In ‘selling’ your services as a social media person, do you offer different packages to different types of businesses?

@morganbarnhart Any tips for your charge structure Morgan? Is it a monthly charge, cost per hour? What is the best way at arriving at a ‘package’? And if a lot of research is needed for a blog for example, do you charge for the amount of time you spend on the research?

When I first started researching average prices charged for social media management services, my eyes almost popped out of my head!  I like best to deal with smaller to mid sized companies, and there is no way they are able to afford such an outlay (I checked a wide variety of sources, by the way. They all reflected the same numbers).  With the amount of work we do, it’s easy to see how the charges can be so high. But holy wow!  And since high prices seem to be the norm, you run the risk of being viewed as unqualified if you charge TOO much less.  What I generally do, then, is offer certain services like profile set-ups, specialized branding, etc. at a flat rate. For some things I will charge an hourly rate (divided into 15 minute increments).  My prices may seem high at first, but I encourage my clients to research average costs online.  Taken into perspective, they see that my rates are below the norm.  For those who need management, I do have 3 levels of service, but the items included in each can be swapped around as needed.  For my smaller clients I strongly encourage a level of their involvement to keep their costs down.  In that way I do manage the platforms and assist with the postings, but I also watch, guide and advise them.  I make connections as a facilitator, upon which they can then interact.  After three months we sit down and assess the progress we’ve made, and what may or may not be needed going forward.

Ok, so we may be a little different in that our bread n’ butter is PPC, but our services have grown to include social, plus it is the most fun. Assuming Facebook, generally our work includes:

Start-up: Custom Welcome page with a contact form, maybe a like gated section if it makes sense. This generally includes writing the content. 

Ongoing: Basic — Outbound messages for X hours a week This includes updates, questions, posting on other pages, etc… Forward inbound questions or comments to the client, but only participate in conversations which we start. Honestly no overarching social media strategy, just making logical connections and engaging posts.  

Advanced — Depends on the client. Indian market is still kinda young so in many cases we must play a lead role. For one client we actually handle their inbound customer support for online orders. Lots of consulting, develop a wiki of questions we can answers to and ones which we should forward to client. “The works” 

As far as billing we estimate hours required to complete the defined scope of work and go from there into a fixed price. I would prefer an hourly “let me do what I need to do” set-up with a retainer, but it is (in my experience) a harder sell. 

Best,  

@jeaninevecchiarelli I’d like to be able to tell my clients to research the typical price online as well. Just because once they saw how much others are charging, they would see what a deal they are getting. Do you know of any online resources that talk about typical pricing that I could send them? I found one a couple years ago that had ridiculous numbers, but I haven’t been able to find it since. 

@amoresocial Sorry that I needed to be away from this site for a bit.  I certainly didn’t mean to leave you hanging!  Yes, the prices that I came across DID seem way out of line. But the more I checked around, the more I saw that almost every company was charging pretty much the same rates.  One of the industry’s biggest resources who tracks average fees is Mack Collier.  He usually posts them yearly; in fact, his averages analysis for this year was just released.  Here is the link to it.  He first offers some introductory comments, and then posts the numbers.  There is no way the clients with whom I deal can swing these rates. So, at the risk of being viewed by these big guns as someone who doesn’t value her own services, I price mine considerably lower. And that is very much appreciated by my target clients!

We offer different packages to different businesses because they all have different needs and budgets.

Our clients are small business owners who don’t really understand social media – how it works, what it can and can’t do for their business, etc. To help them understand what they’re buying into & to clarify expectations and avoid problems down the road, we ask potential clients to spend a few minutes with us (on the phone) answering some questions. We have a questionnaire we developed that helps to focus their thoughts on marketing their business and how social media fits into it. It also gives us enough information to determine what kind of social media package will work for them (& us!).

The price depends on the services they need.

@Charlyn Shelton-Social Media Interpreter  – BTW I am a ‘boomerpreneur!!’ Love the term!