How to Choose the Right Social Media Agency for Your Business

Whenever someone reaches out about social media management, the first question is almost always what do you charge? If the number feels too high (or they think they can find someone cheaper), that's usually the end of the conversation.

And hey, I get it. Money matters, especially when you're a small business, but price shouldn't be the ONLY thing you look at.

Because you can buy a $5 website. Heck, you can get a "free" website and build it yourself! The cost just doesn't show up on an invoice. It shows up in your time (your evenings + your weekends).

When you're just starting out and scrappy, you usually have more time than money, so doing it yourself makes total sense. As you grow, the money starts to catch up, and that's when you can afford to hand things off and keep growing. So if you're there and comparing your options, here's what I'd look at before making a commitment.

Before you talk to anyone, decide what "working" means.

Write down in one sentence what a "working" social media means for you.

"More followers" doesn't count (sorry). It should be something you'd actually notice in your business, like three more inquiries a month or looking legit when a referral looks me up.

It takes about ten minutes, and it changes every conversation after that. If you can't finish that sentence, whoever you hire is going to be posting into the void. and you'll be wasting money.

Compare what you're actually getting (not just the price tag).

Two quotes can look the same on paper and be totally different. Someone might build a website for $200, and surprise, it's a single landing page. Mine start at $1,000, and that's a full website.

Social media works the same way. Twelve posts a month with a real strategy behind them is a completely different service than twelve posts someone just schedules for you (here's what social media management actually costs, if you're curious). Look at the deliverables and the strategy first, and THEN look at the number and see how it compares.

Make sure YOU own your accounts.

One day, Steve at This Guy's BBQ got an email saying his domain was gone, even though he'd bought it. To this day, I don't know exactly what happened. What I do know is that his website went down, and we had to rebuild it and reconnect his domain.

His regulars still showed up (thank goodness), but nobody new could find him online, and the whole time he'd been posting on Facebook and sending people to a website that wasn't there. Once his website was back up and people could actually learn more about him, more people started showing up.

Ask anyone you're thinking about hiring who owns your accounts, your pages, and your domain if you ever part ways. The answer should be YOU, every single time. Access is something you give them (not the other way around).

Get everything that's included in writing.

We'll manage your social media is not a plan (even if it sounds like one). You want to know how many posts you're getting, which platforms, who's writing the captions, who's making the graphics, whether video is included, and whether they're handling your comments and DMs.

If it isn't written down, it isn't included, and you'll find out what costs extra after you've already signed.

Ask what they'll do if it isn't working.

When I started with Mary's Herb Garden, I posted a mix of graphics, Reels, and carousels, because you can do all the strategy and prep in the world, but you really don't know what works until you put it out there and let the internet tell you.

The first month, the Reels got more engagement, but the graphics looked like they were selling more (the click-through rates were better). So the next month, we posted more graphics. Reach went down, sales stayed about the same, and we adjusted again to a mix with mostly Reels, because they got the best reach, engagement, and click-throughs overall.

That's the type of answer you want to hear (a process). If someone's whole answer is well, social media takes time, keep looking.

Watch out for these red flags (they make me SO mad).

Bad hires and scammers frustrate me to the MAX, because they make people stop trusting the ones who can actually help them. Add AI to the mix, and now anyone can make something that looks fine at first glance and still comes across cheap and weird.

So before you hire anyone, go look at their own presence. I've scrolled to the bottom of a business's website, clicked through to the developer who built it, and found a terrible website. (Why did they even hire you??)

And run the other way if someone guarantees you a follower number, sends you a polished proposal before they've asked a single question about your business, only reports on followers and likes, or gets weird when you ask who owns your accounts.

If it's truly a tie, go with whoever communicated best.

Sometimes two options really are neck and neck. When that happens, think about who answered your questions clearly and quickly, and who made you feel like they actually got your business while they were trying to win you over.

That's them on their best behavior, and it's a sneak peek of what working together will feel like.

Sometimes a bigger agency really is the right call.

If you need several platforms running at once, paid ads, video production, and a whole team on call, that's a bigger agency's job, and it usually runs $2,000 to $6,000 a month (I don't do paid ads, so if that's a big piece of what you need, a bigger team will serve you better).

But if you're a business owner running things solo or with a small team, on one or two social media platforms and you just want the phone to ring more, a small studio like mine is usually a much better fit.

Okay, so how would I answer all of this?

What's included? Twelve posts a month (a mix of Reels, static posts, and carousels), captions in your voice, scheduling, handling your comments and DMs, and monthly analytics, with the strategy built in. When we start, I also revamp your profiles so everything is clear, consistent, and cohesive across your platforms. It's customizable from there, so if you want stories or more hands-on DM management, we can add it.

Who owns your accounts? You do, always. I just get access to post.

What if it isn't working? I look at your numbers every month, and we change the strategy, just like we did for Mary's.

How long do we work together? We start with three months, because that's how long it takes to learn what works for your business. After that, we go month to month, because if it's working, you'll want to stay.

Who does the work? Me! You get one person who knows your business inside and out.

Let's get it handled.

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