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Social media managers, is it better to charge clients hourly or for a flat rate (month to month)?
I’ve been working in social media for a few years but I’ve always been working for someone else. As someone who wants to get into freelancing, what’s a good place to start when forming your packages?
If I charge for a month of Instagram management, content creation, community management, and analytics reports on one account, how much is a normal amount to charge?
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15 Replies
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byu/JonODonovan insocialmedia -
This is my first time ever being a social media manager, and I found that month to month was easier for me. I have an average number of posts I do per month, I offer hashtag and post timing optimizations, engage with customers in comments and DMs, run promoted ads, and a few other small things on one platform for a small local business.
In my research for pricing, it was very varied from company to company. I found it ranged anywhere from 100 per month to even 5,000 per month. There wasn’t a “right” number.
The way I figured my rate, was found out the average number of hours of work I did per month, plus advertising fees. If you’re paying for a service to make or create posts, add in that monthly fee as well. In any job, I’d like to make 20 per hour personally. So I took 20 multiplied by my avergs ehours of work for my rate for that customer. I was charging $280 per month for my time and additional fees, like advertising.
I hope this helps.
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Honestly, if you’re doing community management, I’d go for hourly. That can take up a large chunk of your time, especially if they have a very active and large fanbase. Personally, I’ve swapped from hourly to flat rate and I regret it a *tiny bit.* I’m calculating my hours and I’d be making more if I had stuck to hourly – not consistently, but in the end. But also, this depends on the client – some clients will scrutinize your hours and you really might not want to deal with that. Type A sorts of people with penny pinching sensibilities. I’d gauge based on client and have your website state that they should contact you for a quote.
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Depends on the client! There is no easy answer. As a freelancer you should always protect yourself and set clear expectations. Best of luck to you!
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Depends on if you have good tracking. Clients need to know how long things take, it will justify the cost, and they will gladly pay.
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Like others have said, obviously depends on the client. For me though, I offer both but prefer and mostly end up with monthly flat rate clients. You need to be confident in you’re pricing though as to not undercharge
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I heard some great advice once about hourly rates, in a way they put you in an adversarial position with your client. Clients want to maximize profits so they want to pay as little as possible you want to make as much money as possible per transaction. At an hourly rate there is this unspoken conflict. As a client I am wondering did they really work on this for 8 hours. It seems like it is only 5 hours of work think I’m being over charged. And as a service provider you may take your time work less efficiently. Or on the other side if you are unefficient you may not bill your full amount.
A flat rate I think is better for both client and provider. As a client you say it’s going to cost $500 I say okay. It can take you one hour or 1000 hours that’s up to you. But there is no feeling of being hustled.
Edited: for typos my sleepy self didn’t catch before posting
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I try and feel out the client and what they’re appetite is. Based on their past experience with contractors some org’s prefer a retainer and some prefer hourly. If you set the retainer too high you might get the dreaded “please provide an hourly breakdown of what you did this month” which is unsubtle code for “we think you’re overcharging.”
Retainers are definitely preferable though given you can lock in longer term revenue assumptions.
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Flat project rate. I charge for the inherent value of my work and I refuse to penalize myself for being fast.
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I charge based on benchmarks. There are specific things I will do, and specific outcomes I can guarantee. After I hit my marks, I get paid to continue.
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Fixed monthly rate – with clearly defined deliverables. E.g.
30 posts/ social media channel
5 social media ad campaigns
Daily organic engagement
1 sync up call per week
Weekly/ Monthly reporting
Etc etc -
If you don’t have data and results, start monthly. You’re better off packaging something neater once you know what a brand gets out of an hourly rate.
Basically, what’s your value prop? Are they simply outsourcing labor and you’re liking/commenting on behalf of a brand? Community management dealing with an active DM roster? Or are you promising results?
Without data and commitment to value for the brand, start blander/higher level. Once you start seeing what works for the brands that you work with, target your pricing for value and not cost. Meaning – understand and quantify the value you give a brand and take a cut – instead of figuring out your cost (usually hours of work) and charging a margin.
As has been said by others in the comments, this latter way of charging is meaningless and replaceable by brands because outsourcing is just a matter of lowering costs while maintaining relative quality.
Hope this helps.
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Monthly for sure with specific targets (5 posts per week, stories, monthly reporting, etc). You don’t have to count hours and for me, I work quickly and hourly would not even be worth it to me.
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I prefer project based billing. but if you do monthly perhaps create packages? I have clients who just want one basic post a week so I might charge them $400 monthly. I have other clients who want me to make at least 3 posts a week, that I have to graphic design, video edit, write copy, etc. So I might charge them up to $1,500 a month. I think creating packages for monthly rate is the best way to go.
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monthly. they should pay you for your skill not by the hour
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