9 SMO Interview Questions With Sample Answers (Plus Tips)

Updated 5 March 2023

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Social media optimisation (SMO) refers to content development to increase traffic through various social media platforms. As social media continues to grow, it is one of the most critical requirements for any business to attract customers and become a successful brand. If you are an SMO professional and seeking a job, preparing answers to common questions in advance can help you deliver a confident performance in the interview and impress the interviewers. In this article, we list some SMO interview questions and sample answers and also share tips to help you prepare better for interviews for related job roles.

8 SMO Interview Questions And Answers

Here are some sample SMO interview questions that interviewers may ask to test your technical understanding of the concept:

1. How does social media affect SEO?

While social media allows people to discover new content or brands in which they may be interested, search engine optimisation (SEO) enables you to gain traffic from people searching phrases related to the business. Using both can help you gain traffic from a variety of sources. Explain how the concepts differ in your answer.

Example: 'Though search engine optimisation (SEO) does not directly relate to social media, it gives additional exposure to your brand. It is possible to achieve this in several ways, such as by sharing an article or by making different posts through various social media platforms. It eventually increases the local optimisation, increases organic traffic and enhances the brand's image and reputation.'

2. What are the advantages of SMO?

SMO can enable you to reach more relevant people on social media and engage your current audience. It can also help you increase traffic to your website. You can achieve numerous other digital marketing strategy goals once you have sufficient social media followers.

Example: 'SMO helps increase brand visibility and recognition. It serves as a communication channel and allows interaction between the brands and their customers, increasing engagement. As social media marketing costs less than traditional marketing methods, new businesses or businesses with a smaller budget can still reach out to their customers and get a higher return on investments (ROI). Once the customers interact with the brand and recognise it through social media platforms, they often grow a loyalty towards it.'

3. What is the purpose of using hashtags?

Hashtags are labels used on social media sites to help people find information with a specific theme. Context or content hashtags encourage social media users to find content that attracts their interest. Hashtags can help associations reach their target audience and help members filter information.

Example: 'Hashtags link all social media-related content to a specific topic and make it easier for users to share content on that topic. They are short, simple, attractive and easy to remember. Hashtags are an excellent search and sort tool, allowing you to identify the content that is most important to you quickly. You can use hashtags to find content across social media sites. They are a powerful marketing tool as they can expand your reach, promote your brand and get your content to people who want to see it.'

4. Why is key performance indicator (KPI) reporting required for a social media campaign?

Social media key performance indicators (KPIs) are measurable metrics that reflect social media performance and determine the ROI for a business. Monitoring specific metrics can help ensure that your brand's social strategy connects with its target audience and meets organisational objectives effectively.

Example: 'Multiple parameters can help measure social media success. Some of them include analysing the increase in the number of followers and leads, the number of inbound links, the number of comments, shares and traffic generated, the increase in the number of sales made online, the number of published posts and the number of new subscriptions. Monitoring the performance of parameters such as reach, impressions, web traffic, audience growth, user engagement, virality rate, conversion rate, bounce rate, click-through rate (CTR) and cost per click (CPC) can help understand the return on investment for a social media campaign.'

5. How can you increase traffic on social media?

Social traffic is traffic from social networks and social media platforms to the website, mobile site or mobile application. This is critical because it allows you to implement a targeted marketing campaign at the most effective time and also stabilises your marketing efforts, as you can re-market to your users indefinitely. As the primary goal of social media optimisation is to increase social traffic, you can explain your strategy while answering this question.

Example: 'It is important to be involved, vigilant, responsive and open to change to increase the traffic on social media. Some common practices to increase social media traffic include following the best SMO practices, improving the visuals for increased engagement, making content that is easy to share, publishing new content when the audience is most active and posting interactive content. It is also important to ensure that your content is mobile-friendly. You can join numerous social media platforms to help increase traffic.'

6. How can you measure social return on investment (ROI)?

Measuring social media return on investment is an essential part of the job of any social media manager. It enables you to understand the effectiveness of your work, demonstrates value to the organisation and iteratively refines your strategy to improve returns as you learn. You can share some previous experiences while answering this question.

Example: 'To calculate the rate of return on investment in social media, consider using conversion measurement tools. Many social platforms and websites have their own set of analytics tools that offer in-depth insights into the campaign's performance. The primary criteria for monitoring traffic include email subscriptions, webinars, content and download registrations and traffic on blog sites.'

7. How can you promote a blog or other content on social media sites?

Promoting blogs or any other type of content on social media sites is beneficial for increasing traffic, networking and building an online presence. Social media can connect you to a global network of people interested in what you want to say on your blog. Being active on social media also helps make new connections and meet peers who can provide guidance. You can mention a few ways to promote blogs or posts on social media platforms effectively.

Example: 'There are several marketing tools that enable one to promote a blog or a piece of content on social media sites automatically per requirements. A social sharing schedule can help in the frequent reposting of content, which can contribute to an increase in traffic. One way is to use a different title for the same blog and re-schedule the blog post. Scheduled posting techniques may vary for different social sites, so it is essential to analyse them and schedule the posting timings accordingly to ensure catering to the maximum number of potential customers.'

8. What is the RSS feed? Why is it important?

RSS is an acronym for rich site summary and, in some cases, really simple syndication. The RSS feed contains updates to your website, such as new content, videos, images and links. Users interested in these updates can subscribe to your RSS feed, which aids in gaining more free traffic and backlinks.

Example: 'RSS is an XML file that pushes content to the company's website and allows the users to subscribe to its feed. It is useful as it allows for more audiences for content and email subscriptions along with live bookmarking.'

Tips For SMO Interviews

Here are a few tips that can help you create a positive and long-lasting impression during the interview:

Do your company research. Analyse their requirements for potential employees, the company history and the industries to which that they cater. This can also help you highlight any relevant experiences during the interview.
Work on your technical knowledge and soft skills. It is essential to be up-to-date with the latest trends and technological advancements in the industry and improve how you present yourself to the interviewers.
Give mock interviews. Mock interviews can help identify areas for improvement and reduce stress before the interview, enabling you to present yourself more confidently.