What should a freelance social media manager charge per month?
Social media management is sold by the month. A working freelancer in New York or LA charges about $3,750 a month, planning through the monthly report.
The most common mistake is pricing the month like a day rate times days. The month is a scope: what gets posted, where, how often, and who answers the comments.
The menu
- One platform only: $1,200 to $3,000 a month
- Content calendar only, 30 days: $500 to $1,500
- Community management, replies and DMs: $600 to $2,000 a month
- Account audit: $400 to $1,200
- Launch or campaign sprint: $1,500 to $5,000
What the retainer buys
Write the scope in numbers: posts a week per platform, stories, replies within a day, one report a month, one call a month. Anything outside that is a project at a project price. The scope protects both of you.
Three months minimum
Under three months it is a project, not a retainer; price it as one. Retainers are about 20% under the same work bought one piece at a time, in exchange for the certainty, and billed on the first.
Get my rate card
Your level and market, and the card comes back with one platform, three, the calendar, the audit and the sprint priced.
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Written by Austin Bailey, RostrLab. Numbers are the same formula as the calculators on this site and inside Creator OS and Company OS. Not legal advice; for a contract that matters, have a lawyer read it too.