mission, and you believe you possess an uncommon blend of marketing genius and entrepreneurial irreverence, then we invite you to apply.

(NOTE: Want a step-by-step plan for tracking, measuring, and monetizing social media? You can with DigitalMarketer’s Social & Community Mastery Specialist training and certification program. Click here to learn more!)

Interview Questions for a Social Media Marketing Job

A successful social media marketer will be required to think creatively, strategically, and tactically. They may also be required to manage people and/or projects, provide customer care and support, meet deadlines, and provide proven experience in their given field of expertise.

The following sample interview questions are intentionally behavioral in that they ask the candidate to describe actual scenarios that reveal their level of experience. These are general questions that we ask our social media marketer candidates and should be adjusted to fit the role for which you are hiring.

Tell me about the most creative piece of social content you have been involved in creating for an organization.

• FOLLOW-UP: What was your role in the creation of that content?
• FOLLOW-UP: How and where did you share that piece of content?
• FOLLOW-UP: What organizational goal did that piece of content meet?
• FOLLOW-UP: How did you measure the effectiveness of that piece of content?

Tell me about the most successful social media marketing project you have managed.

• FOLLOW-UP: What organizational goal did that project meet?
• FOLLOW-UP: How many team members did you work with or manage during this project, and what were their roles?
• FOLLOW-UP: Describe an obstacle you encountered with a team member in this project and how you overcame it.
• FOLLOW-UP: Describe how this project was designed to meet deadlines and objectives.

Tell me about a video (or graphic) you created for a social media campaign that received a high amount of traffic and engagement.

• FOLLOW-UP: What tactics did you use to optimize the video (graphic) for engagement?
• FOLLOW-UP: Did you plan and execute it yourself, or did you work with a team to complete the project?
• FOLLOW-UP: What challenges arose during the production of the video (graphic), and how were they resolved?

Tell me about a time when you used data and analytics to adjust social marketing strategy or tactics.

• FOLLOW-UP What were the metrics you found most useful?
• FOLLOW-UP: Can you describe your process for interpreting the data?

Tell me about a time when you discovered a customer giving a negative review of the company on social media.

• FOLLOW-UP: What tactics did you use to disarm the situation?
• FOLLOW-UP: Describe how this strategy affected your approach to social customer care.

Tell me about a social media initiative you were involved in creating that received high exposure on social media channels like Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn.

• FOLLOW-UP: What was your role in this initiative?
• FOLLOW-UP: What tactics did you use to ensure that campaign was seen and engaged with?
• FOLLOW-UP: Did you work on this campaign alone, or did you work with a team to produce the campaign?
• FOLLOW-UP: What was the biggest challenge in taking that campaign from conception to completion?

Tell me about a piece of social content that you edited or optimized and how your efforts strengthened it.

• FOLLOW-UP Was it your own content or someone else’s content that you strengthened?
• FOLLOW-UP: What prompted you to edit or optimize the content, and what was your process?

Tell me about a piece of social content or a social media post you were involved in creating that effectively boosted leads and/or sales.

• FOLLOW-UP: Were you solely responsible for that post, or did you work with another team member who was familiar with social media strategy or promotions?
• FOLLOW-UP: What did you do to make it more effective at generating leads or sales?

Is there a brand whose social media strategy stands out to you, either for good or bad?

• FOLLOW-UP: What makes it stand out to you?
• FOLLOW-UP: What would you do to improve on what they’re doing?

Name a brand whose approach to social media is worth imitating?

• FOLLOW-UP: Why?
• FOLLOW-UP: How would you implement something similar in a different industry?

Where to Find Your Next Social Media Marketer

To find qualified applicants, you can list your job postings on both free and premium job board websites, including:

Free Job Posting Sites

Glassdoor

Glassdoor is a free resource for job seekers to get access to over eight million company reviews, job listings, salary reports, interview reviews, office photos, and more. It provides candidates with a good feel for what companies are like during their application process. Glassdoor gets over 19 million monthly visitors, the vast majority of which are in the US.

Portfolium

Portfolium is great if you’re looking for entry-level positions or internships. This site is a place for college students and recent graduates to showcase their work to potential employers. They have a free job board that you can use to recruit from their pool of one million students based on coursework, projects, and experience.

Upwork

If you’re looking to go the freelance route, Upwork is an online aggregator of a variety of content marketers and other self-employed professionals. They have over 10 million registered freelancers and four million registered clients. While they do offer enterprise-level solutions, you can search and browse their network for free.

Paid Job Posting Sites

Indeed

Indeed has over 180 million unique visitors every month from over 50 different countries, and is one of the leaders in job posting sites. They do offer a free option to post job listings, but they also give you the ability to get paid traffic to your listings to attract more leads.

