How Much Does Social Media Management Cost for a Small Business?

You know you should be posting. The bakery down the street posts every day and seems busy. Your last post was in March. The question is whether to pay someone to do it, what that costs and whether it is worth it for a business your size. Ours is from $200 a month per channel, the details are on the social media management page, and here is the honest picture of what the money buys at each level.

The short answer

• Do it yourself, $0 plus your hours. Free, and usually the reason the last post was in March.
• Scheduling tools, $15 to $100 a month. Software that posts what you write, when you tell it to. You still have to write it.
• A freelancer or small studio, $200 to $800 a month per channel. Someone plans the month, writes and designs the posts, schedules them, replies, and reports. This is where most local businesses belong and where we sit.
• An agency, $1,500 to $5,000 and up a month. Strategy, video production, influencer work, campaign reporting. Built for brands with an audience to grow across the country, not for a dentist in Fishers.

What a month looks like at $200 a channel

The calendar on the counter, with the colored dots. That is the product. On one channel, a typical month with us includes:

• Account setup, once: the profile, the cover art, the hours, the links and the details customers look for first, tidied or created.
• Content creation. Posts written in your voice and designed with your photos when you have them and brand graphics when you do not.
• Scheduling. The month's posts planned and scheduled ahead, so the feed stays steady when you are busy.
• Community management. Comments, messages and mentions answered by a person who knows your business, not a bot.
• Advertising, when you want it: boosted posts and ads aimed at people near you, with the ad spend set by you.
• A report on what was posted and how it did, written so you can read it in a few minutes.

The exact rhythm follows your plan and your platforms, and it is set in writing before anything posts. The example we use is a local bakery: a post about the new sign, a boosted post for holiday pies ordered by Friday, a reply to a customer who loves the cinnamon rolls, a market day reminder. Nothing clever. Steady, local and in the owner's voice.

What the price depends on

Channels. Each one is priced separately, because each one is a separate audience with its own format. Most local businesses need Facebook and Instagram and should stop there. Adding a channel you do not need is the most common way to overspend.

Frequency. More posts cost more. More posts are also not better. A feed with three good posts a week beats one with a post a day that nobody wanted.

Who makes the pictures. Your own photos, taken on your phone, make the best posts and cost nothing. If every post needs a designed graphic or a video, the price rises.

Ads. Management covers running them. The spend, paid to the platform, is on top and is yours to set. For a local business, a boosted post aimed at people within five miles can run on a few dollars a day.

When it is worth it

Social media management earns its $200 a month when it replaces hours you were spending (or guiltily not spending), when the business has a steady supply of real things to show (jobs finished, products made, events, people), and when your customers are the kind who check Facebook before they call. Restaurants, shops, event businesses, home services with good before and after photos, and anyone with a loyal local customer base all fit.

It is not worth it when the goal is leads from strangers who have never heard of you. Social keeps you in front of people who already know you. Getting found by people who do not is a job for SEO and Google Ads, both from $600 a month, and we would rather you spend there first. Our comparison of those two is in Google Ads vs. SEO.

When to keep doing it yourself

If you enjoy it, you are good at it and you actually do it, keep going. Nobody can post from a job site the way the person on the job site can. A scheduling tool and a monthly hour to plan ahead will get you most of the way. The time to hand it off is when the gap between posts is measured in months, not days, or when replying to messages has become a chore nobody owns.

What to ask any provider

1. Which channels, how many posts, and is that in writing before you start?
2. Who writes the posts, and will they sound like me?
3. Who replies to comments and messages, and how fast?
4. Do the accounts stay in my name?
5. Is ad spend included or separate, and who controls it?
6. What does the monthly report show, and can I read it in five minutes?

Our answers: your channels at $200 a month each, the rhythm set in writing, posts in your voice from your photos, replies from a person who knows the business, accounts in your name, ad spend separate and yours, and a report you can actually read.

Where the website fits

Every post that works sends someone to the website, and if the site is slow, dated or hard to use on a phone, the post did its job and the site threw it away. Before spending on social, run the site through the free website grader. Then tell us about the business and which channels your customers use. Jason replies in under 24 hours to set up a call, and the plan is in writing before anything posts.