8April 2019
Have you considered hiring a social media marketing manager for your business but were unsure how much it might cost? A social media manager can be a great asset to your business and one that should be considered since running a business and handling social media are both full-time jobs. Let’s discuss the costs and some of the services a freelance social media marketer can offer your business.
A freelance social media marketing professional can assist you in getting extra internet exposure when you’re starting a new business, rolling out a new product or service, or when you merely feel like you require a bit more presence on the social media networks. Be advised that a social media campaign can run 1-6 months and may include paid advertising, social sharing, influencer collaboration, graphics, and video production as well as chatbot or email marketing. Sometimes, the graphic design, copywriting and customer outreach can all be done by the same professional or their team.
Considering the reality that there are numerous options, determining which social media sites you require for the best ROI can be a little bit difficult. An experienced social media marketing professional might be the appropriate person to assist you in determining which platforms you need to use for the greatest impact. In this article, we’ll talk about the prices of employing a social media marketing professional, what that specialist can do for your brand, the extra services they may use, and a realistic cost to hire them.
What’s the cost of hiring a freelance social media marketing expert? That will depend on the size and scope of your business.
Small Business Monthly Rates:
- If you are a local business, you can expect to pay anywhere from $400 to $2,000 monthly for account administration for 2 platforms. This indicates 2 social media profiles, such as Facebook and Instagram.
- If you need an extra platform managed (Twitter, for instance), you’ll most likely pay an additional $200-$1,500.
- Blogging that consists of social sharing will cost an additional $400-$1,200, influencer advertising and marketing $200-$1,000, image creation and visual layouts for social media-related content $200-$950, full project creation $300-$1,000, customer outreach $200-$1,000 and chatbot or email marketing $500-1,500 a month.
Standard Monthly Pricing for Large Organizations:
- For larger companies, the expense of managing 2 channels will be somewhere between $2,500 to $10,000.
- For an additional channel, the rate could be $1,500-$5,000.
- Blogging with social shares will cost around $2,500-$7,500, influencer advertising $1,500-$6,000, photo editing and enhancing as well as visual styling for social media-related content $1,000-$4,500, project creation $2,000-$5,000, customer outreach $800-$4,000.
Various other services that can be supplied are social media consulting, that typically costs $55-$200 per hour as well as social media training that can set you back $50-$150 per hour.
What Should You Consider When Determining Your Social Media Advertising and Marketing Budget?
First, consider this an investment in your business, not just an additional cost. The marketing plans you develop will help drive traffic to your website, help sell your products or services, increase brand recognition, create awareness and develop relationships with your followers.
Setting Up New Accounts vs. Working with Existing Ones
If the social media manager is required to create brand-new social media sites or accounts, they’ll have to spend extra time setting up business descriptions, posts, taglines, branding, visual materials, and artwork. When this is the case, it requires more work initially to attract new fans and followers. It may also require the specialist to run both organic and paid campaigns causing the initial cost to be higher. If you already have your accounts set up, the marketing manager will only need to do an assessment and refresh your account before starting to incorporate new materials.
The Optimal Number of Social Media Profiles
While a lot of business tend to gravitate towards Twitter, Facebook or Instagram, there are some industries where there’s an excellent benefit in having LinkedIn, YouTube or Pinterest accounts set up. Today, all businesses will benefit from having an optimized and managed Google My Business account. Each extra channel will increase the cost on a monthly basis and bear in mind that eCommerce platforms like Amazon and evaluation sites like Yelp fall under this classification as well.
Influencer Marketing
Influencer marketing involves engaging key individuals to leverage their influence. If an influencer supports and shares your brand with their followers, you stand an increased chance of acquiring new customers finding your brand and following you on social media. If you want to spend some extra money, a social media manager can work on creating these types of connections, but they do take time and can cost more if the influencer wants to be paid for their support.
Client Customer Service
Frequently, unhappy customers vent their disappointments about products or services on social media sites. Brand names understand that by proactively monitoring their networks as well as prominent review systems, these bad experiences can be turned into positive end results. Social networking specialists can use unique tools for tracking and monitoring your brand name. This allows them to get out in front of any negative comments by being receptive and helping to resolve customer service issues before they get out of hand or by taking them offline. Service such as this is generally an additional cost.
Content Creation
Social media channels always require fresh content; hence, blog site write-ups, GIFs, videos, images, and various other multimedia content are required for maintaining the fans interest and engagement. This implies that unless you are creating your own content, you’ll be required to obtain this from various other service providers, your social media marketer (if they’re qualified), or from your own staff.
Most social media marketers charge a flat monthly rate for their services. However, you can find those who prefer hourly rates for smaller projects and training. Working with less experienced social media managers means you will be sharing them with 6-10 other small accounts, helping to keep their pricing competitive. While more experienced professionals, prefer not to handle more than 3-4 accounts at a time.
Speak to several social media professionals before you make your decision and find one that has the qualifications you need for your business goals. It’s equally important to find one who’s personality will fit your business as well since they will become your voice and your marketing partner.
Monica McPherrin
Social Media Marketing Consultant
M2MediaManagement.com
