Essential Work Samples for Hiring a Top-Tier Social Media Strategist

Social media has evolved from a simple communication channel to a critical business function that drives brand awareness, customer engagement, and revenue growth. A skilled Social Media Strategist serves as the architect behind a brand's social presence, crafting strategies that cut through the noise and deliver measurable results.

Finding the right Social Media Strategist requires more than reviewing resumes and conducting standard interviews. The dynamic nature of social media demands practical demonstration of skills, creative thinking, and adaptability. Traditional interviews often fail to reveal a candidate's true capabilities in content creation, crisis management, analytics interpretation, and strategic planning.

Work samples and role plays provide a window into how candidates approach real-world scenarios they'll face in the role. These exercises reveal not just technical proficiency but also critical thinking, problem-solving abilities, and cultural fit. By observing candidates in action, hiring managers can make more informed decisions based on demonstrated skills rather than self-reported experience.

The following four activities are designed to evaluate the essential competencies of a Social Media Strategist. Each exercise simulates a different aspect of the role, allowing candidates to showcase their expertise while giving your team valuable insights into their potential performance. By implementing these structured assessments, you'll significantly increase your chances of identifying and hiring a Social Media Strategist who can truly elevate your brand's social presence.

Activity #1: Content Calendar Strategy & Development

This exercise evaluates a candidate's ability to plan and organize content strategically across platforms while aligning with business objectives. A successful Social Media Strategist must be able to create cohesive content plans that balance promotional content with engagement-driving posts while maintaining brand voice consistency.

Directions for the Company:

• Provide the candidate with your brand guidelines, examples of past social content, and 1-2 upcoming business initiatives or product launches.
• Include basic analytics from your current social channels (engagement rates, top-performing content types, audience demographics).
• Allow candidates 24-48 hours to prepare their content calendar.
• During the interview, give them 15-20 minutes to present their strategy and calendar.
• Prepare questions about their rationale for content types, posting frequency, and platform selection.

Directions for the Candidate:

• Create a two-week content calendar for the company's primary social media platforms.
• Include content themes, posting schedule, content formats (image, video, carousel, etc.), and draft copy for 3-5 key posts.
• Explain how your calendar aligns with the company's business objectives.
• Be prepared to discuss how you would measure the success of this content plan.
• Include at least one idea for a platform-specific feature (e.g., Instagram Reels, Twitter Spaces, LinkedIn polls) and explain why it's appropriate for the audience.

Feedback Mechanism:

• After the presentation, provide one piece of positive feedback about an aspect of their strategy that was particularly strong.
• Offer one constructive suggestion for improvement, such as better platform differentiation or more specific KPIs.
• Give the candidate 5 minutes to verbally explain how they would adjust their strategy based on this feedback.

Activity #2: Social Media Crisis Management Role Play

This exercise tests a candidate's ability to handle unexpected challenges and protect brand reputation during a social media crisis. The ability to respond quickly, thoughtfully, and strategically under pressure is essential for any Social Media Strategist.

Directions for the Company:

• Create a fictional but realistic social media crisis scenario relevant to your industry (e.g., a product issue, customer complaint gone viral, or controversial comment).
• Prepare screenshots of fictional negative comments, tweets, or posts about the issue.
• Assign team members to play roles (angry customers, concerned stakeholders, media representatives).
• Allow the candidate 10 minutes to review the scenario before beginning the 20-minute role play.
• Observe how they prioritize responses and maintain brand voice under pressure.

Directions for the Candidate:

• Review the crisis scenario and available information about the brand.
• Develop an immediate response strategy for the first 1-2 hours of the crisis.
• Draft sample responses to different types of comments and questions.
• Determine which platforms require immediate attention and which stakeholders should be involved.
• During the role play, respond to incoming messages in real-time while explaining your thought process.
• Be prepared to escalate issues appropriately and know when to take conversations offline.

Feedback Mechanism:

• Provide feedback on the candidate's tone, response time, and prioritization skills.
• Highlight one aspect of their crisis management approach that was effective.
• Suggest one area for improvement in their communication or strategy.
• Ask the candidate to revise one of their written responses based on your feedback.

Activity #3: Social Media Analytics Interpretation & Strategy Adjustment

This exercise evaluates a candidate's ability to analyze performance data, extract meaningful insights, and translate them into strategic recommendations. A strong Social Media Strategist must be data-driven while maintaining creative vision.

Directions for the Company:

• Prepare a sanitized or fictional set of social media analytics from a 3-month period across multiple platforms.
• Include engagement metrics, reach/impression data, audience demographics, and conversion statistics.
• Provide context about the content strategy and business goals during that period.
• Allow candidates 30 minutes to review the data before a 20-minute discussion.
• Be prepared to ask follow-up questions about their methodology and reasoning.