Workable

Workable is a paid tool that posts your job listing on all major job boards and social networking sites, so you can knock out your recruiting efforts in one fell swoop. It also organizes candidates’ resumes and has a space for notes and feedback, so you can keep all your important hiring documents in one place.

LinkedIn

As the largest professional networking site, LinkedIn’s job posting feature puts your ad in front of qualified candidates, whether or not they are actively seeking a job. There is a free demo available if you want to check it out.

CareerBuilder

CareerBuilder boasts 24 million unique visitors per month and works with a wide variety of employers, including 92% of the Fortune 1000. It operates in the US, Canada, Europe, Asia, and South America and has partnerships with over 1,000 sites, including 140 newspapers.

Simply Hired

Simply Hired is a targeted pay-per-click job board that includes job listings from 24 countries in 12 different languages. They get 30 million unique visits per month and over one billion job searchers every year.

(NOTE: Want a step-by-step plan for tracking, measuring, and monetizing social media? You can with DigitalMarketer’s Social & Community Mastery Specialist training and certification program. Click here to learn more!)

Training Your Social Media Marketing Team Member

Congratulations on committing the time and energy to hiring the right social media marketer the first time!

Whether you’re hiring your first social media marketer or expanding an existing team, consider onboarding your new hire the right way by certifying them as a Social Media Marketing Specialist.

In this class, your new social media marketer will learn the most up-to-date social media marketing strategies and methodologies that are actually working TODAY, including:

• The “Social Success Cycle” framework that gives you instant clarity on the 4 categories of social media marketing activities (and the category every business should begin with).
• How to create your Customer Avatar in order to architect a social media strategy that attracts leads and buyers (our simple Customer Avatar Worksheet will show you how to build your avatar).
• How to recognize and leverage the strength (and avoid the weakness) of both “Seeker” and “Engagement” social media channels.
• The “10-Minute Social Media Audit” that immediately identifies gaps in your social media marketing so you can close them.
• The two categories of social media marketing that can (and should) be automated by software (don’t worry, we tell you which programs to use).
• The “Feedback Loop” process that exponentially increases the impact of social media marketing on product/service development, customer service, and content creation.
• The 5 keyword categories that matter when monitoring the web for customer service and reputation issues (“Listen” for these keywords and you’ll immediately join the social conversation about your brand).
• The Social Listening Keyword Research Planner that makes social listening campaign set up a breeze.
• How to set up social listening using paid tools (and an alternative method using free tools for those on a tight budget).
• The simple 3-Step Social Media Customer Service Plan to employ when dealing with angry customers on public social channels.
• Four methods to growing connections on any social channel (look out for the “Indoctrination” and “Bouncing” processes).
• Seven blog post templates that create high-quality, “share-worthy” blog content with speed (never get stuck for blog post ideas again).
• The Social Media Topic Map handout that transforms boring, “ho-hum” social media channels into thriving social communities.
• The 6-Step “socialization” process you’ll apply to every new piece of content you create (this will maximize your social media exposure).
• How to defeat the “Social Fire Hose” (and create social media updates that get noticed in the sea of social status updates).
• How to leverage “Long Tail Media Outreach” (in order to generate traffic, links, and authority from blogs, podcasts, and more).
• How to combine Social Media Topic Maps and “The Short List” process to create a network of influencers (these can really “move the needle” for your business).
• How “Reverse Media Outreach” works today (and how to position yourself to take advantage of it).
• The “Value First” strategy that seamlessly and subtly transforms casual social media connections into leads and customers (without being sleazy).

…And much, much more.

Why Should You Get Certified?

If you’re a business owner, this certification is a great way to learn content marketing yourself. It’s also a great way to train and certify members of your own team to ensure they’re up to speed on the latest trends and best practices. 

If you’re an agency, this certification is a tangible way to show that you are a Social Media Marketing Specialist, which could help you attract and retain better, higher-paying clients.

If you’re a student, this certificate can set you apart from other graduates who merely have a business or marketing degree by teaching you specialized skills employers today are desperately seeking.

If you’re an employee or marketing professional, this certificate can make you more valuable to your company, which is the surest way to get that raise or promotion you likely already deserve (but don’t have a tangible reason to request).

How It Will Work

The Social Media Marketing Mastery class is an advanced, 5-Module, 62-Lesson online course.

At the end of each module, you will be asked to take a short quiz prior to moving on to the next module. Once you have completed the entire course, you can then sit for the final certification exam. After passing this exam, you will earn the “Certified Social Media Marketing Specialist” designation, complete with a displayable badge and a printable certificate (suitable for framing).

Ready to learn more and take the next step? Get all the details now.

Want a PDF version of this hiring kit? Get it here!