How to price social media management

Someone asks what you charge to run their social media, and you say a monthly number you guessed. A month later they want one more platform, replies to every DM and Reels, for the same money. Here is how to price social media management when it is just you: give every piece of social work its own price, then build three monthly options from posts and channels, so every extra has a price before anyone asks.

Do these three things

About 3 hours today to time the work and set the prices, then 20 minutes after each call and 20 minutes each Sunday. Judge your prices after every 10 proposals, not after one no.

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1. 1Today: time one of each piece of social media work: a post, a carousel, a short video, 15 minutes of replies and the monthly report. Price each piece from its hours and your lowest price per hour. Then build three options, Starter, Core and Plus, from posts and channels.
2. 2Every day: say your starting price on every call and send the three options in writing within 24 hours. Keep the calls coming with 100 personal messages a day.
3. 3Every Sunday: log each client's hours against the option they pay for, and every request outside it. After every 10 proposals, raise prices 20% if you won more than half. Move any client who runs over for 2 months in a row to the next option at renewal.

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1. Time each piece of social media work and price it

Price social media management from a price for each piece of work: one post, one carousel, one short video, an hour of replies, one report. Each price is that piece's hours × your lowest price per hour ÷ 0.65. Then "per post", "per hour" and "per month" all have one answer, and it pays you.

Start with your lowest price per hour. If you do not have it yet, work it out first from your pay, tax, costs and the client hours you can sell, as in how to price digital marketing services. Every price in this guide starts from that one number.

Then time the next real piece of each kind you make for a client, from start to finish, with AI drafting and you checking:

1. One post: an image or text post with its caption, for one channel.
2. One carousel: a swipeable post of 6 to 10 slides.
3. One short video: 30 to 60 seconds, portrait 9:16, with captions, cut from clips the client sends or that you film.
4. 15 minutes of replies: comments and DMs on one channel (step 2).
5. The monthly report and call: a one-page client report and a 30-minute call, with preparation.
6. Set-up, once: fixing the profiles, bios and post templates in month one.

Count the whole job: the idea, the draft, the image, your check, the client's changes and the scheduling. ChatGPT or Claude can draft the captions and ideas in minutes, so the post is fast. The video, the replies and the client's changes are not. That is why each gets its own line, instead of one price for "social media".

Lowest price per hour: $[X]
Price for one hour of work: $[X] ÷ 0.65 = $[Y]Post: [ ] hours × $[Y] = $[ ]
Carousel: [ ] hours × $[Y] = $[ ]
Short video (9:16, 30–60 seconds): [ ] hours × $[Y] = $[ ]
Replies, 15 minutes a day, one channel: 7.5 hours a month × $[Y] = $[ ] a month
Report and 30-minute call: [ ] hours × $[Y] = $[ ] a month
Set-up, once: [ ] hours × $[Y] = $[ ], rounded up to the next $100

Do not copy a per-post price from a blog or a freelance marketplace. Upwork's own cost page puts the median for social media managers at $14 to $35 an hour. That number says nothing about your costs. If you find clients on Upwork, quote your own number there too.

• Tool: Google Sheets and your phone's stopwatch. Free.
• Time: 1 hour for the sheet, then 2 minutes to log each new piece over the next week.
• You will have: a price for each kind of social work, from real hours.
• It worked if: every piece has hours from a real timing, and every price is at least its hours × your lowest price per hour ÷ 0.65.
• Common mistake: a price per post copied from someone else, or a price that counts only the drafting. The client's changes and the scheduling are often half the time. The other mistake is keeping the hourly rate you charged as a freelancer, when you now also pay for tools and spend hours finding clients.

2. Price replies to comments and DMs as minutes a day

Price community management, the replies to comments and DMs, as a set number of minutes a day on named channels, with a reply time. "Community management included" with no limit is the line that turns a paying client into a loss, because a busy week can take hours.

Write one line with four parts:

1. Minutes a day: start at 15 minutes a day for each channel, every day. That is 7.5 hours a month, priced from step 1.
2. Which channels: name them. Replies on a second channel are a second 15 minutes.
3. Reply time: within 24 hours, so the client knows what to expect.
4. What goes to the client: complaints, refunds, sales questions and anything you cannot answer. You pass it on the same day. You do not decide it.

If a client's account gets more than 15 minutes of comments a day, it is growing. That is good news, and it moves them up an option (step 6). Reply in a way that makes people come back, as in building a community around a brand.

• Tool: Google Docs.
• Time: 20 minutes.
• You will have: one line for replies, with minutes, channels, reply time and what goes to the client.
• It worked if: a client could read the line and tell you how many minutes a day they get, on which channels, and who answers a complaint.
• Common mistake: "daily engagement" with no minutes, or answering customer service questions for the client. Both turn into hours you do not get paid for.