Directions for the Candidate:

• Review the provided analytics data and identify 3-5 key trends or insights.
• Determine which content types, posting times, or campaigns performed best and worst.
• Prepare specific recommendations for strategy adjustments based on the data.
• Create a simple one-page report or presentation with your findings and recommendations.
• Be prepared to explain how you would implement these changes and what metrics you would track to measure improvement.
• Include at least one recommendation that might seem counterintuitive but is supported by the data.

Feedback Mechanism:

• Provide positive feedback on one particularly insightful observation or recommendation.
• Suggest one additional data point or alternative interpretation they might have overlooked.
• Ask the candidate to verbally explain how this new perspective might change one of their recommendations.

Activity #4: Cross-Platform Campaign Development

This exercise assesses a candidate's ability to create cohesive, platform-optimized campaigns that achieve specific business objectives. It tests their understanding of platform differences, audience targeting, and creative adaptation.

Directions for the Company:

• Provide a brief for a fictional upcoming campaign (product launch, event, promotion, etc.).
• Include target audience information, campaign objectives, key messaging points, and available assets.
• Specify a realistic budget range for paid social components.
• Allow candidates 24-48 hours to prepare their campaign plan.
• Schedule 30 minutes for presentation and discussion.

Directions for the Candidate:

• Develop a comprehensive social media campaign strategy across at least three platforms.
• Include platform-specific content approaches, creative concepts, and targeting strategies.
• Create a campaign timeline with pre-launch, launch, and post-launch phases.
• Outline paid social recommendations with estimated budgets and expected outcomes.
• Suggest 2-3 potential partnerships or influencer collaborations that would enhance the campaign.
• Explain how you would measure campaign success and what KPIs you would track.

Feedback Mechanism:

• Highlight one particularly strong element of their campaign strategy.
• Suggest one area where the campaign could be more platform-optimized or better aligned with business objectives.
• Give the candidate 5-10 minutes to revise one aspect of their campaign based on your feedback.
• Observe how they incorporate the feedback while maintaining the integrity of their original concept.

Frequently Asked Questions

How long should we allow candidates to prepare for these exercises?

For exercises requiring significant preparation like the content calendar or campaign development, provide 24-48 hours. For analytics interpretation or crisis management, 30 minutes of preparation time before the interview is sufficient. The goal is to simulate realistic work conditions while respecting candidates' time.

Should we provide these exercises to all candidates or just finalists?

We recommend using these exercises with shortlisted candidates after initial screening interviews. This approach respects everyone's time while ensuring serious candidates have the opportunity to demonstrate their skills. The crisis management and analytics exercises can be used earlier in the process, while the more time-intensive exercises should be reserved for final candidates.

How should we evaluate candidates who have different approaches than our current strategy?

Different approaches can bring valuable innovation to your social media presence. Evaluate candidates on the soundness of their reasoning, not just alignment with your current strategy. A candidate who can articulate why their approach would be effective—even if different from your current methods—demonstrates independent thinking and potential to bring fresh perspectives.

What if a candidate asks for more information than we've provided?

This is actually a positive sign! Strong candidates ask clarifying questions to ensure they understand the brand, audience, and objectives. Prepare additional information about your brand voice, audience demographics, and business goals that can be shared if requested. How candidates seek additional context provides insight into their strategic thinking.

Should we share real company data for these exercises?

While using real scenarios creates authentic assessment conditions, sensitive data should be anonymized or modified. Consider creating realistic but fictional data sets based on your actual metrics. For brand guidelines and content examples, use publicly available information or create sanitized versions of internal documents.

How do we ensure these exercises don't disadvantage candidates from different industry backgrounds?

Focus evaluation on transferable skills rather than industry-specific knowledge. Provide sufficient context about your industry, products, and audience to level the playing field. Remember that candidates from different industries often bring valuable fresh perspectives and cross-pollination of ideas.

Finding the right Social Media Strategist requires looking beyond resumes to evaluate practical skills in action. These work samples provide a structured framework for assessing candidates' abilities to plan strategically, respond to crises, analyze data, and create engaging campaigns—all essential functions of the role.

By implementing these exercises, you'll gain deeper insights into each candidate's capabilities and working style, significantly increasing your chances of making a successful hire. Remember that the best candidates will appreciate the opportunity to showcase their skills in realistic scenarios rather than just talking about past experiences.

For more resources to optimize your hiring process, explore Yardstick's comprehensive tools for creating AI-powered job descriptions, generating effective interview questions, and developing complete interview guides. You can also find a detailed job description for a Social Media Strategist at https://yardstick.team/job-description/social-media-strategist.

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