Social media management can run anywhere from $500 / month to $5,000 / month and up. It can include anything from social media consulting, to putting together social media profiles, to curating and writing content, to maintaining social media platforms, and more. And one of the main questions that comes up when we talk about social media management are the costs associated with it.
When we’re discussing social media management and fees, there are two important factors to consider: first, how social media can benefit your brand / business, and second, what’s really involved when you hire someone to manage your social media.
How can social media benefit your brand?
Social media can enable you to…
- Raise awareness of your brand.
- Connect directly with your target market and figure out what your audiences are most interested in.
- Engage with other businesses similar to your own.
- Reach a wider group of potential customers.
- Share news about your business, as well as featured products and services.
- Increase your sales.
- Build your brand.
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What’s really involved when you hire someone to manage social media for your brand?
1. Expertise and knowledge of the field and social media platforms.
Of course, any time you hire someone, they need to be knowledgeable in their field and have a strong expertise in the social media that you need them to manage!
But keep in mind that social media and the Internet are ever-changing and organic: there are constantly new algorithms being designed in search engines, so what worked a year ago won’t work the same way today.
Your social media manager not only has a good handle on the social media platforms they are using, but they also need to always be up-to-date on the latest changes for those social media platforms so they can tweak strategies as needed.
2. Targeted content for your audiences.
Curating content—finding relevant content that fits well with your particular brand and sharing it—as well as writing content, editing content, finding / taking and editing photographs, coming up with engaging headlines, and utilizing SEO, are all part of what a social media manager does.
It’s a juggling act, and it can take a huge amount of time to tweak until it is just right for your brand.
[tweetthis twitter_handles=”@Saganlives”]Social media management is all about creating a custom, targeted strategy for YOUR brand.[/tweetthis]
3. After-hours work.
This is one of the most important reasons for why social media management can be pricey: your social media manager has to keep on top of things and constantly be aware of who is responding to Tweets, commenting on blog posts, sharing status updates regarding your brand, etc.
This means that your social media manager is often “on call” (working at all hours of the day and night), and that will automatically raise the fee. Even if they schedule posts ahead of time, they need to constantly check in with the social media platforms several times each day.
Click here to get your free e-book of social media tips!
4. Brand-specific marketing.
While there are some principles that can be applied to any brand—for example, the art of writing a great headline—social media management involves focused strategizing and designing materials which pertain to your brand alone.
Because every business is different, what works for one business won’t work exactly the same way for another business, so your social media manager can’t just copy and paste a template from a past client. They have to create an entirely new campaign, marketing strategy, and messages which will be perfect for your brand.
Not sure which platforms you should have a brand presence on? I strongly recommend focusing on at least two different social media platforms to begin with—depending on who your target audiences are, three or four social media platforms might work even better for your brand.