As seen with all forms of marketing, there are some that seem to make money while others do not. This is because certain types of marketing strategies work better for some brands than they do for others.

For example, someone might make tons of money using direct response advertising or sales promoting, but will probably struggle without social media!

Likewise, people who have their own website can usually survive without developing an online presence, unless it is for selling products or running a business site.

However, those who manage other people’s accounts on social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter can be paid very well per hour. And since most companies now have a digital footprint, requiring someone to take care of this typically does not exist.

This article will talk about how to start charging for your professional services on social media.

Price your service based on the types of management

As mentioned earlier, social media marketing is an integral part of most brands’s success these days. If you are willing to put in the effort to learn how to do it well, then offering your services as a professional manager can be profitable!

The best way to price your service depends on what kind of social media management you offer. There are three main categories that professionals fall into – paid, unpaid, and total cost.

Paid social media managers get paid per hour or per project paychecks depending on their employers’ policies. This is the easiest to manage because you know exactly how much money you will make every month.

Unpaid social media managers usually provide their own computer and internet access to create accounts, run programs, and upload content for clients. They also typically have very limited overhead such as office supplies like paper and pens.

Total cost social media managers work with you to develop your business plan and find the appropriate level of engagement needed to meet your goals. This includes things like creating new pages, optimizing existing ones, responding to comments, etc. These costs could include buying software or giving away free versions.

The difference between each type of social media management comes down to personal preference and experience. Some people prefer being compensated for their time while others feel more motivated when they use the tools and resources themselves.

Link your service to a website

So now that you have your social media account, what are you going to do with it? You will need to link this account to an online platform where people can access it!

Most good social media management companies offer both free and paid accounts. The paid ones usually cost around $10-20 per month. However, they also offer very extensive features such as team creation, content editing, etc., so it is worth checking out.

Some examples of these sites include Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube. By linking each one of these accounts to your services, you get even more value since you can manage all their profiles, create teams, edit posts, run advertisements, and everything else possible from their app or site.

This is especially important because many users feel overwhelmed by the amount of settings and features within each individual social network. Having a tool that does it all makes sense.

Create a website

If you are offering social media management as your service, then it makes sense that you have an online presence. You can use this site to create a full or limited access account so users can view all of your accounts, manage their settings, and check out your profile.

You should also be clear about what services you offer. This will help potential clients identify if your style of social media marketing is right for them. Some people just want someone to take care of their accounts, while others look to make their own updates and comments.

Some may even ask you to do things like post pictures or videos they had prepared before asking you to publish them. Since these things add value to the article, I would recommend either being upfront with it or giving them credit for coming up with it.

But remember, not every business needs professional level tools to succeed- some small businesses start off using free software until they get enough traffic or revenue under their belt to invest in more advanced solutions.

Find clients

The next step in social media manager business development is finding your service offering and client base. Starting with something you have experience doing makes sense before moving onto more advanced services.

Running a limited scope account, such as posting weekly updates or responding to comments will not qualify you as a social media management professional. It takes longer than that to get up to speed on all of the different platforms and features they offer.

So how do you develop your skill set? By listening and reading!

Meetings are one of the best ways to learn new skills. Ask people what their company’s website looks like and ask if there are any external resources they use for content. Then listen carefully and read between the lines when they talk about certain things.

They may tell you that this tool doesn’t work and why, so take notes and look up those answers on your own. This way you’ll know exactly what it is that works for them and can add that to your repertoire.

Tell clients what you charge

Before we get into how to price social media management, let’s talk about why it is so important to know your competition’s prices.

A lot of people start their search for social media professionals by looking at the market online. They may read reviews or look up past work to get an idea of pricing. While all of these are good ways to determine the value of a professional’s services, they can sometimes be misleading.

You might find that some sellers have very low initial prices but increase them as time goes on. Or conversely, you could find someone who lists their price high at the beginning but then decreases it over time.

Either way, it is best to be aware of the market before choosing anyone new. Make sure to do your research and compare vendors carefully before making a decision!

Now that we've covered the importance of knowing your competitors' fees, here's something slightly more specific - how to determine your own social media manager’s prices.

Get clients

As mentioned before, social media is a great way to promote your business. But in order to make money off of it, you will have to market yourself or use paid services.

As you begin to offer your service, you will face two major hurdles: getting people to pay for your time and proving that what you are offering is worth paying for.

This article will talk about ways to get past both of these obstacles.

First, I will discuss how to charge for general social media management. Then, I will dive into some tips specific to charging for Facebook marketing.

Getting through the first hurdle – convincing people to pay for their time - will be the most difficult. So, let’s look at the second!

Proving the value of your service via pricing

The easiest way to prove the value of your service is by setting your price high. You may even choose to be more expensive than competitors so that they seem less efficient or effective.

By doing this, you will probably win customers who are looking to save money. They will believe that your service is better because it costs more!

However, as we said earlier, it can be hard to convince people that your service is necessary and worth its cost. This is where pricing strategies come in handy.

Here, we will go over three types of prices that can be used when establishing your social media influence firm.

Do all of the social media management work

Only do about half-tasks in order to preserve your budget, time, and most importantly, quality service. It is very common to pay quite a bit of money for what seems like professional level social media management. But then you look through their accounts and see only vague messages with no content.

There are many ways to manage social media without having full access to someone’s account. You can create an account or use a free one and edit their profile settings, update their status, pin posts as favorites, and upload pictures and videos.

These tasks don’t require you to have direct login details either, so you won’t be charged for them.

Charge based on the time spent

One of the trickiest ways to bill social media is by charging per hour. This can be tricky because what constitutes an “hour” varies from person to person. For some, it could mean half an hour, while for others it could mean an entire morning or afternoon.

What we have found as professionals in this field is that most people don’t like being overbilled. They feel they were told up front how much time would take and then you hit “start” and it was way longer than expected.

So instead of billing an hourly rate, we ask our clients to agree to pay us via a monthly retainer. We explain to them that this gives them enough time to restock their accounts and get back into a routine before adding professional services to the mix.

This helps mitigate the issue mentioned above!

By having a monthlong contract, there are also benefits such as avoiding any unexpected one-time expenses due to running out of money. More importantly, it creates consistency and trust which play a major role in your business’ success.