Social Media Management

What is the client’s scope of work?

How much support our social media management client needs is an important factor in determining how much I charge for my services. Some clients require limited support, while others need 24/7 community management and creative planning not to mention execution of posts. Some questions I ask are what is my prospective clients’ social media goals? What do you want to see on your social media channels. Below are a few key services and variables to consider that can help establish the scope of work.

  • Number of platforms. How many social media platforms will you want me to manage? Is it just your Instagram account, or do you have Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, Pinterest, LinkedIn, Yelp, and YouTube? Also, I take into consideration whether or not the platforms have already been started or whether I will need to create and grow a new social platform from scratch. Creating a brand new social media account with no followers can be significantly more time consuming than taking over an account that is already established

  • Paid vs. Organic. Paid social is becoming a bigger part of overall marketing budgets. If optimizing paid social media campaigns, is something you’ll want I may need to farm out to another freelancer who specializes in just doing this.

  • Content creation. Consider whether you will need services like copywriting, or graphic design. If expected to create the, charts and graphics, or the memes, and tweet and post them, there will be an additional charge. Alternatively, if I am required to do the research to find good content for the brand’s platforms, and social media content strategy adds considerable time to your job.

  • Customer Service. Will I be in charge of responding to customer complaints and following up with them, or will I simply direct them to an employee at the company? Fielding customer complaints and inquiries can be quite time-consuming, and time-sensitive, especially as a business grows.

How do I charge for my services?

How I charge for their services varies widely. Some social media managers charge by a retainer, some charge by the project, while some set an estimate for a predefined statement of work and charge hourly, weekly, or monthly. This decision depends on how you want to structure your freelancing or consulting.

Here is some more information on your options:

  • Hourly Rate: Since most of the economy is based on hourly wages, it’s no surprise that this is a common way for social media freelancers and consultants to set their fee schedule. The hourly rate is simple and convenient, however, it doesn’t lend itself well to building a team and scaling my operations – and by charging hourly, I might run into tough situations when the scope of work changes. If you prefer to be charged hourly, my rate is $89. I will define parameters for how I will track your time and address scope changes and communicate with the client if I think I will go over the hourly limit.

  • Monthly (Fixed-Fee): I prefer to charge a fixed monthly fee for my services. This gives a consistent and predictable income, which is beneficial for both the client and me. Parameters will be set here too for what I will provide at a fixed-fee, and define how l will measure this – whether it’s by deliverable (e.g. blog post, social profile creation, and etc.), the actual hours it takes to complete my statement of work, or the number of hours I make available to client. Monthly rates start at $1100 a month for 5 posts per month, page monitoring and responding.

  • Retainer: Retainer based charging is a fixed monthly agreement between both parties. Myself and the client agree on a scope of work that needs to completed with X timeframe. Typically with the retainer model, the client pays a monthly fee to my agency to perform the scope of work. I can also charge on a per-project basis that is set ahead of time if it suits you better. The per-project basis offers a lot of flexibility in outsourcing some of the work assigned, especially if you decide to scale your business.

Once you have answered these questions, you will have an idea of what better fits the needs of your business.