This is a guest post by Alison Kenney.

It seems that every job description and prospective client wants to work with a PR pro who is social media savvy.  Interestingly, this can mean different things to different people.   At the extremes it could mean the difference between someone who thinks they are savvy about social media because they actively participate on Twitter and Facebook and someone who integrates, implements and measures SEO in all PR and business communications.  Demonstrate your social media savvy-ness by being prepared to answer the following types of questions:

• How personally familiar are you with social media?
• When conducting a job search, which social media, online networks and Web-based communities do you turn to?
• Do you have a search- and social media-friendly Web site?
• Do you blog?
• Which blogs do you read on a regular basis?  How often do you comment on blogs?
• Are you familiar with the popular feed readers? Which one do you recommend?
• Have you ever uploaded a video to YouTube?
• Have you ever uploaded digital photos to a site like Flickr?
• What social networks do you belong to? Do you use them for personal or professional reasons?
• How many followers do you have on Twitter?  How many Friends on Facebook?  Connections on LinkedIn?
• How do you use your cell phone besides making calls?
• Do you use Skype or ooVoo?
• How have you worked with social media for business purposes?
• How do you address both SEO and social media?
• How do you measure the ROI of your social media engagement efforts?
• Do you help clients/companies develop a blog strategy?
• Give some examples of podcasts you’ve developed for clients.
• Have you coordinated Live Chats for clients? What tools/medium do you use?
• Describe a successful blogger relations effort that you were part of.
• Have you ever been blacklisted by a blogger?
• How do you write a social media or SEO-enabled press release?  What are the components?
• How do you integrate social media into your PR programs?
• Which key digital influencers do you participate in conversations with and what methods do you use for communicating with them?
• What kind of coverage can you expect when distributing a new social media release?
• How do  you track and analyze online coverage and link-backs?
• What do you do when something negative appears about you/your client/your company on the blogosphere?
• How do you discriminate between different social media efforts?
• Which online press release distribution sites offer the best value?
• How do you gauge whether it’s worth spending time with an online community?
• Do some media types rank higher on search result pages than others?

How do you demonstrate your social media expertise?

Alison Kenney is an independent PR practitioner with more than 15 years of PR consulting experience.  She is based on Boston’s North Shore and has worked with organizations in the technology, professional services and consumer industries.  She can be reached at alisonkenney at comcast dot net.

Image credit: Anne Helmond

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