3. Build three options from posts and channels

Build three monthly options from the same pieces: Starter with fewer posts on one channel, Core with more posts and replies, and Plus with daily posts or short video. Price each from step 1. A second channel is an add-on, priced from the hours it really adds.

Use these rules:

• Starter: one channel, at least 12 posts a month (3 a week), and the report. Buffer's study of about 2.1 million Instagram posts (August 2025) found that 3 to 5 posts a week got about 12% more reach per post than 1 to 2, and it calls 1 to 2 a week the minimum to stay active.
• Core: more posts on that channel, a few carousels, and the 15 minutes a day of replies from step 2. This is your package, the one you will recommend.
• Plus: a post every day, short video, or both. Buffer's study of 2 million LinkedIn posts (August 2025) found accounts posting 11 or more times a week got about 3 times the engagement of once a week. Plus is where the client who wants to grow faster pays for that volume.
• Add a channel: take the same posts and rework them for one more channel, plus 15 minutes of replies there. Time one reworked post the way you timed the pieces in step 1, and price the channel from those hours, not as a second full package. How to repurpose content has the method.
• Add your tool cost. Scheduling tools charge per channel. On 14 October 2026, Buffer's free plan allowed 3 channels and only 10 scheduled posts per channel, so it is too small for client work. Its Team plan, which has approval workflows, cost $10 a month per channel. Add each option's tool cost before you divide by 0.65: (hours × your lowest price per hour + tool cost) ÷ 0.65. Round up to the next $100.
• Video is always its own line. In a June 2026 Sendible survey of its customers, more named short-form video as the content that matters most in 2026 than any other kind. Clients will ask for it. Price each video from its hours, never "included".
• Ads are separate. If a client wants to boost posts or run ads, the client pays Meta or LinkedIn directly for the ad budget. Your fee for running their ads is a separate line, priced from its hours.

Charge the set-up from step 1 once, in month one, so the first month pays you even though it takes longest.

Keep the three options for one kind of client, on the channels where that kind of buyer is. A founder of a software company needs LinkedIn first. A café or a salon needs Instagram first. The channel guide for agencies helps you pick.

• Tool: Google Sheets.
• Time: 45 minutes.
• You will have: Starter, Core and Plus, each with its own posts, channels and price, an "Add a channel" price and a set-up price.
• It worked if: each option has different work, and every price is at least (hours × your lowest price per hour + tool cost) ÷ 0.65.
• Common mistake: one price per platform, with the same work copied onto each. The client compares platforms, not results, and drops one to save money.

4. Write the social media terms: approvals, changes, accounts and ad spend

Write a short block of terms under your three options that answers the questions social media clients fight about: when they approve posts, how many changes they get, whose accounts they are, and who pays for ads. Use the general terms from packaging your services, and add these lines.

Approvals: I send next month's posts by the [20th]. You approve or change them by the [25th]. Posts not approved by then go out a week later, or are dropped from the month.
Changes: 2 rounds of changes per post. More rounds are extra, at $[price per hour of work] an hour.
Replies: [15] minutes a day on [channels], within 24 hours. Complaints, refunds and sales questions go to you the same day.
Photos and video: you send [what] by the [20th]. If you want me to film, that is a separate price.
Accounts: your social accounts stay in your name. You give me a role on each, such as Content admin on your LinkedIn Page, and you can remove it at any time.
Ad budget: paid by you directly to the platform, never through me.
New requests: anything not in your option gets a price from me before I start.

The approval line protects your content calendar. Without it, a client who answers late still expects every post on time, and you rush the work for free. How to run approvals each month is in setting up client approvals. The last line is the start of a scope of work that stops scope creep. Getting the account roles on day one belongs in onboarding a new client.

• Tool: Google Docs.
• Time: 30 minutes.
• You will have: one block of social media terms under all three options.
• It worked if: the terms answer approvals, late approvals, changes, replies, photos and video, accounts, ad budget and new requests.
• Common mistake: asking for the client's password, or posting from an account in your name. When the client leaves, they have to get their account back from you, and a goodbye turns into a fight.

5. Say your price on every call and answer discount requests with less work

Say your starting price before every call ends, and send all three options in writing within 24 hours. When a client asks for a lower price or one more channel, answer with an option or the add-on, never a discount on the same work.

On the discovery call, say it out loud: "Most founders start with Starter, which is $[Starter] a month." Then ChatGPT or Claude drafts the proposal from your call notes and your three options, and you check the numbers and the first line. That takes about 20 minutes. If they go quiet, follow up on day 3 and day 7. Put "From $[Starter] a month" on your LinkedIn profile and your pricing page too, so people who book a call already know it.

