The term social media management is very broad, but typically includes creating an account on each of the major social networking sites, figuring out what tools you need to use to promote your business on these sites, and then responding to comments, messages, and questions from users as well as posting updates yourself.

Running a social media campaign can cost anywhere from nothing to hundreds or even thousands of dollars per month depending on how much time you want to invest in it. However, most people are not paid social media managers so it is important to identify effective free strategies that can help you manage your accounts.

Make sure to include costs such as advertising, marketing materials, and website development

Although some may think that social media management is free, this isn’t always the case! Creating an effective social media presence takes time, resources, and money.

Running a business doesn’t happen overnight, especially when you're trying to grow and develop it. It takes investment and effort to see results. Even then, there are no guarantees of success.

But don’t let that dissuade you from investing in your business! Because even if you have to put in extra funds to get started, you will be rewarded later on.

By adding these things into your budget, you'll know what has been spent and can plan ahead for next year or whatever new developments arise.

You should also factor in how much you spend per month on social media services like Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube so that you can compare one company's price with another's.

This way, you'll be able to find the most affordable option while still getting good service.

Factor in your experience to determine how much you should be charging

Like any other professional service, social media management is an expensive field to enter into if you are not careful about your expenses. Just because someone else does it for a company doesn’t mean that what they are paying their manager is a fair price.

In fact, most of these managers are paid far more than they deserve due to them including very expensive marketing services like SEO or Facebook Ads that their employer already has control over!

By excluding these additional costs, they are actually getting a discount on what they really market themselves as. It is important to make sure that you are being compensated fairly for the time and effort that you put into your career.

If you feel that you can produce similar results at a lower cost, then go ahead and do so! No one is stopping you – but you must also consider whether or not this is just a drop in the bucket for your employers or if it is enough to pay your bills.

Your personal budget will play a big part in determining which path to take.

Set your price high enough to be able to do the job but not so high that you discourage clients

If you are offering social media management as part of your business services, then you must know how much it costs to offer this service to other businesses.

What we mean by that is, if you’re going to tell people they can spend $100 per month on social media, they will probably look at you like you’re crazy!

$100 A MONTH FOR SOCIAL MEDIA? THAT ISN’T REALITY!

So what is the average cost of social media management? We have seen numbers ranging from $150-$600+ per month depending on the size of their account and level of engagement they want.

But we would suggest you go way beyond that! And we’ll tell you why in just a moment.

Create a marketing plan and budget

Before you even start looking into pricing, you’ll need to do some planning. You should have an idea of what services you want pro-fessional level social media management to look like before you invest in that service.

It is very difficult to tell how much a company or individual will cost unless you are already doing similar things so you can get a feel for their prices.

By having this information beforehand, you’ll know if you’re getting a good deal or not!

There are two main reasons why people differ in price for social media management.

1) The hourly rate

Some companies only offer one monthly package which includes all the features they think you would need at a set price per month. This gives them an hourly rate.

An hourly rate is when someone charges by the hour for their time instead of a fixed fee for a specific length of time. This makes more sense than paying for a yearly contract as most people don’t use all the tools included in the contract for just 1 year!

2) The value given

Most professionals agree that social media management is a valuable service. Therefore, many offer it at a lower price than those who say it isn’t.

These ‘less professional’ services may include free accounts where you can add profiles, run advertising, etc., but you won’t be able to access the full feature set.

Link your service with other marketing strategies

Even if you are doing everything else yourself, there is still one more piece of business that can help you achieve your social media management goals. This additional service would be another person or company who offers their services as social media consultants or managers.

Running a social media campaign should not (and probably cannot) be done by one individual. It takes an organized team to keep up with all of the different platforms, keeping in touch via messages and phone calls, and staying focused on meeting deadlines.

Services such as those mentioned above offer professional grade accounts so you do not have to worry about account settings and customization.

Personalize your service offerings

As mentioned before, there are many professionals that offer social media management as a service. This is not necessarily better or worse than being an internal staff member at a company that offers this service.

What is different about professional services like this is their level of customization. Services that offer these paid features typically do so because it is profitable for them.

This can be due to two main reasons: 1) The service they offer has large amounts of repeat customers, and 2) They have larger packages with additional products that need to be marketed.

I will go into more detail about the first reason in my article titled: Why You Should Offer A Premium Service On Your Website. But for now just know that most people are willing to pay slightly more for some extra personalization or convenience.

Services that offer social media management as a premium feature usually let you pick which accounts to manage and what levels of engagement you want to promote. This way you get to choose whether to focus more on growing long term relationships or increasing short term interactions.

You also have access to any tools and software that help run each account such as Photoshop, Microsoft Office, and Google Apps. These are things that most companies does not make available to its employees but here you are paying money for them!

Heck even the name of the service you use makes a difference. Some may call theirs social media management while others may label theirs social marketing or even influencer marketing.

Tell clients how much you charge

Let them know what services you offer, what your rates are, and what kind of results you achieve for each service – this way they can make an informed choice as to whether or not to hire you!

Many people start their search for social media management by doing some research online. Some sites give helpful information but others seem more like advertisements.

Make sure your website is clear and easy to navigate. The better your site is, the easier it will be for customers to find the info they want.

In addition to giving prices, let potential clients know about past success stories, qualifications you have, and anything else that may influence their decision to work with you.

Ask clients how they heard about you

This is one of the most important questions potential social media managers should ask their prospective client before signing any contract or agreeing to work. If you are asked if another person referred them, then that person definitely does not want you as their social media manager!

As mentioned earlier, professionals do not usually advertise their services, so when someone expresses an interest in having you manage their accounts, it must look authentic.

People may refer to your website, chat with you online, talk to friends who know you, or even read your profile to determine if you seem trustworthy.