Frequently Asked Question

The cost of social media management is directly related to your business goals and objectives, and the strategic tactics that will get you there most effectively. I’ll be frank; there is no straight answer to this question because there are a lot of factors to consider, such as the variation in brand strategy from company to company, the ease of connecting with consumers in different industries, and the difficulty of developing specialized content for particular industries.

Cost depends on your business objectives and industry

When putting together a social media and digital content marketing package for a client, there are two essential questions that must be considered:

• What is your marketing strategy – your objectives? For example, do you want to drive sales, increase brand awareness, improve customer satisfaction, improve search engine ranking, etc.? The answer to this question will dictate the type of online marketing services that are needed and/or recommended. For example, if you want to boost customer loyalty, you’d want a strong social media presence; if you want to spread quick awareness for a product, an online ad campaign would take priority. It gets more complicated than this, but you have to know the answer to this question to build a smart, effective social management plan.
• Who is your target audience? The answer to this question will decide how complicated or specialized content needs to be and will dictate where you should have an online presence. Not everyone is on every social platform; it’s smart to only target and focus on the most relevant platforms. You cannot do them all well and cost effectively.

So, your brand objectives affect the services needed and the level of complexity, your audience indicates which channels of communication you should use online, and your industry indicates how specialized your content needs to be.

Social Media Management Services and Pricing

Social Media Presence

Your social media presence includes any social platform you post on, including Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Google+, Pinterest, Vine, Instagram and any other new platform that pops up. The cost of managing a social presence is based on the number of platforms you tackle and the frequency of posts you want throughout a week. One time fees can also be charged for setting up profiles on each platform and designing the cover images so your branding is consistent across all platforms.
Frequency plays a big role in the cost; Twitter can range from 1 post per day to 2 or 3, and Facebook typically ranges from 3 posts a week to 1 per day. It all depends on your underlying strategy.

Price Range: $200-500 per month

What types of social media management solutions are there and what do they cost?

Once the groundwork is laid for your strategy, it’s time to start formulating the action plan. There are a variety of different social media management services you may want to consider, as well as other online marketing services that complement your social efforts.
Note: These prices are rough ranges for individualized services. When some solutions are bundled together they create efficiencies, so often a package of services results in a lower cost per service.

Facebook Applications

If you have a Facebook page you want to boost engagement on, developing and implementing an app on the page may be a good route to take. Facebook applications can have a variety of functions that range from service scheduling forms to interactive polls to pledges to ticket sales.

Price Range: This is usually bundled into other services and may ad $50-$150 per month. Some of the more simple apps that are relatively static don’t add appreciable cost to many service packages.