When you hire a social media consultant or agency, they will work with you to develop strategies and run marketing campaigns — both paid and organic — on social platforms that meet your business goals. They can also help you maintain the day to day needs of your social channels.

Social media strategists help you reach audiences on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, Pinterest, YouTube, and Yelp. They can also assist with advertising and marketing blogs. The number of services you decide to have them help you with and the length of the campaign will impact the price you pay per hour or per social media package.

As with many services, where the professional is located, the size of their business, the services you wish to address in your marketing campaign, and the social media professional’s experience factor into the cost of social media marketing. Here’s what to consider as you search for a professional:

Location

If you’re based in an urban center and require the freelancer or agency to meet in person, that can result in higher prices for local social media services. It can be more cost-effective to work with a remote agency or social media consultant.

Agency versus freelancer

You will likely pay more if you hire a large advertising agency to help with social media management and advertising campaigns. A smaller agency or individual consultant is generally less expensive.

While going smaller can result in lower costs and potentially more individualized attention (if the freelancer doesn’t have too many clients), a large agency has additional benefits. Some specialize in multi-channel advertising campaigns, and can provide additional services beyond social—like SEO or copywriting. (Related: Should You Learn Freelance SEO In Order to Find More Work?)

If you’re a small business and only need assistance with simple social media maintenance (i.e. posting regularly on Instagram, maintaining a basic brand presence on social, responding to comments and messages), an individual freelancer or social media consultant will be a better fit than a large agency.

For example, Morissa Schwartz, who runs Dr. Rissy’s Writing business in Matawan, NJ, quotes clients about $52 to $89 per hour for social media services. In Los Angeles, CA, Jacqueline Basulto runs a digital marketing company, SeedX, with 15 employees. Her business’s rate is usually $75 to $150 per hour.

Types of services offered

A social media marketing professional can help with a variety of social media services on different platforms. These all factor into their hourly rate or package offerings. Some examples of services offered by professional social media managers include:

• Launch and run a new social channel. For example, if you want to expand your brand’s reach to a new social media channel, like Snapchat or Instagram, they can develop and execute a strategy for successfully launching your brand’s new account.
• Create content for social media. For example, you could request that they create videos for YouTube or edit and post photos on Instagram from your community. Keep in mind that video creation tends to be more expensive than written content or photographs.
• Run ad campaigns on one or more channels. This will include setting a strategy, managing monthly budgets, and running ad campaigns on one or more social media channels.
• Manage social media platforms. You might request that a social media manager runs all of your social media platforms. This means posting fresh content, and acting as customer service to respond to questions and requests that come in via social media.

It’s usually a wise business decision to outsource social media management and marketing if you have the budget. Maintaining a good, consistent social presence is time-consuming, and your employees may not have the bandwidth to run a large in-house campaign. A social media consultant or agency can help you get the results you want without compromising your employees’ time.

Read the full article on Thumbtack.