These are the ten skills every social media manager must have

As part of a study, the Swiss training portal Eggheads.ch investigated what employers look for when hiring social media managers. Between October 2016 and June 2017, Eggheads.ch examined 50 jobs advertised online with the keyword "social media manager. " analyzed in the job title.

The result: the majority of companies in Switzerland are looking for pure social media managers. However, in a good two out of five advertised positions, other disciplines are part of the job description. The most common of these are online marketing and content marketing. The most common requirement across all advertised positions is the ability to find, plan and publish content. Anyone who can manage channels and maintain a company's presence on social networks has good prospects of being hired.

Analytical skills are in demand

Social media managers should also be able to work with data. They should be able to analyze the response generated by their posts, tweets and videos and prepare reports for management. They should also be able to set up and operate a monitoring system to observe what is happening on their own channels and on the web as a whole.

To get a job as a social media manager, you also need the ability to design, execute and evaluate campaigns. "On the one hand, this reflects the proximity to marketing in general, and on the other, the evolution of Facebook and Co. into pay-to-play platforms," comments Eggheads CEO Rosenberger.

Social networks are constantly evolving, according to the study's author. Accordingly, companies are looking for specialists who can further develop their own channels and introduce innovations into their own operations. In order to filter out what is relevant for their own marketing and communications success from the flood of news, employers want social media managers who have their finger on the pulse of developments and bring trends into the company.

Community management gains in importance

Also one of the most important skills of a social media manager is to manage a community and promote engagement with fans and followers, the job postings surveyed show. By contrast, companies are much less likely to have social media jobs that involve developing a social media strategy or redesigning the company's presence.

In addition, companies expect experience in digital marketing for just over one in three positions. Those who can maintain websites and operate content management systems also score points - in one in five positions, the social media manager is also responsible for the website or other digital presences. In line with the high importance of operational social media management, text or content marketing skills round off the profile. (pd/aks)