When they ask for less money or more work, use this reply:

Hi [first name],Thanks for asking. My price is set by the work, so I can't do [option] for less. What I can do:
[Starter], $[ ] a month: [its work]. It keeps [the one thing they care about most from the call].
Or [option] now, and we add [the extra] next month for $[add-on price].
Reply with the one that fits and I'll send the agreement today.[Your name]

Proposals only test your price when there are enough of them. Book the calls with 100 personal messages a day, every day, to businesses that fit, by email and on LinkedIn. AI drafts each one, and you add one true line about the business, such as a post of theirs that did well. LinkedIn limits connection requests each week, so spread the messages over email, LinkedIn messages to people already connected, and the places your buyers ask for help. With no case studies yet, offer a paid first month instead of a lower price, and ask every client for a testimonial after month one.

• Tool: Gmail, LinkedIn, Google Docs, and ChatGPT or Claude to draft. Log every message, call and proposal in one sheet, or in a CRM once the sheet gets slow.
• Time: about 3 hours a day for the 100 messages, every day, plus 20 minutes per proposal.
• You will have: a written price with three options for every call, and a set reply for every discount request.
• It worked if: every call this week got its three options within 24 hours, and no client got the same work for less.
• Common mistake: "I can do it for $500 this time." The client now knows your price moves, and next month's request will be bigger.

6. Log hours per client every Sunday and change the price by a rule

Every Sunday, write down how many hours each client took that week, next to the hours their option pays for, and every request that was not in it. Then change prices by a rule, not by how a client makes you feel.

Log your time as you work, in the same sheet as step 1: client, date, piece, minutes. On Sunday, add up each client and fill in one row each:

Week | Client | Option | Hours a month it pays for | Hours used this month so far | Requests outside the option | Price per hour actually earned

Then use these rules:

• A client used more than their option's hours by 20% or more, 2 months in a row: at renewal, give 30 days' notice and move them to the next option, or take work out so it fits. Write it the way raising prices without losing customers shows.
• A request outside the option came up 3 times across clients: make it an add-on with a price from step 1.
• After every 10 proposals: if you won more than half, raise all three options by 20% for the next 10. If you lost most of them and most said "price", offer Starter first. Never cut the price per hour. The full rule is in how to price digital marketing services.
• Clients still on an old price below your options: until renewal, do only the hours their price pays for: their price × 0.65 ÷ your lowest price per hour.

Once a month, look at these rows in your monthly review. When every week is full and the price holds, it is time to hire your first contractor for the posts, and to manage all your clients' accounts from one routine. To see what you can spend to win each new client, work out your cost to win a client.

• Tool: Google Sheets.
• Time: 20 minutes each Sunday, plus 1 minute to log each piece as you finish it.
• You will have: one row per client per week, and a list of every request outside an option.
• It worked if: you can say, for each client, the hours they pay for, the hours they used, and the price per hour you really earned.
• Common mistake: doing the extra "just this once", every week. After 2 months the client thinks it is in the price, and you are working at half your rate.

Where Scout7 helps

Step 1 timed each piece of social work. If you make the posts, carousels and short videos with Scout7, time them again that way, and keep the price set by the work, not the hours.

• The posts. Scout7 makes image posts with captions in each client's voice, LinkedIn carousels from an article, and short videos in portrait or landscape. It schedules them to LinkedIn, X, Instagram, Facebook, Threads and Reddit. Its Organic Loop plans, creates and schedules a content cycle for one brand, from Claude or ChatGPT. Nothing goes live until you approve it.
• Comments in other people's threads. If an option includes joining conversations for the client, Join Conversations finds live discussions for that brand and drafts replies in its voice, and the Engagement Loop runs a continuing like, follow and comment routine. You read each thread and approve or rewrite each reply. Time these minutes the same way as step 2.
• One workspace per client. Each client brand gets its own workspace, with its own brand profile, connected accounts and calendar, so brand voices stay separate.

Your social media pricing checklist for this month

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Step 1 · Time each piece of social media work and price it

• Write your lowest price per hour and divide it by 0.65.
• Time the next real piece of each kind and write its price.

Step 2 · Price replies to comments and DMs as minutes a day

• Write one line for replies with minutes, channels, reply time and hand-off.

Step 3 · Build three options from posts and channels

• Build Starter, Core and Plus from your piece prices.
• Price one extra channel from reworked posts, and price set-up once.

Step 4 · Write the social media terms

• Write the social media terms under your three options.

Step 5 · Say your price on every call

• Every daySay your starting price on every call and send three options within 24 hours.
• Every dayAnswer every discount request with less work or an add-on.
• Every daySend 100 personal messages to book calls.

Step 6 · Log hours per client every Sunday

• Every SundayFill in one row per client in the Sunday sheet.
• At each renewalMove clients who run over to the next option, or take work out.
• After every 10 proposalsChange your prices by the rule, never below your piece prices.

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